Which British film classics wouldn't have been made today?

[donna]

Originally Posted by Hugh N. Cry Mmmm. 'Bottoms Up' with Jimmy Edwards. I've just converted my old VHS copy to DVD and think it should go head-to-head with bloody Harry Potter! The film was set in a seedy prep School in the 1950's and was not very P.C. (deputy Head Arthur Howard being 'stripped' and soaked in the showers by the Upper 4th!). A lot of fun from an early TV series by Frank Muir and Denis Norden.

He was a very funny man wasnt he, I loved it .

[Moor Larkin]

I was reading that the seminal British TV series starring Boris Karloff, from the early years of the Fifties, called Inspector March of Scotland Yard had the Inspector working out of the Department For Queer Complaints, which might need to be 're-imagined' nowadays...........

Gave me pause for thought though, about how pervasive the previously pejorative use of the word was, in 1954-ish.

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by Moor Larkin I was reading that the seminal British TV series starring Boris Karloff, from the early years of the Fifties, called Inspector March of Scotland Yard had the Inspector working out of the Department For Queer Complaints, which might need to be 're-imagined' nowadays........... Gave me pause for thought though, about how pervasive the previously pejorative use of the word was, in 1954-ish.

It was in common use.
There's a line in A Matter of Life and Death (1946) where David Niven says "My head feels a bit queer". That always gets a snigger from modern audiences

Its use has change gradually over the 20th century, with quite long periods of overlap where it was used with both meanings

Steve

[Windthrop]

A lot of the quirky, parochial British films wouldn't get made now

[batman]

A lot of thrillers made purely to entertain wouldn't get made either. These days thrillers often have to have a 'message' or 'agenda'.

[Windthrop]

Originally Posted by batman A lot of thrillers made purely to entertain wouldn't get made either. These days thrillers often have to have a 'message' or 'agenda'.

In many senses the B movie thriller has transfered to TV. But yes pure pot-boiling entertainment has lessened as message-mongering has grown.

[john audley]

I would suggest that the biggest factor to change any old film to a modern re-make is the MOBILE PHONE! Just count how many telephone scenes are in pre-mobile times when persons are running around trying to find a phone and money to put into it. Dial M for Murder. The Blue Lamp where the policeman must use the nearest house phone.

[Moor Larkin]

Originally Posted by batman A lot of thrillers made purely to entertain wouldn't get made either. These days thrillers often have to have a 'message' or 'agenda'.

I suspect they always had a message or agenda, but perhaps the writers didn't feel obliged to signal their cleverness quite so much.......

Mayhap they relied on the subtlety of allegory or fable