Ealing Studios directors (1938-1959)
In order of appearance. The 6 directors tagged on at the bottom only directed shorts for Ealing, mostly WWII propaganda.
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- Director
- Actor
- Writer
British director Walter Forde started his show-business career on the stage of the music halls of northern England. He entered the film business as a screenwriter but became an actor in 1920, in a series of two-reel comedies he wrote himself. He spent some time in Hollywood, but not much happened and he came back to Britain in 1925. He went to work for Gainsborough and began directing. The studio was impressed with the results, and began to hand him its "A"-list projects. Several of his films, such as The Ghost Train (1931) and The Gaunt Stranger (1931), were well received by critics. He worked in a variety of genres, mostly comedies, but he turned out the occasional thriller or mystery. His star began to wane during the war years, and his postwar films didn't live up to his pre-war ones. He made his last film in 1949.
He died in 1987 at age 84 in Los Angeles, California.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Robert Stevenson was born on 31 March 1905 in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Mary Poppins (1964), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and Nine Days a Queen (1936). He was married to Ursula Henderson, Frances Holyoke Howard, Anna Lee and Cecilie L Leslie. He died on 30 April 1986 in Santa Barbara, California, USA.- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
- Writer
Pen Tennyson was an English film director. He only directed three films before his accidental death at age 28. He had previously served as an assistant director to Alfred Hitchcock in several 1930s films.
In 1912, Tennyson was born in London. He was the eldest son of the civil servant and academic Charles Bruce Locker Tennyson (1879-1977) and his wife Ivy Pretious. Through his father's side of the family, Tennyson was a great-grandson of the famous poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 -1892). Alfred served as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom (term 1850-1892). He is mostly remembered for writing the "Idylls of the King" (published in updated editions, 1859-1885), a collection of narrative poems based on Arthurian legends. The work was the most famous Victorian era-version of the legends, and it remains popular.
Tennyson received his secondary education at Eton College, an independent boarding school for boys between the ages of 13 and 18. He entered the film industry in 1932, at age 20. His mother introduced him to film distributor Charles Moss Woolf (1879-1942). Woolf in turn introduced him to film producer Michael Balcon (1896-1977), who helped him get his start in the industry. Balcon became his mentor, and reportedly treated Tennyson as a surrogate son.
Tennyson started working as a camera assistant at the Gaumont British Studios, located at Shepherd's Bush.in West London. In 1934, Tennyson was promoted to the position of assistant director. His first assignment was the film" The Man Who Knew Too Much", with Hitchcock serving as the main director.
Temnyson next worked with Hitchcock in the film "The 39 Steps" (1935). While Hitchcock helped in Tennyson's training, their relationship was not without its problems. During this film. Hitchcock played a cruel prank on Tennyson. He convinced him that they needed a double for actress Madeleine Carroll, and that there was nobody available. He then had Tennyson dress in drag for one of the film's scenes. Carroll herself was actually available for the scene, but Hitchcock had a laugh at Tennyson's expense.
In 1938, Michael Balcon became the new head of the Ealing Studios. This was a successor company to the Associated Talking Pictures (ATP). Tennyson followed his mentor to this company, and was finally given his chance at becoming a director. His directing debut was the boxing-themed sports film "There Ain't No Justice" (1939). In the film, a small-time boxer learns that his recent fights were fixed and that his career is controlled by gambling syndicate.
Tennyson's first film was well-regarded by critics due to its "realistic portrayal of the boxing world", though certain scenes of graphic violence had been censored at the film's production phase. Film historians credit the film as one of the first British sound films to attempt a realistic portrayal of working-class life in London.
The following year Tennyson directed his second film, "The Proud Valley" (1940). It depicted the life of an African-American immigrant who works as a miner in the South Wales coalfield. The film was intended as a comeback for American actor Paul Robeson (1898-1976), who had not appeared in films since 1937. However, Robeson's outspoken political views had angered the British press baron Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (1879 - 1964). Beaverbrook both ensured that the film received little actual publicity and had Robeson blacklisted throughout the British film industry. Robeson left the United Kingdom shortly following the film's release.
