Best Of British
by nathanpollard-34-591307 | created - 09 Jul 2014 | updated - 11 Dec 2017 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Third Man (1949)
Approved | 93 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard
Votes: 181,798 | Gross: $0.45M
2. I'm All Right Jack (1959)
Not Rated | 105 min | Comedy
A naive aristocrat in search of a career becomes caught up in the struggles between his profit-minded uncle and an aggressive labor union.
Director: John Boulting | Stars: Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough
Votes: 4,365
3. Trainspotting (1996)
R | 93 min | Drama
Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd
Votes: 725,469 | Gross: $16.50M
4. Shallow Grave (1994)
R | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Three friends discover their new flatmate dead but loaded with cash.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor, Ken Stott
Votes: 66,219 | Gross: $2.88M
5. One for the Road (2003)
94 min | Comedy
One for the Road follows Jimmy, Paul, Richard and Mark who meet on a rehabilitation course for drink drivers. Jimmy is young, ambitious and desperate to sell his late father's business; ... See full summary »
Director: Chris Cooke | Stars: Rupert Procter, Gregory Chisholm, Mark Devenport, Hywel Bennett
Votes: 311
6. Son of Rambow (2007)
PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
During a long English summer in the early 1980s, two schoolboys from differing backgrounds set out to make a film inspired by First Blood (1982).
Director: Garth Jennings | Stars: Bill Milner, Will Poulter, Jessica Hynes, Anna Wing
Votes: 32,966 | Gross: $1.78M
7. Submarine (2010)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
15-year-old Oliver Tate has two objectives: to lose his virginity before his next birthday, and to extinguish the flame between his mother and an ex-lover who has resurfaced in her life.
Director: Richard Ayoade | Stars: Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine, Noah Taylor
Votes: 96,509 | Gross: $0.47M
8. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 314,264 | Gross: $44.82M
9. Great Expectations (1946)
Approved | 118 min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery
A humble orphan boy in 1810s Kent is given the opportunity to go to London and become a gentleman, with the help of an unknown benefactor.
Director: David Lean | Stars: John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Tony Wager, Jean Simmons
Votes: 26,401
10. Kes (1969)
PG-13 | 111 min | Drama, Family
A working-class English boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet kestrel.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: David Bradley, Brian Glover, Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie
Votes: 22,928
11. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, Romance
A rebellious, hard-living factory worker juggles relationships with two women, one of whom is married to another man but pregnant with his child.
Director: Karel Reisz | Stars: Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel Roberts, Hylda Baker
Votes: 9,286
12. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama, Sport
A young thief takes up long-distance running when he is sent to a borstal.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Michael Redgrave, Tom Courtenay, Avis Bunnage, Alec McCowen
Votes: 9,372
13. Get Carter (1971)
R | 112 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
When his brother dies under mysterious circumstances in a car accident, London gangster Jack Carter travels to Newcastle to investigate.
Director: Mike Hodges | Stars: Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland, John Osborne
Votes: 36,766 | Gross: $0.39M
14. The Wicker Man (1973)
R | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A puritan police sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan locals claim never existed.
Director: Robin Hardy | Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Britt Ekland
Votes: 92,233 | Gross: $0.06M
15. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
PG | 161 min | Adventure, Drama, War
British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.
Director: David Lean | Stars: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Votes: 233,234 | Gross: $44.91M
16. The Ladykillers (1955)
Not Rated | 91 min | Comedy, Crime
Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.
Director: Alexander Mackendrick | Stars: Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom
Votes: 31,391
17. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Not Rated | 106 min | Comedy, Crime
A distant poor relative of the Duke D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.
Director: Robert Hamer | Stars: Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood
Votes: 39,703
18. A Hard Day's Night (1964)
G | 87 min | Comedy, Musical
Over two "typical" days in the life of The Beatles, the boys struggle to keep themselves and Sir Paul McCartney's mischievous grandfather in check while preparing for a live TV performance.
Director: Richard Lester | Stars: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr
Votes: 48,069 | Gross: $13.78M
19. 24 Hour Party People (2002)
R | 117 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
In 1976, Tony Wilson sets up Factory Records and brings Manchester's music to the world.
Director: Michael Winterbottom | Stars: Steve Coogan, Lennie James, John Thomson, Paul Popplewell
Votes: 39,683 | Gross: $1.13M
20. Tristram Shandy (2005)
R | 94 min | Comedy
Director Michael Winterbottom (Northam) attempts to shoot the adaptation of Laurence Sterne's essentially unfilmable novel, "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman."
Director: Michael Winterbottom | Stars: Steve Coogan, Jeremy Northam, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes
Votes: 13,176 | Gross: $1.25M
21. Peeping Tom (1960)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A young man murders women, using a movie camera to film their dying expressions of terror.
