NEAR MINT - UNSEALED - ONLY ONE AVAILABLE

1. BLITHE SPIRIT Prelude (4:50)
2. BLITHE SPIRIT Waltz (4:53)
3. ENCORE Miniature Overture (2:22)
4. GASLIGHT Prelude (3:26)
5. THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS Suite (8:49)
6. PARISIENNE 1885 (3:07)
7. SCROOGE Suite (12:53)
8. SOUTHERN RHAPSODY (4:48)
9. WALTZ OF THE TOREADORS March: The General on Parade (2:33)
10. WALTZ OF THE TOREADORS Waltz (3:08)
11. SOUTH RIDING Prelude (5:44)
12. WRNS MARCH (2:53)
13. FIRE OVER ENGLAND Suite (7:25)

BLITHE SPIRIT - The Noel Coward/David Lean combination which turned out such dramas as Brief Encounter and This Happy Breed sets its sights on the viewer's funny bone with Blithe Spirit. Rex Harrison plays a novelist, newly married to straight-laced Constance Cummings. While researching a book on spiritualism, Harrison is teased and tormented by the mischievous ghost of his first wife, Kay Hammond. Believing that Hammond wants to ruin his marriage, Harrison enlists the services of local medium Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford in her funniest performance). When Arcati fails to exorcise Hammond's spirit, Harrison decides to kill himself so that he can be reunited with her and spare wife number two the aggravation of being haunted. But Harrison's plans go awry: His second wife is killed, and now he has two playful spirits on his hands! Technicolor is used throughout Blithe Spirit, with the ghosts' shimmering paleness providing contrast to the plain, everyday colors of Harrison's conservative country home. Blithe Spirit was later transformed into the Broadway musical High Spirits, with the original script bent out of shape to turn the character of Madame Arcati (played by Beatrice Lillie) into the leading role.

ENCORE - The producers of Quartet and Trio concluded their cycle with this omnibus film, which features three stories based, as in the previous film, on tales by W. Somerset Maugham. "The Ant and the Grasshopper" concerns Tom Ramsey (Nigel Patrick), a fiscally unstable young man who is constantly borrowing money from his brother George (Roland Culver). Eventually, George falls on hard times and is forced to sell the family estate, just as Tom marries a wealthy woman and is in a position to purchase it. In "Winter Cruise," Miss Reid (Kay Walsh) is an aging spinster taking a voyage aboard a cargo ship. She has little to do but engage the others on board in conversation, which the passengers find so annoying that they arrange a ship-board romance for her with Pierre (Jacques Francois), a porter, in the hopes that it will keep her quiet. And "Gigolo and Gigolette" features Glynis Johns as Stella Cotman, whose husband Syd (Terence Morgan) earns his living as a performer in a high-wire act. Stella is terribly worried that Syd's risky profession will lead to his death, so she takes their life's savings to a casino in hopes of winning enough that he can retire. However, her plan hardly goes as she hoped.

GASLIGHT - The 1940 British production of Gaslight was the first of two cinema adaptations of Patrick Hamilton's play. Oozing faux continental charm, Anton Walbrook inveigles his way into the confidence of the young mistress (Diana Wynyard) of a large Victorian mansion. Walbrook is searching for the rubies that he'd stolen from the previous owner of the house—whom he'd also murdered. Suspecting that Wynyard is about to catch on to his secret, Walbrook enlists the aid of a sluttish maidservant to drive his loving bride crazy. The ploy almost works, but Wynyard is rescued by an unexpected ally. Gaslight was released in the US as Murder in Thornton Square, then withdrawn entirely on the occasion of MGM's expensive 1944 remake of Gaslight, which starred Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman. Partly to eliminate confusion, and partly to avoid unfavorable comparison to the shorter and far superior British film, MGM allegedly ordered that all prints of the original Gaslight be destroyed. Evidently that order was not honored to the letter, since the 1940 Gaslight is still safely available for both theatrical and TV exhibition.

THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS - David Lean directed this romantic drama, scripted by Eric Ambler from a novel by H.G. Wells. Mary Justin (Ann Todd) is married to wealthy financier Howard Justin (Claude Rains), and while their marriage allows her to lead a comfortable lifestyle, there's little excitement in their relationship. While visiting Switzerland, Mary happens to run into Steve Stratton (Trevor Howard), with whom she was romantically involved years before she wed Howard. Mary finds herself falling for Steve once again, and she has to decide if she should leave her husband in hope of finding real passion or stay with a man who treats her well but whom she does not love. Leading lady Ann Todd married David Lean the same year this was released; it was the first of three films they would make together prior to their divorce in 1957.

SCROOGE - Widely considered to be the definitive of the many film versions of Charles Dickens' classic novel is this 1951 British adaptation, starring Alastair Sim (entitled "Scrooge" in its U.K. release). Sim plays Ebenezer Scrooge, a London miser who, despite his wealth, refuses to make charitable contributions and treats his sole employee, Bob Cratchit, as an indentured servant. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, who was as selfish as Scrooge in life and has been condemned to an eternity of wandering the Earth in shackles. Marley informs Scrooge that he's to receive a trio of spirits that night who will take him on a journey through Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come. As Scrooge encounters each apparition, he is taken on a tour of his life and realizes what a wretch he is, transformed by greed from an idealistic youth into an embittered ogre. Infused with a new, cheery outlook, Scrooge sets about earning his redemption.

WALTZ OF THE TOREADORS - Fitzjohn (Peter Sellers) is a retired general who is miserable at home with his shrewish wife Emily (Margaret Leighton). He dreams of younger days when he enjoyed the platonic company of the beautiful Ghislaine (Dany Robin). After many years, she shows up at his door and expresses her desire to take their relationship beyond the platonic level. When his plans are temporarily postponed, he leaves her in care of his right hand man. His aid and Ghislaine fall in love, prompting Fitzjohn to begin court-martial proceedings against his unfaithful aide. When the lineage of his aide is discovered, he tries to halt the trial in this ironic comedy taken from the play by Jean Anouilh.

SOUTH RIDING - Set in England in the early 1900s, South Riding is a political and personal drama about a nearly bankrupt estate owner who is trying to keep himself solvent by buying into a real estate plan which he doesn't realize is morally suspect. The original British cut of South Riding ran 90 minutes, but for its American release, several Depression-era scenes were cut from the print.

FIRE OVER ENGLAND - The war between England and Spain in the late 16th century serves as backdrop for the fictional machinations of Fire Over England. Laurence Olivier plays a British naval officer who offers his services to Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson) after his father is executed by the Spaniards. The queen dispatches Olivier to the court of Spain, there to determine which of her courtiers are actually spies for King Philip (Raymond Massey). Working under cover, Olivier learns that the Spaniards intend to send an armada to decimate the British navy. Barely escaping with his life, Olivier relays this information to his queen and also dispatches the traitors in her midst. Cast as one of Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting, Vivien Leigh appears in the role that brought her to the attention of Gone With the Wind producer David O. Selznick. Directed by Hollywood's William K. Howard, Fire Over England was based on a novel by A.E.W. Mason of Four Feathers fame.