"The Battle of the Sexes" wasn't an Ealing comedy but it may as well have been. It's certainly in the Ealing class and is one of the best British comedies of its period. Of course, it had a great pedigree in James Thurber's short story 'The Catbird Seat' and it had an excellent cast headed by Peter Sellers, Robert Morley and Constance Cummings.
Morley is the new owner of an antiquated Scottish tweed-making business, (his father, the great Ernest Thesiger, died with a dram in his hand), Cummings the officious American efficiency expert intent on modernising it and Sellers, the old accountant who will resort to anything, including murder, to stop her. It's a black farce and a very funny one and it represents something of a high point in the career of director Charles Crichton although, surprisingly, it isn't particularly well-known outside the UK.
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