Ealing Studios: Champagne Charlie/The Maggie/It Always Rains On Sunday 2006 DVD

Box set of four classic films from Ealing Studios. ‘Champagne Charlie’ (1944) is a musical comedy starring Tommy Trinder as the music hall star George Leybourne, better known by his nickname Champagne Charlie. His career began when he started singing in pubs for a pound a week, and he rose to become one of the best known music hall stars of the 19th century, alon with his bitter rival The Great Vance (Stanley Holloway). However, the warring duo eventually had to lay aside their differences and join forces against the theatre owners who were planning to close down the music halls. ‘The Maggie’ (1954) is set in the Scottish isles. Hollywood’s Paul Douglas plays Marshall, an American businessman who becomes involved with The Maggie, a rundown old shipping vessel captained by the taciturn skipper (Alex Mackenzie), when he is trying to find a way to convey his luggage to a remote island. It doesn’t take Marshall long to realise that the skipper and his crew have pulled a fast one on him – but what can he do to stop them? ‘It Always Rains on Sunday’ (1948) is a realist drama based on a novel by Arthur La Bern, set in London’s working-class East End just after World War 2. The action unfolds over the course of one dismal, rainy Sunday. Tommy Swann (John McCallum) has escaped from Dartmoor prison and turns up at the drab East End home of his former love Rose (Googie Withers), who is now married to the staid George (Edward Chapman) with three children. Rose has a difficult decision to make: should she help Tommy, or put her marriage – and the claustrophobic domesticity it entails – first? ‘Whisky Galore!’ (1948) is a classic Ealing comedy. During the Second World War, the inhabitants of a small Hebridean island are wilting under a chronic shortage of whisky. When a ship is wrecked on the shore, it is discovered to contain 50,000 cases of malt, which are promptly appropriated by the menfolk of the island. All is well until an English Home Guard commander – determined to see the whisky restored to its rightful owners – calls in Her Majesty’s Customs, and the islanders make frantic attempts to hide their treasured alcoholic booty…Synopsis
Four-film box set containing : WHISKY GALORE – The inhabitants of a Scottish Island discover thousands of bottles of whisky on their doorstep when a ship runs aground. CHAMPAGNE CHARLIE – the story of a 19th century music hall star. IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY – a woman must choose between her cosy but boring home life and her criminal lover. THE MAGGIE – a Scottish ship’s captain cons an American.