Edwin John Fancey

Renown Pictures are delighted to present The E.J. Fancey Collection - a 3 DVD box set of films and shorts from one of Britain's most-loved film-makers.

E.J. (Edwin John) Fancey is the sort of British film-maker whose efforts to provide entertainment on a minimal budget, and with a shooting schedule that may be best described as "break neck", were quite heroic. If few of his pictures could be described as 'polished', Fancey's own office sometimes was called into service as a film-set - they do provide an invaluable look at the London landscape of the 1950s. This is a world of steam railways, dance halls and police inspectors arriving in the nick of time in their black Wolseley. As narratives, his various crime dramas and comedy revues often zip along. A Fancey picture often benefited from a strong cast; the Canadian actor Paul Carpenter, that British B-film stalwart, E J's daughter Adrianne Scott and even, in The Traitor, Sir Donald Wolfit. He also possessed a considerable ability to spot embryonic talent and emerging trends - Forces' Sweetheart features a rare cinematic appearance by Michael Bentine and in June 1957 Rock You Sinners became one of Britain's first rock and roll films. And who could resist the sight of Jackie Collins dancing to the sound of Tony Crombie and His Rockets?

Fighting Mad (1957)
Directed Denis Cavanagh. Stars: Joe Robinson, Adrienne Scott, Beckett Bould, Jack Taylor, Colin Clemenson, Ross Walters, Bernard Walters and Geoff Roberts. A simple story of a Glaswegian ex-boxer who decides to start life afresh with his young bride in Canada and arrives in time to save his old uncle from being a victim of crime.

Action Stations (1957)
Directed by Cecil H Williamson. Stars: Paul Carpenter, Maria Martín, Joe Robinson, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, Doug Robinson, Kim Parker, Colin Cleminson, Gus Ray, Gustavo Re, Juan Aymerich, Emilio Fábregas, Jacques Labrecque, Sheena Marshe and Jack Taylor. A forger flees to Spain to escape his criminal past, but is forced to return home when his daughter is kidnapped by a ruthless gang.

Hangman's Wharf (1950)
Directed by Cecil H Williamson. Stars: John Witty, Genine Graham, Campbell Singer, Patricia Laffan, Gerald Nodin, Frederick Allen, Max Brimmel, Molly Looe, Patience Rentoul, Tom Masson, Barry Faber, Maureen Williamson, Harry Hearn and R C Huggins. A doctor establishes a practice in Shadwell in the East End of London, but suspicion keeps the locals away. One night he is called out to an accident on a ship, but upon arrival he finds that no accident has actually occurred and instead he is framed for a murder.

Rock You Sinners (1957)
Directed by Denis Cavanagh. Stars: Philip Gilbert, Adrienne Scott, Jackie Collins, Colin Croft, Michael Duffield, Beckett Bould, Diana Chesney, Tony Hall, Geoff Roberts, Rex Montgomery, Martin Lyder, Sandra Kruger, Joan Naylor, Tom Naylor, Jessica Black, Malcolm Scott, Veronica Strong, Walter Randell, Jeanette Pearce, George Cattle, Joan Small, Dickie Bennett, George 'Calypso' Browne, Curly Pat Berry, Jane Rieger, Tony Crombie and his Rockers, Art Baxter and his Rockin' Sinners, Don Sollash and his Rockin' Horses and Rory Blackwell and the Blackjacks. Also featuring Angus the dog! In the early days of rock and roll, a radio DJ stages a live rock 'n' roll show in order to persuade a television producer to commission a series.

Twinkling Fingers (1940)
Directed by Denis Kavanagh. Stars: Mark Hambourg and Charlie Kunz. This is a condensed digest featuring Mark Hambourg, the famous pianist and the musician bandleader Charlie Kunz - who worked with vocalists Vera Lynn and Dorothy Squires - in extracts from Talking Feet (1937).

Down Among The Z Men (1952)
Directed by Maclean Rogers. Stars: Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Carole Carr, Leslie Roberts Television Toppers, Clifford Stanton, Robert Cawdron, Andrew Timothy, Graham Stark, Russ Allen, Elizabeth Kearns, Miriam Karlin, Sidney Vivian, Howel Evans, Rufus Cruickshank, Eunice Gayson, Judy Horton, Jane Morrison, Adrienne Scott and Richard Turner. When the absent minded Prof. Osrick Purehart loses a secret military formula in a general store, mayhem ensues as two suspicious secret agents shadow the professor.

Forces' Sweetheart (1953)
Directed by Maclean Rogers. Stars: Hy Hazel, Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine, John Ainsworth, Freddie Frinton, Kenneth Henry, John Fitzgerald, Adrienne Scott, Graham Stark, Molly Weir, Russ Allen, Gordon Craig, Edgar Driver, Pat Hagen, Gordon Harris, Alastair Hunter, Ronald Leigh-Hunter, Michael McCarthy, Robert Sydney and the Leslie Roberts Television Girls. Forces sweetheart, Judy James, is back in town and that means various admirers are showing up at the hotel where she stays.

Shadow Of A Man (1955)
Directed Michael McCarthy. Stars: Paul Carpenter, Rona Anderson, Jane Griffiths, Tony Quinn, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, Bill Nagy, Jack Taylor, Robert O'Neil, Rose Alba, Geoffrey Wilner, Diana Chesney and Jackie Brown. A town drunk, Paul, is found dead the morning after he and his wife celebrated their tenth anniversary out at a nightclub. Despite the initial verdict of heart failure as cause of death, the police reopen the case believing it be murder.

Who's Crazy (1950)
Produced and compiled by E J Fancey. A documentary short featuring oddities from around Britain, featuring Charles Macey (the backwards walker) and knife thrower Wally Texan among others.

The Traitor (1957)
Directed by Michael McCarthy. Stars: Donald Wolfit, Robert Bray, Jane Griffiths, Carl Jaffe, Anton Diffring, Christopher Lee, Oscar Quitak, Karel Štěpánek, Frederick Schiller, Rupert Davies, John Van Eyssen and Colin Croft. Col. Charles Price receives a phone call from a man claiming that one of the former German resistance group members gathered in his home is responsible for a friend's death.

Soho Conspiracy (1950)
Directed by Cecil H Williamson. Stars: Zena Marshall, John Witty, Jacques Labrecque, Peter Gawthorne, Tito Gobbi, Syd Harrison, Max Harrison, David Hurst, Ian Colin, Annette Simmonds, John Norman Evans, Rita Birkett, Diana Chesney, Vi Kaley, Francis P Blake, Noel Coleman, Arthur Lovegrove, Duggie Ascot, Charles Road Night, Gino Bechi, Tito Schipa, Maria Caniglia and Beniamino Gigli. The plans of a publicity agent to put on a charity concert are nearly wrecked by a legal representative who wants to take over a restaurant.

To-day And Every Day (1948)
Directed by Cecil H Williamson. Narrated by Frank Phillips. This is a rare short informative film with some superb vintage footage of locomotives and stations in the UK, including Paddington. The film details the history of the locomotive in Britain and we get to see not only inside the trains but the entire experience from that time, from shovelling the coal on the footplate to the comfort of the passenger.

Swing Tease (1940)
Directed by Denis Kavanagh. Stars: Evelyn Dall, Nat Gonella and his Georgians and The Mills Brothers. Filmed at Rock Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, this is a condensed digest of musical acts from the feature Sing As You Swing (1937).

First released: Monday 20th August 2018