Director: Michael Powell | Stars: Karlheinz Böhm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer, Maxine Audley
Votes: 39,234 | Gross: $0.08M
22. Black Narcissus (1947)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama
A group of nuns struggle to establish a convent in the Himalayas, while isolation, extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes all conspire to drive the well-intentioned missionaries mad.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Flora Robson, Jenny Laird
Votes: 27,648
23. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An ambitious Pakistani Briton and his white boyfriend strive for success and hope when they open a glamorous laundromat.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard Graham
Votes: 17,290 | Gross: $2.45M
24. Made in Britain (1982 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 76 min | Crime, Drama
After being sent to a detention center, a teenage skinhead clashes with the social workers, who want to conform him to the status quo.
Director: Alan Clarke | Stars: Tim Roth, Terry Richards, Bill Stewart, Eric Richard
Votes: 7,617
25. Zulu (1964)
Not Rated | 138 min | Drama, History, War
Outnumbered British soldiers do battle with Zulu warriors at Rorke's Drift.
Director: Cy Endfield | Stars: Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth
Votes: 42,738
26. The Long Good Friday (1980)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An up-and-coming gangster is tested by the insurgence of an unknown, very powerful threat.
Director: John Mackenzie | Stars: Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Paul Freeman, Leo Dolan
Votes: 25,586
27. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
PG | 91 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table embark on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.
Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam
Votes: 570,116 | Gross: $1.23M
28. Life of Brian (1979)
R | 94 min | Comedy
Born on the original Christmas in the stable next door to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.
Director: Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam
Votes: 421,786 | Gross: $20.05M
29. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
R | 136 min | Crime, Sci-Fi
In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke
Votes: 881,075 | Gross: $6.21M
30. 28 Days Later (2002)
R | 113 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Alex Palmer
Votes: 445,472 | Gross: $45.06M
31. Small Faces (1995)
R | 108 min | Drama
Glaswegian teenager Lex is torn between the artistic life of middle brother Alan and the thuggish world of elder brother Bobby.
Director: Gillies MacKinnon | Stars: Iain Robertson, Joe McFadden, Steven Duffy, Laura Fraser
Votes: 1,633
32. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Horror
The uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesman and his layabout roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse.
Director: Edgar Wright | Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis
Votes: 593,778 | Gross: $13.54M
33. A View to a Kill (1985)
PG | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
The recovery of a microchip from the body of a fellow British secret agent leads James Bond to a mad industrialist scheming to cause massive destruction.
Director: John Glen | Stars: Roger Moore, Christopher Walken, Tanya Roberts, Grace Jones
Votes: 104,880 | Gross: $50.33M
34. Brief Encounter (1945)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, Romance
Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey
Votes: 44,215
35. The Servant (1963)
Unrated | 116 min | Drama
Upper-class Tony hires servant Hugo Barrett, who turns out to have a hidden agenda.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig, James Fox
Votes: 13,815 | Gross: $0.04M
36. Following (1998)
R | 69 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A young writer who follows strangers for material meets a thief who takes him under his wing.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Jeremy Theobald, Alex Haw, Lucy Russell, John Nolan
Votes: 101,697 | Gross: $0.05M
37. In Bruges (2008)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
After a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.
Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ciarán Hinds, Elizabeth Berrington
Votes: 461,392 | Gross: $7.76M
38. In the Loop (2009)
Not Rated | 106 min | Comedy
A political satire about a group of skeptical American and British operatives attempting to prevent a war between two countries.
Director: Armando Iannucci | Stars: Tom Hollander, Peter Capaldi, James Gandolfini, Harry Hadden-Paton
Votes: 61,575 | Gross: $2.38M
39. Dead of Night (1945)
Approved | 77 min | Drama, Horror
Guests invited to a weekend in the country share their supernatural stories, beginning with Walter Craig, who senses impending doom as his half-remembered recurring dream turns into reality.
Directors: Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer | Stars: Mervyn Johns, Michael Redgrave, Roland Culver, Mary Merrall
Votes: 14,210
40. Four Lions (2010)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Four incompetent British terrorists set out to train for and commit an act of terror.
Director: Christopher Morris | Stars: Will Adamsdale, Riz Ahmed, Adeel Akhtar, Kayvan Novak
Votes: 85,273 | Gross: $0.30M
41. The Crying Game (1992)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A British soldier kidnapped by the IRA soon befriends one of his captors, who then becomes drawn into the soldier's world.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Forest Whitaker, Miranda Richardson
Votes: 60,049 | Gross: $62.55M
42. A Taste of Honey (1961)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama
A pregnant teenage girl must fend for herself when her mother remarries, leaving the girl with only a new male friend for support.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Rita Tushingham, Dora Bryan, Robert Stephens, Murray Melvin
Votes: 6,359
43. The Cruel Sea (1953)
Approved | 126 min | Drama, War
The World War II adventures of a British convoy escort ship and its officers.
Director: Charles Frend | Stars: Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, John Stratton, Denholm Elliott
Votes: 5,406
44. Hunger (2008)
Not Rated | 96 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Irish republican Bobby Sands leads the inmates of a Northern Irish prison in a hunger strike.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Laine Megaw
Votes: 73,541 | Gross: $0.15M
45. Witchfinder General (1968)
Unrated | 86 min | Drama, Horror
A young soldier seeks to put an end to the evils caused by a vicious witch-hunter when the latter terrorizes his fiancée and kills her uncle.
