After the critical and financial success of his first screen leading role in "The Cruel Sea" (1953), made by Ealing Studios, in which he co-starred and received top-billing with Jack Hawkins, Sinden was contracted for seven years to the Rank Organisation at Pinewood Studios and subsequently had prominent roles in 23 movies during the 1950s and early 1960s, including "Mogambo"; "Doctor in the House"; "Above Us the Waves"; "The Black Tent"; "Eyewitness"; "Doctor at Large"; "The Siege of Sidney Street" and "Twice Round the Daffodils".