Cinema and 4K Blu-ray releases for Ealing classic comedies

Wednesday 21st February 2024, 12:39pm

Kind Hearts & Coronets is to be released on 4K UHD Blu-ray
The Lavender Hill Mob has also been restored in UHD for a brand new release
Both films will be back in cinemas as part of a Once More with Ealing season

Ealing Studios' two most-acclaimed comedy features have been restored in ultra high definition (4K / UHD) and will be re-released in April.

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and Kind Hearts & Coronets (1949) are both available to pre-order as 2-disc Blu-ray sets including both 4K and regular HD (2K) copies of the titles.

Both will also return to cinemas across the country as archive owner STUDIOCANAL uses 2024 - the 75th anniversary year of not only Kind Hearts & Coronets but other studio classics including Whisky Galore! and Passport To Pimlico - to to celebrate the production powerhouse's "golden age" with a season dubbed Once More with Ealing.

The Lavender Hill Mob's UHD Blu-ray comes as a deluxe box set including two new posters and four exclusive art cards, alongside a 64-page booklet about the film and two new video features, plus all the extras previously released on Blu-ray and DVD.

Kind Hearts & Coronets, meanwhile, had a similar feature-packed Blu-ray box set released in 2019 to mark its 70th anniversary. The new UHD Blu-ray release comprises of the discs alone.

With The Lavender Hill Mob in cinemas from 29th March, both UHD Blu-rays will be released on Monday 22nd April. Other cinema re-releases, and home entertainment debuts for further Ealing titles, will be confirmed later in the year.

STUDIOCANAL explain: "The Lavender Hill Mob was restored in 4K using a 35mm duplicating positive as the original negative was unavailable. Thanks to the latest film scanning technology and restoration tools, we were able to achieve a high standard image from the positive that was used. Silver Salt Restoration restored and colour graded the film producing a new 4K DCP, HDR Dolby Vision and HD master."

The Lavender Hill Mob

A glimmering new 4K restoration of The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), the enduring Ealing Studios comedy classic directed by Charles Crichton with cinematography by the great Douglas Slocombe. Winner of a BAFTA for Best British Film and an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, The Lavender Hill Mob remains today one of the finest British comedies ever made.

Holland (Alec Guinness) is a shy, retiring man who works as a bank transfer agent for the delivery of gold bullion. One day he befriends Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway), a maker of souvenirs. Holland remarks that, with Pendlebury's smelting equipment, one could forge the gold into harmless-looking toy Eiffel Towers and smuggle them into France. Soon after, they gain the services of professional criminals Lackery (Sid James) and Shorty (Alfie Bass) and the four plot what they believe will be the perfect crime - which turns out to be anything but!

First released: Monday 22nd April 2024

4K Blu-ray

Distributor: STUDIOCANAL
Discs: 2
Minutes: 81

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Kind Hearts & Coronets

Hailing from the golden age of Ealing comedies, Kind Hearts & Coronets stars Dennis Price as the debonair yet impoverished Louis Mazzini, the would-be Duke of Chalfont whose mother was disinherited by her noble family for marrying beneath her.

When her dying wish to be buried in the family crypt is refused, Louis vows to avenge his mother and work his way up the family tree by engaging in the gentle art of murder. One by one he attempts to kill off the eight successors that stand in the way of his becoming Duke - all played by Alec Guinness in an unforgettable tour-de-force performance.

Directed by Robert Hamer, Kind Hearts & Coronets also stars Joan Greenwood as the husky-voiced siren Sibella and Valerie Hobson as the refined and virtuous Edith D'Ascoyne, both of whom threaten to distract Louis from his killing quest. A wonderfully entertaining combination of biting class satire, hilarious farce and pitch-black comedy, this story of a suave and elegant serial murderer is as sharp and funny today as ever.