Director: Michael Reeves | Stars: Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Rupert Davies, Patrick Wymark
Votes: 12,214
46. The Red Shoes (1948)
Not Rated | 135 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A young ballet dancer is torn between the man she loves and her pursuit to become a prima ballerina.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann
Votes: 39,146 | Gross: $10.90M
47. Secrets & Lies (1996)
R | 136 min | Comedy, Drama
Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother -- a lonely white factory worker living in poverty in East London.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook
Votes: 47,175 | Gross: $13.42M
48. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
Approved | 112 min | Drama, Thriller
Instead of coming in from the Cold War, British agent Alec Leamas chooses to face another mission.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Richard Burton, Oskar Werner, Claire Bloom, Sam Wanamaker
Votes: 18,808
49. The Arbor (2010)
Unrated | 94 min | Documentary, Biography, Drama
Portrayal of the late Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar.
Director: Clio Barnard | Stars: Manjinder Virk, Christine Bottomley, Natalie Gavin, Parvani Lingiah
Votes: 2,134 | Gross: $0.02M
50. The Innocents (1961)
Not Rated | 100 min | Horror
A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins, Michael Redgrave
Votes: 33,057 | Gross: $2.62M
51. The Wrong Box (1966)
Approved | 105 min | Comedy, Crime
In Victorian England, a fortune now depends on which of two brothers outlives the other, or can be made to have seemed to do so.
Director: Bryan Forbes | Stars: John Mills, Michael Caine, Ralph Richardson, Peter Cook
Votes: 4,013
52. The League of Gentlemen (1960)
Unrated | 116 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A disgruntled veteran recruits a group of disgraced colleagues to perform a bank robbery with military precision.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick, Roger Livesey, Richard Attenborough
Votes: 5,274
53. The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)
Unrated | 99 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
When the U.S. and Russia unwittingly test atomic bombs at the same time, it alters the nutation (axis of rotation) of the Earth.
Director: Val Guest | Stars: Edward Judd, Janet Munro, Leo McKern, Michael Goodliffe
Votes: 6,202
54. Culloden (1964 TV Movie)
69 min | Drama, History, War
The 1746 Battle of Culloden, the last land battle fought in the British Isles and the battle that ensured that Scotland was controlled by England.
Director: Peter Watkins | Stars: Tony Cosgrove, Olivier Espitalier-Noel, Don Fairservice, George McBean
Votes: 1,727
55. The War Game (1966)
48 min | Drama, War
A docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain.
Director: Peter Watkins | Stars: Michael Aspel, Peter Graham, Dave Baldwin, Kathy Staff
Votes: 7,301
56. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
PG | 104 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron
Votes: 24,838
57. Riff-Raff (1991)
Unrated | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
The story of construction-worker Stevie and his unemployed pop-singer girlfriend shows the living conditions of the British poor class.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Robert Carlyle, Emer McCourt, Jim R. Coleman, George Moss
Votes: 4,884 | Gross: $0.30M
58. Alan Partridge (2013)
R | 90 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
When famous DJ Alan Partridge's radio station is taken over by a new media conglomerate, it sets in motion a chain of events which see Alan having to work with the police to defuse a potentially violent siege.
Director: Declan Lowney | Stars: Steve Coogan, Colm Meaney, Tim Key, Karl Theobald
Votes: 32,972 | Gross: $0.15M
59. The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)
Not Rated | 127 min | Drama, War
Against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, two brothers fight a guerrilla war against British forces.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Pádraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham, Orla Fitzgerald
Votes: 54,600 | Gross: $1.83M
60. I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Romance
A young Englishwoman goes to the Hebrides to marry her older, wealthier fiancé. When the weather keeps them separated on different islands, she begins to have second thoughts.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie
Votes: 9,780
61. Hot Fuzz (2007)
R | 121 min | Action, Comedy, Mystery
An overachieving London police sergeant is transferred to a village where the easygoing officers object to his fervor for regulations, all while a string of grisly murders strikes the town.
Director: Edgar Wright | Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy
Votes: 535,157 | Gross: $23.64M
62. Starred Up (2013)
Not Rated | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Eric Love, 19, is locked up in prison. On his first day, he assaults another inmate and several guards. He's offered group therapy and his dad, an inmate as well, tries to talk sense into him. Can he be rehabilitated?
Director: David Mackenzie | Stars: Jack O'Connell, Ben Mendelsohn, Rupert Friend, Sam Spruell
Votes: 48,673 | Gross: $0.03M
63. The Falling (2014)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
It's 1969 at a strict English girls' school where charismatic Abbie and intense and troubled Lydia are best friends. After a tragedy occurs at the school, a mysterious fainting epidemic breaks out threatening the stability of all involved.
Director: Carol Morley | Stars: Maxine Peake, Maisie Williams, Florence Pugh, Anna Burnett
Votes: 7,936
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