This text analyzes one of the central partnerships in British film history, that of Frank Lauder and Sidney Gilliat, the screenwriters of films by Hitchcock and Carol Reed, who became the producer-writer-directors of a succession of well-loved and famous films including "Millions Like Us", "2000 Women", "Waterloo Road", "The Rake's Progress", "I See a Dark Stranger", "The Blue Lagoon" and "The Happiest Days of my Life". This study contextualises the pair within British culture over four decades and for its close reading of films that have been critically neglected, despite their popularity.