Green Grow the Rushes

New Romney
1951
Sound
77m

Brandy-smuggling locals resist government interference in this Ealing-esque comedy, filmed on Romney Marsh

This Ealing-esque comedy focuses on a small Kent village where the community is supported by brandy smuggling. When visitors from Whitehall come with proposals for redevelopment, the smugglers resolve to resist. A pre-fame Richard Burton stars alongside Honor Blackman and Roger Livesey. Adapted from a novel by Howard Clewes (who co-wrote the screenplay), Green Grow the Rushes owes an obvious debt to the hit Ealing comedy Whisky Galore (1949).

This was the first feature made by ACT Films, the production company formed by the cinema technicians' union. As if there was any doubt about its influences, Green Grow the Rushes was retitled Brandy Ashore on its re-release in 1954.

Forgotten Features

A hand-picked assortment of hard-to-see British feature films, featuring mischievous mermaids, murderous minors and military mayhem.

Thanks to decades of DVD and online publishing, not to mention archive revivals and restorations, more of Britain’s screen heritage is available today than ever before. You might even be forgiven for imagining that the whole of British cinema is now just a click away.

But much of that history - from the silent era to the relatively recent past - remains out of reach. This selection from the vaults, hand-picked by the BFI's curators, goes some way to remedying that. These fresh rediscoveries offer something for all tastes: whether futuristic fantasy, battle-of-the-sexes comedy, subversive provocation or an Indian-British rarity.