In 1940, Tennyson started his service in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). He created the propaganda feature film "Convoy" (1940) in order to lionize the Royal Navy's activities in World War II. According to "Kinematograph Weekly", this film was the most popular British film of 1940 in its domestic market. It was Tennyson's third and last film as a director.
Later within 1940, Tennyson was commissioned in the Royal Navy. In June 1941, he was transferred to a unit that created instructional films for the Admiralty, the British government department responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. His experience in the film industry likely made him ideal for this role.
On July 7, 1941, Tennyson completed a filming session at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands. Scapa Flow served as the United Kingdom's chief naval base during World War II. Following the filming, Tennyson boarded a airplane that was supposed to transport him to Rosyth. The airplane accidentally ploughed into a hillside, killing Tennyson and everyone else aboard. The accident took place during fine weather conditions. Tennyson was 28-years-old at the time of his death.
Tennyson was survived by his wife, the actress Nova Pilbeam (1919-2015). He had no known children. He is remembered as a promising film director, who died prematurely.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
French-born Marcel Varnel began his film career not in France but in Hollywood, as a 30-year-old in 1924. He left Hollywood for Great Britain in the mid-'30s and began turning out a series of low-budget comedies for Will Hay and George Formby, among others. While his films were for the most part undistinguished, they were popular and moved fast, as good comedies are meant to do. His best film is generally considered to be Oh, Mr. Porter! (1937), a Will Hay comedy about a hapless railroad employee who is made stationmaster of a run-down, bottom-of-the-barrel station in Ireland and his efforts to bring it up to speed, only to get involved with ghosts and gun-runners. It garnered Hay some of the best reviews of his career and Varnel's direction of the picture also met with critical acclaim.
He died in an automobile accident in England in 1947 shortly after having finished This Man Is Mine (1946).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Born in Brazil in 1897, Alberto Cavalcanti began his film career in France in 1920, working as writer, art director and director. He directed the avant-garde documentary Nothing But Time (1926) ("Nothing but Time"), a portrait of the lives of Parisian workers in a single day. He moved to England in 1933 to join the GPO Film Unit under John Grierson, working as a sound engineer (Night Mail (1936)) then as a producer. He went to work for Ealing Studios during the war, initially as head of Michael Balcon's short film unit until 1946, again working as an art director, producer and director. His notable films as director include Champagne Charlie (1944), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947) and I Became a Criminal (1947). After the latter film he moved back to Brazil. There he made Song of the Sea (1953) ("The Song of the Sea") and A Real Woman (1954) ("Woman of Truth") with his own production company. However, his progressive political views caught the attention of the the right-wing Brazilian authorities, and Cavalcanti thought it prudent to return to Europe in 1954. He eventually settled in France, where he continued his work in television. He died in Paris in 1982.- Producer
- Writer
- Production Manager
Sergei Nolbandov was born in 1895. He was a producer and writer, known for Ships with Wings (1941), The Secret Four (1939) and The Amateur Gentleman (1936). He died in 1971.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
British director Charles Frend started his film career as an editor, and worked on several Alfred Hitchcock films, including Secret Agent (1936) and Young and Innocent (1937). He later worked for MGM at Elstree Studios, where he edited such films as A Yank at Oxford (1938) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). He made his directorial debut in 1942 and turned out several low-budget dramas and documentaries. After the war he directed several critically acclaimed dramas, including The Cruel Sea (1953) and Scott of the Antarctic (1948). His final film as director was The Sky-Bike (1967) and the film on which he ended his career was Ryan's Daughter (1970), on which he worked as a second-unit director.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
A former stage director, Basil Dearden entered films as an assistant to director Basil Dean (he changed his name from Dear to avoid being confused with Dean). Dearden worked his way up the ladder and directed (with Will Hay) his first film in 1941; two years later he directed his first film on his own. He eventually became associated with writer/producer Michael Relph, and together the two made films on themes not often tackled in British films, such as homosexuality and race relations. In the '60s Dearden embarked on a new phase of his career by directing large-scale action pictures, the best of which was Khartoum (1966), which was a critical and financial success. Not long after completing The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970), Dearden was killed in an automobile accident.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
