[.ca] Alec Guinness Collection (Widescreen/Full Screen)

From Amazon.com:
Five of the British film industry's best-loved comedies in one boxed set makes The Alec Guinness Collection absolutely essential for anyone who has any passion at all for movies. It contains Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Captain's Paradise (1953) (only available in this set), and The Ladykillers (1955). The Ealing Studio's greatest comedies captured the essence of post-war Britain, both in their evocation of a land once blighted by war but now rising doggedly and optimistically again from the ashes, and in their mordant yet graceful humor. They portray a country with an antiquated class system whose crumbling conventions are being undermined by a new spirit of individual opportunism. In the delightfully wicked Kind Hearts and Coronets, a serial killer politely murders his way into the peerage; in The Lavender Hill Mob a put-upon bank clerk schemes to rob his employers; The Man in the White Suit is a harshly satirical depiction of idealism crushed by the status quo; in The Captain's Paradise, a ferryboat captain complements his proper British wife with a fiery Spanish wife; while The Ladykillers mocks both the criminals and the authorities with its unlikely octogenarian heroine Mrs. "lop-sided" Wilberforce. Many factors contribute to these films' success--including fine music scores from composers such as Benjamin Frankel (Man in the White Suit), Malcolm Arnold (Captain's Paradise), and Tristram Cary (The Ladykillers); positively symphonic sound effects (White Suit); marvelously evocative locations (the environs of King's Cross in Ladykillers, for example); and writing that always displays Ealing's unique perspective on British social mores ("All the exuberance of Chaucer without, happily, any of the concomitant crudities of his period")--yet arguably their greatest asset is Alec Guinness, whose multifaceted performances are the keystone upon which Ealing built its biting, often macabre, yet always elegant comedy. --Mark Walker

Wonderful collection:
The films are: Kind Hearts & Coronets The Lavender Hill Mob The Man in the White Suit The Ladykillers The Captain's Paradise The last is available only in the set while the others can be bought separately. The movies, of course, are all excellent so I'm just commenting on the quality of the DVDs. I got the collection for Christmas and haven't watched all the films yet but did go through the ones I haven't watched to see how the transfers looked -- all extremely good, probably the best I've ever seen them. "The Ladykillers" is MUCH improved over the VHS versions I've rented which tended to have both very greyed out blacks and blown highlights. The film is in widescreen format with black bars at top and bottom. The rest of the movies were filmed in 4x3 ratio - which is how they are presented. There are closed captions but only the type that must be set on the TV - the white lettering within a black band. There are none of the type available on many DVDs without banding, however I think most Tv sets, at least the ones owned by those of us who need the captions are now capable of showing the standard caption format. For everything I've watched so far the captions are quite correct. Which brings up the sound. English film soundtracks (and the BBC -- especially the BBC) have always been somewhat poor. It isn't simply a matter of us Yanks not being able to comprehend the accents, but of truly terrible sound equipment and perhaps a somewhat less than skilled bunch of sound recordists. These DVD transfers sound just okay compared to something like the DVD of "The Maltese Falcon" but they sound much better than the VHS editions of the same films so I'm pretty happy and I expect most people will be able to follow the dialog without problems. For one thing all these movies were made before the "F/X boys got control of the soundtracks -- yet another crime perpetrated by George Lucas and the other hacks who've made the movies practically a brain-dead medium. In terms of extras: Every film comes with the trailer -- for those who want to watch the damn things. Every film is available dubbed into French -- don't ask me about the sound quality - I haven't listened. Every film carrys a brief bio of Guinness. There is one oddity in that one of his best early films "The Card" (US title "The Promoter") is not mentioned in the course of the bio and is not included in the filmography. There may be others missing too, but I wanted to place The Card in it's time related to those the the collection and it simply wasn't there. There is also no mention of the film appearance he made in 1936 which is left out of most lists but is in Halliwells book of movie people - I don't know if Halliwell was right or wrong on that. The only other thing of major interest is on Star Wars, where (According to the bio) Guinness was supposed to be an on-screen presence throughout the film, but managed to convince Lucas that he would be much better as a ghost, and therefore got his character killed off early to avoid hanging around mouthing banal dialog for the entire shoot. As one who has avoided all Lucas films since my own children got old enough to go to the theater without me, I think Sir Alec made an excellent choice -- The Smart was with him. Overall I am very happy with my DVDs and anxiously await the next set which I HOPE includes "The Card" along with "Last Holiday" "All at Sea" "The Horse's Mouth" and "Our Man in Havana". The third set could start with "Great Expectations" and "Oliver Twist". "HMS Defiant" would have to be in there, but "Tunes of Glory" although a great movie is perhaps too much of a downer to watch very often -- once a decade, perhaps... perhaps not that often. It's been at least 12 years since I last saw it, and I'm not sure I'm up for it yet. If you like Guinness, get this collection. I don't care what kind of Guinness you like, I know this set will go down smooth.

