Vivien Leigh will always best be known for her iconic roles as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Dig a little deeper, and many fans might also cite the lush weepie Waterloo Bridge (1940) and the sumptuous historical romance That Hamilton Woman (1941), in which she starred with husband Laurence Olivier. But her earlier, pre-Gone With the Wind, films are less seldom shown, and that's why a new Blu-ray release of four of those pictures is so intriguing.

Entitled The Vivien Leigh Anniversary Collection, and released by the boutique label Cohen Media Group (which previously put out the gloriously restored Thief of Bagdad [1924]), the set includes Fire Over England (1937), Dark Journey (1937), Storm in a Teacup (1937) and St. Martin's Lane (1938), the latter of which was originally re-titled for U.S. release as Sidewalks of London. In short, these films are all worthwhile, ranging from good to excellent, and this release is recommended despite varying degrees of restoration quality that at times proves problematic and distracting.

Fire Over England is a historical drama about Britain's defeat of the Spanish armada in the sixteenth century, with Flora Robson pitch-perfect in her famous turn as Queen Elizabeth, a role she'd reprise in 1940's The Sea Hawk. Leigh has a supporting part -- but already commands audience attention -- as a lady in waiting who catches the eye of young Laurence Olivier, in their first of three films together. (They were not yet married at this point.) Also on hand are Raymond Massey, very entertaining as Spain's King Philip; Leslie Banks; and James Mason in a small role as a spy. (Mason is not uncredited, as the disc packaging strangely proclaims.) The film has the feel of an ensemble piece, with the key actors all exerting equal narrative power. If anything, the huge sets tend to be the real stars here, and while they are impressive, they also make the movie overall feel a bit too florid. They also set high audience expectations for equally grand special effects, making the special effects that do eventually come -- poor miniature work in the naval battles -- come off as laughable.

Produced by Alexander Korda, the film was directed by the underrated William K. Howard and shot by the great cinematographer James Wong Howe -- both imported from Hollywood -- and one can sense what a beautiful-looking film this must have been. It's not certain we'll ever truly know, however, for previous prints of Fire Over England have always looked dreadful, marred by ghosting and excessive graininess. For this Blu-ray release, the film was restored from a 35mm dupe print struck from the original negative and held by the British Film Institute. Technicians at Cohen and a U.K. lab determined from poring through other Fire Over England materials that the problems likely happened in the camera while filming. Other problems faced by the restorers included warping, distortion, density fluctuation, missing frames, and the usual dirt, tears and scratches that mar many old film elements. The noise-reduction compensation for the graininess, however, has resulted in an image that is often washed-out and too smooth and lacking in grain -- to the point that it looks more like video than film. However, it can't be stressed enough how poor this film has always looked in years past, so this may well be the best it will ever be capable of looking.

Dark Journey looks much better, and in this one, Leigh plays a double agent in World War I who falls for Conrad Veidt, a German spy. It's a complicated story, and even Leigh herself said she never truly understood the script. But as directed by Victor Saville, it holds up remarkably well as an enjoyable, handsomely filmed, romantic spy thriller, with Leigh absolutely luminous and Veidt quite charming. It's a good reminder of Veidt's screen persona when he was making movies in Europe as a major romantic star, before coming to Hollywood and being relegated to evil Nazi parts (which of course he also played very well). Storm in a Teacup is an utterly charming contemporary comedy that has the feel of Ealing's comedies of the 1950s. Leigh shows off her light comic chops, well-portraying a push-and-pull dynamic that tears her between her loyalty to her father (Cecil Parker), a small-town Scottish politician running for Parliament, and her growing love for a reporter (Rex Harrison), who has exposed her father as a tyrannical bully for threatening to have a woman's dog euthanized because of her failure to pay licensing fees. Parker and Sara Allgood (as the dog owner) are exceptional British character actors from this period, and they are just splendid here.

Based, surprisingly, on an English translation of a German play, Storm in a Teacup to its credit does not feel theatrical, though it does run out of steam as the story goes on and moves into a courtroom. Leigh's role also becomes less pronounced as the film goes on, but her charm, beauty, and comedic abilities still leave an impression. This film, again directed by Victor Saville, also contains fine examples of direct cutting, proving that the device was not created by French New Wave filmmakers twenty years later.

The final film in the set, St. Martin's Lane, is outstanding, and it's easy to understand why American distributor Paramount delayed its U.S. release by a year so as to ride the coattails of MGM's Gone With the Wind, Leigh's next picture. In what feels like something of a cross between Hallelulah, I'm a Bum (1933) and A Star is Born (1937), Leigh plays a street urchin who steals money from busker Charles Laughton, who then catches her stealing again from rich composer Rex Harrison. But Laughton then takes her under his wing and works her into his street act. (His specialty is reciting poetry and dramatic monologues.) Harrison re-enters the story and is charmed by Leigh himself, and so impressed with her talent that he gives her a professional break -- and she rises to become a star and celebrity, leaving Laughton behind.

St. Martin's Lane is affecting but decidedly not maudlin (it easily could have been so), and it contains one of Laughton's most outstanding performances and roles. Laughton, in fact, co-produced this film with Erich Pommer as the second film from their Mayflower Pictures Corporation. Laughton's wife, Elsa Lanchester, was supposed to star, but when Alexander Korda kicked in some financing, he did so on the condition that Leigh get the role instead. Leigh is radiantly beautiful, very feisty, and somewhat less sympathetic than in her previous films, making her work here even more interesting. And again she is called to portray a push-pull dynamic that seems like an especially useful quality for her subsequent role as Scarlett O'Hara. In fact, as Leigh biographer Anne Edwards explains on the disc in an extra feature, it was -- contrary to popular opinion -- St. Martin's Lane and not Fire Over England that really convinced David Selznick that Leigh could pull off Scarlett O'Hara.

St. Martin's Lane also contains magnificent sets, especially the very realistic one depicting an area of the London theater district. There's a lovely scene where Leigh, having escaped from Laughton and taken refuge in an old, abandoned house, dances by herself on the wooden floor of a big room lit only by the moonlight streaming in through the window. Laughton finally catches up to her but is so taken with the sight that he, too, just watches for a moment before barging in.

Picture quality on these latter three titles is better than on Fire Over England, though all contain some amount of seemingly over-processed restoration work. But they are nonetheless watchable and worthwhile. Sound varies, too, with some distortion especially apparent on St. Martin's Lane.

Extras include the aforementioned 25-minute interview with Anne Edwards, original trailers, and liner notes by film historian Kendra Bean. Her notes are scholarly and entertaining, and make one want to read her new book, Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait.

By Jeremy Arnold