1. Characteristics of Performance

2. Ealing is generally remembered for character types

3. Ealing Studios tended to cast familiar actors in similar roles across their films
Case study 1 Basil Radford Ealing Films include: Dead of Night Passport to Pimlico Whisky Galore

4. Character type Upper middle/upper class
Bureaucrats/Military officer type
Bumbling
Obsessed with cricket or golf
Quintessentially English
Usually outwitted
Plays the straight man

5. Examples?

6. Case study 2
Stanley Holloway
Ealing films include:
Passport to Pimlico
The Lavender Hill Mob
The Titfield Thunderbolt

7. Character type Lower-middle to middle-class Dependable Reliable
Down-to –earth
Clubbable

8. Examples?

9. Case study 3
Alec Guinness Ealing Films include: The Lavender Hill Mob The Man in the White Suit Kind Hearts and Coronets The Ladykillers

10. Character type
Er…?

11. The chameleon
I never to feel comfortable playing characters too like myself, and most of these films allow physical disguise to complement the inner obsessions.
His own physical appearance as a young man was pleasantly ordinary rather than glamorously film starrish

12. Examples of Guinness performing eccentrics
In each extract, identify the performance characteristics that make each character odd.
Consider tone of voice, mannerisms, etc
The Lavender Hill Mob
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Ladykillers

13. Guinness was alone in characteristically playing a huge range of types for Ealing
He was recognisable as an actor who would play different eccentrics, rather than one particular type

14. But…
From a studio most remembered for ensemble performers, he’s the actor most usually associated with the Ealing comedies

15. How far does the casting of particular actors contribute to the identity of your chosen production company?