During the 1940s, realism reigned in British cinema—but not at Gainsborough Pictures. The studio, which had been around since the twenties, found new success with a series of pleasurably preposterous costume melodramas.
Arthur Crabtree
1958 • 92 minutes • 1.66:1 • United Kingdom
Spine: #92 Editions: DVD, iTunes
A scientist’s thoughts materialize as an army of invisible brain-shaped monsters (complete with spinal-cord tails!) who terrorize an American military base in this nightmarish chiller, directed by Arthur Crabtree.
Arthur Crabtree
1945 • 110 minutes • 1.33:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: Collector’s Sets, iTunes
A lurid tale of sex and psychosis, Madonna of the Seven Moons, directed by Arthur Crabtree, is among the wildest of the Gainsborough melodramas.