William Thompson Hay was probably one of the most versatile of entertainers. He was not only a character comedian of the first rank, but was also an astronomer of high repute - he discovered the spot on the planet Saturn in 1933 - and a fully qualified air pilot; he was once an engineer. Born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham in 1888, he became interested in astronomy at school and carried on his research work in this direction after he had finished his nightly stage entertainments. He was first "on the air" in 1922 and his then comedy sketches of "St. Michaels School" (of which he was the headmaster) proved to be one of the most popular comedy characters on radio at that time. This character was transferred to film and became equally successful. He worked at Elstree Studios, then Gainsborough, then Ealing; the Gainsborough period was the most consistently successfully, particularly when he worked with the team of Marcel Varnel (director), Val Guest and Marriott Edgar (writers), and Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt (supporting cast). By the time he made his first film, he was in his mid forties and his last role came less than a decade later. Between 1934 and 1943, he was a prolific and popular film comedian. He was credited on several films as a writer or co-ordinator, and was arguably the dominant 'author' of all the films in which he appeared, in that they were built around his persona and depended on the character and routines he had developed over years on the stage.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
Born in Bristol, England, Thorold Dickinson began his film career during the silent era as a writer. He went to work for Ealing in the 1930s, first as an editor and then as a director. He directed or produced military training films during World War II, and after the war he turned out a string of unique and well-received films, such as The Queen of Spades (1949), about an elderly woman who strikes a deal with the devil that will enable her to always win at playing cards, and Secret People (1952) a story of resistance against an undemocratic regime which features two sisters in exile. A resister from their past draws the younger of the two into an act of violence which harms neutral civilians.
In 1955 Dickinson directed Hill 24 Doesn't Answer (1955), a drama about the 1947 war for independence in Israel, which was the first Israeli film to be distributed worldwide. The next year he went to work for the UN Department of Public Information as the head of its film division, producing several documentaries. He was appointed president of the International Federation of Film Societies, and in the early 1960s he was offered, and accepted, a position on the teaching staff of the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, where he instituted a pioneering postgraduate course in the research and study of Film Form and Film History. He retired from London University in 1971 as its first Professor of Film, and was then awarded the CBE. He died in London in 1984.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Scottish-born director Harry Watt began his career in the 1930s, and directed several documentaries during World War II, most notably Target for Tonight (1941). He went to Ealing Studios after the war, and the five films he made there were all shot in Africa or Australia. He turned to directing television in the 1950s, and afterward he went back to his roots and shot documentaries.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Robert James Hamer was born in 1911 along with his twin sister Barbara, the son of Owen Dyke Hamer, a bank clerk, and his wife, Annie Grace Brickell. He was educated at Cambridge University where he wrote some poetry and was published in a collection 'Contemporaries and Their Maker', along with the spy Donald Maclean.
Hamer's cinematic career began as a clapper boy at London Films in 1934, and by 1938 he was on the editing staff. He worked as an editor on Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn (1939) and worked briefly for the GPO Film Unit. He joined Ealing in 1941 as an editor, becoming an associate producer in 1943. He first made a name for himself as a director with the "The Haunted Mirror" segment in the 1945 omnibus film Dead of Night (1945).
At Ealing he directed one of the classic British comedies, Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), in which Alec Guinness played eight roles. Hamer was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 1949 Venice Film Festival for his work on the film, as he was in 1954 for directing Guinness in The Detective (1954), which was based on G.K. Chesterton's short stories (Hamer also also directed Guinness in the 1955 romantic comedy To Paris with Love (1955) at Rank and the thriller The Scapegoat (1959), which was based on the Daphne Du Maurier novel, for Du Maurier-Guinness/MGM).
