Direction: David Lean

Direction David Lean

Cast Celia Johnson · Trevor Howard · Stanley Holloway · Joyce Carey

Synopsis Brief Encounter (1945) tells the poignant story of Laura and Alec, two married strangers who meet by chance at a train station. Their casual acquaintance blossoms into a deep, emotional connection as they continue to meet. Set against the backdrop...

Direction David Lean

Cast Peter O'Toole · Omar Sharif · Alec Guinness · Jack Hawkins

Synopsis While working on the staff of the British Intelligence in Cairo in 1916, Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) is sent to a mission to establish contact with Prince Feisal (Alec Guinness), leader of the Arab revolt and ally of the British against...

Direction David Lean

Cast Omar Sharif · Julie Christie · Geraldine Chaplin · Alec Guinness

Synopsis Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Boris Pasternak, "Doctor Zhivago" covers the years prior to, during, and after the Russian Revolution, as seen through the eyes of poet/physician Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif). In the tradition of Russian novels, a...

Direction David Lean

Cast Sarah Miles · Robert Mitchum · Christopher Jones · Trevor Howard

Synopsis Ryan's Daughter (1970) is a romantic drama set in a remote Irish village during World War I. The story follows Rosy Ryan, a spirited young woman married to the local schoolmaster, who yearns for passion and excitement. Her life takes...

Direction David Lean

Cast William Holden · Alec Guinness · Jack Hawkins · James Donald

Synopsis The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) follows British prisoners of war in a Japanese camp during World War II. Forced to build a railway bridge, Colonel Nicholson, a principled officer, becomes obsessed with constructing a symbol of British resilience....

Direction David Lean

Cast Alec Guinness · Robert Newton · Francis L. Sullivan · John Howard Davies

Synopsis Based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. Oliver is taken in by the pickpocket and he joins a household...

Direction David Lean

Cast John Mills · Valerie Hobson · Martita Hunt · Alec Guinness

Synopsis Pip, a good-natured, gullible young orphan, lives with kind blacksmith Joe Gargery and his bossy, abusive wife 'Mrs. Joe'. When the boy finds two hidden escaped galley convicts, he obeys under -probably unnecessary- threat of a horrible death to bring...

Direction David Lean

Cast Charles Laughton · John Mills · Brenda De Banzie · Daphne Anderson

Synopsis David Lean backs up vicious wit with tender romance in this thrilling adaptation of Harold Brighouse's play. As Henry Hobson, a tyrannical bootshop owner, Charles Laughton (Mutiny on the Bounty) is a comical drunk of Falstaffian proportions. When Hobson forbids...

Direction David Lean

Cast Judy Davis · Victor Banerjee · Peggy Ashcroft · James Fox

Synopsis Circa 1920, during the Indian British rule, Dr. Aziz H. Ahmed was born and brought up in India. He is proficient in English, and wears Western style clothing. He meets an old lady, Mrs. Moore, at a mosque, who asks...

Direction David Lean

Cast Ann Todd · Claude Rains · Trevor Howard · Betty Ann Davies

Synopsis The Passionate Friends were in love when young, but separated, and she married an older man. Then Mary Justin meets Steven Stratton again and they have one last fling together in the Alps.

Direction David Lean

Cast Robert Newton · Celia Johnson · Stanley Holloway · John Mills

Synopsis Noel Coward's attempt to show how the ordinary people lived between the wars. Just after WWI the Gibbons family moves to a nice house in the suburbs. An ordinary sort of life is led by the family through the years...

Direction David Lean

Cast Ann Todd · Norman Wooland · Ivan Desny · Leslie Banks

Synopsis Based on the true story of Madeleine Smith, a young Glasgow woman from a wealthy family, she stood trial in 1857 for the murder of her lover, Emile L'Angelier. Her trial was much publicized in the newspapers of the day...

Direction David Lean

Cast Katharine Hepburn · Rossano Brazzi · Darren McGavin · Jane Rose

Synopsis Jane Hudson, a jaunty as well as attractive middle-aged secretary from Akron, Ohio, has finally made it to Venice, Italy, for her long-awaited dream vacation. Never-married Jane is a self-described "independent type" who's content, or so she claims, to go...

Direction David Lean

Cast Rex Harrison · Constance Cummings · Kay Hammond · Margaret Rutherford

Synopsis To get background for a new book, author Charles and his second wife Ruth light-heartedly arrange for local mystic Madame Arcati to give a séance. The unfortunate result is that Charles' first wife Elvira returns from beyond the grave to...

Direction David Lean

Cast Ralph Richardson · Ann Todd · Nigel Patrick · Denholm Elliott

Synopsis Fictionalized story of British aerospace engineers solving the problem of supersonic flight. Tony successful fighter pilot during World War II marries into the family of a wealthy oil magnate who also designs airplanes. The movie traces the company's attempt to...

Direction David Lean · Noël Coward

Cast Noël Coward · John Mills · Bernard Miles · Celia Johnson

Synopsis Based on the true story of Lord Mountbatten's destroyer, In Which We Serve is one of the most memorable British films made during World War II. Unfolding in flashback as survivors cling to a dingy, the film interweaves the history...

Direction Gabriel Pascal · David Lean · Harold French

Cast Wendy Hiller · Rex Harrison · Robert Morley · Robert Newton

Synopsis Filmed in London in 1941, during the Blitz, Major Barbara emerged from a troubled production to become a major success for George Bernard Shaw and producer-director Gabriel Pascal. Pygmalion’s Wendy Hiller returns, this time as one of Shaw’s most memorable...

Direction George Stevens · David Lean · Jean Negulesco

Cast Max von Sydow · Dorothy McGuire · Charlton Heston · Claude Rains

Synopsis George Stevens presents his monumental adaptation of the story of Jesus Christ starring Max von Sydow. The film concentrates on the most familiar episodes of the biblical story, including the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, Herod's (Jose Ferrer) decree of...

Direction David Lean

Cast David Lean · Robert Bolt · Eddie Fowlie

Synopsis Filmmaker David Lean is scouting locations in Tahiti for a feature film about the famous mutiny on the HMS Bounty. His property master, Eddie Fowlie, discovers the whereabouts of an anchor which had belonged to Captain Cook, and historians and...