Widescreen or Full-Screen?:
edited review: One of the reviewers (from Switzerland) praises the widescreen image on the DVDs. I was confused so I contacted the manufacturer who cleared it up for me--these films were not released in the widescreen format.

Great films, great value:
As other reviewers have noted, these superb comedies from the golden age of British cinema showcase Alec Guinness' considerable skills, proving him to be as great an actor in his own way as the late Marlon Brando. And as others have pointed out, the DVD transfers are incredibly good for British films of this vintage. I've never seen Man in the White Suit looking better. Please note that poor sound recording equipment was a particular problem for British filmmakers of this era, so the sound can occasionally seem muted. This is a problem with the source, not the transfer. The extras are a little disappointing compared to other Anchor Bay releases. (Yes, their Guinness filmography is incomplete.) But the value of this collection can't be beat. It's one of the best buys out there, so do yourself a favor and pick up the whole collection before Anchor Bay lets it go out of print, as other British titles in their catalogue have done. Random comments to address other reviews: All the films are presented in their proper aspect ratios. The Ladykillers is the only widescreen film here. (All the others were filmed before 1952, hence before the days of widescreen.) Captain's Paradise is NOT an Ealing Studios film; it was produced at London International (the same place that oversaw production of The Third Man, so its credentials are good). In Britain, this collection was partnered with another collection of Ealing comedies (via another distributor). Since Anchor Bay has also released Ealing's horror anthology Dead of Night (also recommended), they may be persuaded to distribute those films too if this collection sells well. Those films (Whiskey Galore, Passport to Pimlico, etc.) are equally superb, so let's keep our fingers crossed!

Great Set of British Comedy Classics -- Enjoy!:
Unless I am mistaken, these films were shamefully hard to find on videotape (or DVD for that matter) until the release of this marvelous set of Ealing Studio films from the 1950s. Alec Guiness was marvelous actor who played both dramatic and comedic roles equally well. In this set, we see five very different performances, showing the comic genius of this great actor, who incidentally plays eight (!) characters in one film (Kind Hearts and Coronets). Each of the films is a gem (the plots of which are well summarized in other reviews), with very well-written scripts, with lots of unexpected twists and turns. The transfers are excellent and the sound quality is very good -- this is an excellent set to own at a very reasonable price. Highly recommended.

A remarkable collection.:
I am 24 years old so one would not expect me to be a huge fan of these "older" films. On the contrary I am not just a fan I love them. One of my bosses turned me on to them a few years ago and I was always a huge Peter Sellers fan (mostly for his Pink Panther series) but after picking up this collection I found it to be a wonderful addition to my film library. Yesterday during the blizzard I watched four of the five disks. I found Kind Hearts and Coronets to be not only an interesting story but also darkly satiical. Many scenes were so well crafted I could not help to laugh. Alec was remarkable in this film as he played 8 different characters. Quite a feat for that time and a role Mike Meyers would love. Ladykillers was the only film I had seen previous to buying this set and I must say that not only is it an outstanding caper film but the DVD transfer was superb. The image quality really has brightened up fromt he onld VHS I saw. This film also shows some of Sir Alec's truly great acting and was brutally histerical. Peter Sellers yelling at a parrot was funny to see considering he went on to many more scenes involving fowl later on in life. The Lavender Hill Mob was probably the most intriguing of the 4 I have seen. Another crime caper flick Sir Alec really starred and the story was very solid. Also there was a car chase scene in this film that was extremely well done considering the time. The last film I managed to watch was the Man in the White Suit. While this film shows Alec again at his best I found it to be a little weaker than the other three. It was funny at times and an interesting enough plot just not as good if watched in succesion with the others. The final film is the Captain's Paradise but I have yet to view that one and will not review it. All the films look great on DVD and if you are young (like me)and have never seen any of these films you are really missing out on some of the masterpieces of the film industry. The only collection I could possibly recomend more to anyone is the Peter Sellers set. Better yet, buy them both like I did.