Hamer's last directorial effort was 1960's School for Scoundrels (1960) with Terry-Thomas and Alastair Sim. He died in London on December 4, 1963, and was buried at Llandegley.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
Director Charles Crichton's film career began as an editor in 1935 with Alexander Korda's London Films, and in that capacity he worked on such productions as Sanders of the River (1935), Things to Come (1936) and Elephant Boy (1937) (which introduced Sabu to movie audiences). He soon left London Films for Ealing Studios, and rose quickly through the ranks, making his directorial debut with For Those in Peril (1944). Meticulous to the point of being referred to as a "perfectionist", Crichton came into his own at Ealing, a studio noted for its comedies, and among his best known are the quirky but charming The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953) and the wildly popular The Lavender Hill Mob (1951). He tried his hand at drama--outside of Ealing--with The Stranger in Between (1952), starring Dirk Bogarde. When Ealing closed its doors in 1959, Crichton's film work petered off, and he turned more and more to television, becoming a prolific director of crime and adventure series. His occasional forays back into feature films were not particularly productive, and for the most part he remained in television, directing episodes of such popular shows as Secret Agent (1964), The Avengers (1961) and Space: 1999 (1975).
At the request of star John Cleese, Crichton agreed to direct Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline in the offbeat comedy A Fish Called Wanda (1988), which turned out to be a huge international hit. It was his biggest success, and also his last film. He died in London at 1999, at age 89.- Director
- Editor
- Producer
Born in South Africa, Henry Cornelius traveled to Europe, where he worked as an actor and director in stage productions in Germany, France and England. In 1933, with the Nazi takeover of Germany, Cornelius left Germany for France, and studied at the Sorbonne. He hooked up with director René Clair and went to England with Clair for The Ghost Goes West (1935) as an assistant editor. He worked his way up the ranks to editor and returned to South Africa, writing documentaries and producing and directing films there. After the end of World War II he went back to England, working as an associate producer and writer. He made his directorial debut with Passport to Pimlico (1949), a well-received comedy from Ealing about a neighborhood in London that, after the war, discovers that it is really not a part of England, and declares its independence. He was also responsible for the delightful Genevieve (1953), a charming comedy about an auto club's annual race between Brighton and London.
Cornelius only directed two more films before his death, at age 44, in London in 1958.- Writer
- Director
- Art Department
One of the most distinguished (if frequently overlooked) directors ever to emerge from the British film industry, Alexander Mackendrick, was in fact born in the US (to Scottish parents), but grew up in his native Scotland, where he studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He started out as a commercial illustrator, and his first film endeavors were in animation (for advertising films) but he soon found himself attracted by live-action, shooting numerous short documentaries and writing screenplays throughout the 1940s. He made his feature debut in 1948 with the Ealing comedy classic Whisky Galore! (1949), set in his native Scotland, and more than half his total feature output would be for the studio including such masterpieces as The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955) -- comedies with a rather darker, more satirical edge to them than the rather cosy and parochial British comedy more typical of the era. His first Hollywood film pushed this style to its limit in Sweet Smell of Success (1957), a vicious, no-holds-barred portrait of the world of ruthless New York gossip columnists. Although now acclaimed as one of the great American films, and a career high-point for Mackendrick, stars Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis and cinematographer James Wong Howe, it was a critical and box-office disaster that, sadly, ensured that Mackendrick would never again scale such heights. After just three more films, he was offered an academic job as the Dean of the Film Department of the California Institute of the Arts, which he accepted and held from 1969 until shortly before his death.- Producer
- Writer
- Editor
Sidney Cole was born on 31 October 1908 in London, England, UK. He was a producer and writer, known for Dick Turpin (1979), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955) and Secret Agent (1964). He died on 25 January 1998 in London, England, UK.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Ralph Smart was born to Australian parents in the London suburb of Chingford, some ten miles northeast of Charing Cross. He began his professional career in films as an editor, writer and director of documentary shorts in 1927. Smart collaborated on the screenplays of some of Michael Balcon's early films at Gaumont-British, before moving 'down under' to make propaganda films and documentaries for the Australian government during the Second World War. After the war, he worked as producer or producer/director on two seminal films shot by Ealing in Australia: The Overlanders (1946) and Bush Christmas (1947). From the mid-1950's, he was active again in Britain, affiliated with ITC as writer/producer/director of several popular TV period adventures, notably The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955), The Buccaneers (1956) and William Tell (1958). His best known contribution came about in the 1960's, when he created the action series Danger Man (1960) and its incorruptible lone wolf protagonist John Drake, played brilliantly by Patrick McGoohan. After the show was cancelled in 1966, Smart returned to working as a freelance screenwriter on the short-lived Australian-based series Riptide (1969), starring American actor Ty Hardin. Smart settled down in Bowen, Queensland, where the show was filmed and died there in February 2001 at the venerable age of 92.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Additional Crew
