Drama

CASABLANCA  

(1942, Cert U, Drama, Run time 102 mins)
Director: Michael Curtiz
Lead Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Sidney Greenstreet, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid
In wartime North Africa, under the eyes of the visiting Nazi big-shots, unhappy refugees bargain with crooks and cynical Vichy police officials to obtain passports to freedom.

THE COLOUR PURPLE 

(1985, Cert 15, Drama, Run time 154 mins)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Lead Actors: Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Margaret Avery, Adolph Caesar, Oprah Winfrey
Alice Walker's joyous, Pulitzer prize-winning novel comes to the screen as Steven Spielberg's most powerful, personal film to date. A rich feast of emotionally involving incidents in the lives of one family in the deep South of the early 20th century and the struggle they endure because of circumstances, tradition and hand-me-down victimisation. An exploration of the redeeming, healing power of love and the human spirit.  

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING 

(2004, Cert 12A, Drama, Run time 103 mins)
Director: Peter Webber
Lead Actors: Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Cillian Murphy, Essie Davis
Delt, Holland 1665. Following an accident that leaves her father blinded, seventeen-year-old Griet must work to support her family. She becomes a maid in the house of Johannes Vermeer and gradually attracts the master painter's attention. Though worlds apart, Vermeer recognizes Griet's intuitive understanding of colour and light and slowly draws her into the mysterious world of his paintings.

GOODBYE MR CHIPS 

(1939, Cert U, Drama, Run time 113 mins)
Director: Sam Wod
Lead Actors: Robert Donat, Greer Garson
This is the 1939 version of James Hilton's novel about a shy but much loved English schoolmaster.

MADNESS OF KING GEORGE 

(1994, Cert PG, Drama, Run time 110 mins)
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Lead Actors: Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Amanda Donohoe, Rupert Everett, Ian Holm, Rupert Graves
1788. The Royal Household are preparing for the State Opening of Parliament. Suddenly, the King, George III, is taken ill. Babbling ceaselessly, hyperactive and obsessed by the loss of his colonies in North America, the King rampages through Windsor. As his condition worsens, the royal doctors jostle to proclaim the diagnosis, and London becomes gripped by a political power struggle. It is only Queen Charlotte, the King's devoted wife, who remains loyal and brings him to his senses.     

ON THE WATERFRONT  

(1954, Cert A, Drama, Run time 90 mins)
Director: Elia Kazan
Lead Actors: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger
This is the true story of the fight to clean up the racket ridden New York docks.

SEABISCUIT 

(2003, Cert PG, Drama, Run time 140 mins)
Director: Gary Ross
Lead Actors: Tobie MaGuire, Jeff Bridges
The story of three men who saw the untapped potential of a racehorse called Seabiscuit. Owner Charles Howard, horse trainer Tom Smith and jockey Red Pollard work together to push the horse to three victories...