Lesley Selander's film career, which lasted more than 40 years, started in the early 1920s as a teenager when he got a job at a studio as a lab technician. He soon managed to work his way into the production end of the business and secured employment as a camera operator, then an assistant director, with several side trips as a director of two-reel shorts. He directed his first feature in 1936, a western--a genre in which he would not only excel but one where he would spend much of the rest of his career.
Although Selander couldn't be considered an "A"-list director, his films had a professionalism and a verve that many of those made by his fellow B directors lacked. His sense of pacing was such that his films could be counted on to move quickly and smoothly, and not just his westerns. He also made detective thrillers, action/adventure pictures and even a horror film or two. One standout that is seldom seen nowadays, however, is Return from the Sea (1954), a sentimental and lyrical story of a cynical, embittered merchant seaman and the equally disillusioned waitress he meets in a dingy diner in the waterfront section of town. It's a surprisingly sensitive work for a man who spent his career making tough, macho shoot-'em-ups, and even more of a surprise are the outstanding performances by an unlikely cast: tough-guy Neville Brand as the sailor, perennial gun moll Jan Sterling as the waitress, and a terrific job by veteran heavy John Doucette as a garrulous, happy-go-lucky cab driver determined to bring the two together. With this little jewel Selander proved he was capable of much more than cattle stampedes, Indian attacks and gangster shootouts, but unfortunately he never made another one like it.
As the market for B westerns died out, Selander--like so many of his fellow B directors--turned to television. The last few feature films he made, in the mid- and late 1960s, were a string of what's come to be known as "geezer westerns" churned out by producer A.C. Lyles, embarrassing efforts made on the cheap that were meant to give employment to aging cowboy stars; the less said about them, the better.
Lesley Selander retired from the business in 1968, and died in 1979.- Editor
- Writer
- Director
Michael Gordon was born on 25 September 1909 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an editor and writer, known for Wherever She Goes (1951), All Over the Town (1949) and Curse of the Demon (1957). He was married to Lyla Cranston. He died in 2008 in Pulborough, West Sussex, England, UK.- Producer
- Art Director
- Writer
British producer/director Michael Relph, the son of stage actor George Relph, graduated from Bembridge School and became apprenticed to Alfred Junge at Gaumont Pictures in 1932. He was also a stage designer and art director, often working for Michael Balcon. In 1942 he became the chief art director at Ealing Studios, and in 1946 became a producer and screenwriter. He began a productive partnership with director Basil Dearden at the studio, and the relationship continued after Ealing went out of business. He directed such pictures as Davy (1957), Mad Little Island (1958), but eventually gave up directing to concentrate solely on producing. Later in his career he became Chairman of the BFI Production Board.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
London-born Anthony Pelissier was the son of actress Fay Compton and producer H.G. Pelissier. He became an actor in the 1930s, but soon realized that he was more inclined to making films than appearing in them. In 1937 he got his first screenwriting credit, and remained in that field until his directorial debut in 1949. Though his career as a director was short--only five years--his films were adaptations of some of the most renowned works in British literature: The History of Mr. Polly (1949) by H.G. Wells, The Rocking Horse Winner (1949) by D.H. Lawrence, and Encore (1951) by W. Somerset Maugham. His final film was Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953), a sly satire on television. He later went to work as the head of experimental production at the BBC.- Director
- Editor
- Producer
Leslie Norman began his career as a 14-year-old in the laboratories and editorial rooms of Warner Brothers Teddington Studios. He worked his way up from sweeping cutting-room floors to supervising editor and then assistant director. After military service he joined Ealing, where he became involved in their Australian operation. Norman's first major credit was as supervising editor of the classic outback drama about wartime cattle droving, The Overlanders (1946), starring Chips Rafferty. Back in Britain he worked on The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947) and Frieda (1947), before resuming his fruitful association with "Overlanders" director Harry Watt as producer of Watt's African and Australian "true-life" adventure dramas, including the Technicolor Ivory Hunter (1951) (which he also co-wrote) and West of Zanzibar (1954). Norman then produced one of the classic British war dramas of the 1950s, an epic story of Atlantic convoy duty during World War II, The Cruel Sea (1953). The picture made a major star out of its lead, Jack Hawkins.
By 1955 Norman was directing his own films, beginning with the suspenser The Night My Number Came Up (1955), followed by a well-observed Australian-set character drama, The Shiralee (1957); and even a rather well-received sci-fi drama, X the Unknown (1956) (which he took over from exiled American director Joseph Losey). He also turned out the stiff-upper-lip wartime epic Dunkirk (1958), which was Ealing's most expensive venture to date. What to do with a captured Japanese prisoner in the Malayan jungle was the theme occupying Norman's last notable directorial effort, Jungle Fighters (1961). He elicited some excellent performances from his cast (including Laurence Harvey and Richard Todd) in what was an absorbing character study of clashing personalities.
Norman, ever versatile, turned his hand to directing episodic television during the 1960s and 1970s, with particular emphasis on cult action series, such as The Saint (1962), The Baron (1966), Department S (1969) and The Persuaders! (1971).- Director
- Editor
- Producer
Entered the film industry in 1934, working as an assistant director and junior editor in various studios. Made wartime training films for the army, then joined Ealing in 1944, becoming a producer in 1951, and directing one film ('Touch and Go') in 1955. He directed only occasional films thereafter, such as 'Go to Blazes' (1962).- Director
- Production Designer
- Writer
Pat Jackson began as an editor and co-director of documentaries with the famed GPO Film Unit in the mid-1930s. He worked with such icons of the documentary field as John Grierson and Harry Watt, but it was his World War II semi-documentary Western Approaches (1944) that put him on the map. Praised as a skillful blend of real footage and studio-shot model work, the film was photographed in sumptuous Technicolor by renowned cinematographer Jack Cardiff and told the story of the harrowing dangers faced by merchant seamen in the war.
Unfortunately, Jackson was unable to capitalize on this success. He spent an unproductive time under contract to producer/director Alexander Korda and spent an additional two years in Hollywood under contract to MGM, where he made just one film, the somewhat atmospheric melodrama Shadow on the Wall (1950). Returning to Britain in 1951, he was never able to find his niche, drifting among various producers, studios and independent companies. He found a lot of work directing episodic TV series. His fortunes seemed to rise in 1958, however, when he directed Our Virgin Island (1958), a light-hearted tale of a young couple starting their life on an isolated--and uninhabited--West Indian island. His follow-up film, Snowball (1960), was also a critical and commercial success, as was his comedy-thriller No Place Like Homicide! (1961) and the dark, moody Don't Talk to Strange Men (1962). Again, these small successes didn't lead to anything bigger or better, and he finished out his career in television.- Director
- Editorial Department
- Editor
Seth Holt began as an assistant editor at Ealing in 1944, graduating to editor (1949), producer (1955) and director (1958).He returned to editing for Charles Crichton's The Battle of the Sexes (1960) and for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960). Probably his best known film is The Nanny (1965), with Bette Davis. He was working on Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971) when he died.