Ronald Neame Movies
Ronald Neame is the son of photographer/director Elwin Neame and the actress Ivy Close. He joined Elstree Studios in 1927 as a messenger and call boy, moved up to stills photographer, and was an assistant cameraman on Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929), the first English sound film. He served as a camera operator in the early '30s, and was elevated to director of photography in 1934. His most important films as cinematographer were Pygmalion (1938), Major Barbara (1939), In Which We Serve (1942), and One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942). In 1943, Neame formed a partnership with editor-turned-director David Lean and producer Anthony Havelock-Allan in Cineguild, an independent production company set up with support from England's Rank Organisation, through which the David Lean movies This Happy Breed, Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and The Passionate Friends were made. Neame turned to directing in the late '40s with Take My Life (1947), and after a series of entertaining but unexceptional films, including The Card (1952) and The Million Pound Note (1953), was responsible for the classics The Horse's Mouth (1959) and Tunes of Glory (1960), both starring Alec Guinness in two of the best roles of his career. Neame'sEscape from Zahrain (1962) was an underrated action thriller, which was surprisingly effective on a low budget, and his Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) was a major late '60s hit that turned Maggie Smith into a major screen star. But it was in the '70s that Neame established himself -- very unexpectedly -- as a "money director," with The Poseidon Adventure (1972). This all-star adventure thriller, about a group of passengers struggling for survival when their ocean liner turns over in mid-voyage, proved a huge and sudden hit, becoming the top-grossing picture of 1972 and earning its money so fast, by Neame's account, that the studio couldn't hide it, and making him a rich man in the process. Neame's The Odessa File (1974) proved him adept at the thriller format, and his disaster movie Meteor (1979) effectively ended the disaster movie genre that he had begun with The Poseidon Adventure. His subsequent movies, including Hopscotch (1980) and First Monday in October (1981), have proved rather more uneven dramatically as well as at the box office. Neame's career has embraced more phases than almost any other filmmaker still even semi-active in the '90s, from the early days of British talkies, to the Golden Age of British cinema of the '40s to the silver age of the '50s, and the international and American markets of the '60s thru the '80s. He has managed to have hits in each phase of that career, and has proved effective at creating comedy, intimate, serious drama (Tunes of Glory is probably his best picture, with The Horse's Mouth a close second), as well as pulling together the special effects and acting required of the blockbuster all-star production. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
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. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Todd, Claude Rains, (more)
- 1948
Cinematographer Ronald Neame made his directorial debut with the 1947 murder melodrama Take My Life. When a Covent Garden violinist is found murdered, her ex-lover, show business manager Nicholas Talbot (Hugh Williams) finds himself under suspicion. The only person who believes that Talbot is innocent is his wife, opera diva Phillipa Shelley (Greta Gynt). Unable to convince the authorities, Phillipa plays detective herself, utilizing a snatch of a newly written song as her main clue to the true killer's identity. If the mysterious murderer isn't all that mysterious to the audience, it is only because the actor in question had played too many similar roles in the past. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Williams, Greta Gynt, (more)
The second of director David Lean's adaptations of a Charles Dickens novel (Great Expectations (1946) was the first), Oliver Twist expertly boils down an enormous novel to a little less than two hours' screen time. The film begins with baby Oliver left on the doorstep of an orphanage/workhouse by his unwed mother. Proving a difficult charge to the wicked orphanage official, Oliver (John Howard Davies) is sold into a job as an undertaker's apprentice. He runs away and joins a gang of larcenous street urchins, led by master pickpocket Fagin (Alec Guinness). Oliver is rescued from this life by the kindly Mr. Brownlow (Henry Stephenson); but, with the complicity of evil Bill Sikes (Robert Newton), Fagin abducts Oliver. Sikes' girl friend Nancy (Kay Walsh) restores Oliver to Brownlow, leading to tragic consequences before an ultimately happy ending. Oliver Twist was filmed in England in 1948, but its American release was held up for three years due to the allegedly anti-Semitic portrayal of the duplicitous Fagin. Even in its currently censored form, Oliver Twist is one the best-ever film versions of a Dickens novel. It served as a blueprint for Oliver! (1968), the Oscar-winning musical version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Newton, Alec Guinness, (more)
Based on Noël Coward's play "Still Life," Brief Encounter is a romantic, bittersweet drama about two married people who meet by chance in a London railway station and carry on an intense love affair. Sentimental yet down-to-earth and set in pre-World War II England, the film follows British housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson), who is on her way home, but catches a cinder in her eye. By chance, she meets Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), who removes it for her. The two talk for a few minutes and strike immediate sparks, but they end up catching different trains. However, both return to the station once a week to meet and, as the film progresses, they grow closer, sharing stories, hopes, and fears about their lives, marriages, and children. One day, when Alec's train is late, both become frantic that they will miss each other. When they finally find each other, they realize that they are in love. But what should be a joyous realization is fraught with tragedy, since both care greatly for their families. Howard and Johnson give flawless performances as two practical, married people who find themselves in a situation in which they know they can never be happy. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, (more)
Immediately grabbing the audience's attention with a heart-stopping opening scene in a dark graveyard, acclaimed British director David Lean realizes the cinematic potential of Charles Dickens' classic 1861 novel, and the result is considered by many to be one of the finest literary adaptations ever made as well as one of the greatest British films of all time. Crystallized into a tight 118-minute running time by Lean, Ronald Neame, and a corps of uncredited contributors, this is the story of young Pip, a lad of humble means whose training as a gentleman is bankrolled by a mysterious benefactor. Along the way, Pip falls in love with the fickle Estella, befriends the cheerfully insouciant Herbert Pocket, has memorable encounters with the escaped convict Magwitch and the lunatic dowager Miss Havisham, and almost (but not quite) forgets his modest origins as the foster son of kindhearted blacksmith Joe Gargery. The role of Pip is evenly divided between Anthony Wager as a child and John Mills as an adult; Alec Guinness makes his starring film debut as the jaunty Pocket; Jean Simmons and Valerie Hobson are costarred as the younger and older Estella; and Martita Hunt is unforgettable as the mad Miss Havisham ("It's a fine cake! A wedding cake! MINE!") Remade several times, Great Expectations resurfaced in 1989 as a TV miniseries, with Jean Simmons, originally the young Estella, tearing a passion to tatters as Miss Havisham; and in 1998 it was remade again, in a contemporary version, with Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert DeNiro, and Anne Bancroft in the Miss Havisham role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Valerie Hobson, (more)
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. Via a seance, Harrison accidentally summons the spirit 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) to exorcise Hammond's spirit. She fails, and in time, Harrison's second wife is killed; 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. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, (more)
With This Happy Breed, playwright Noel Coward hoped to glorify the British working class in the same manner that he'd celebrated the "higher orders" in Cavalcade. The film begins just after World War I. Middle-class Londoner Robert Newton hopes to improve his family's lot by moving them into a comparatively posh house in the suburbs. The house is large enough for each family member to claim a corner or room as his or her own, allowing Coward to spotlight the characters' highly individual strengths, shortcomings and emotions. Twenty years go by, filled with the sorts of triumphs and tragedies with which British audiences of the 1940s could readily identify. Finally, left alone after their children and relatives have moved on, Newton and his wife (Celia Johnson) leave the house behind for a smaller, more practical apartment. This was the second of four collaborations between author Noel Coward and director David Lean. While Coward can't completely disguise his patronizing attitude towards "regular folks," Lean is successful in conveying the essential warmth, humanity and value of the film's characters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, (more)
Few morale-boosting wartime films have retained their power and entertainment value as emphatically as Noël Coward's In Which We Serve. To witness Coward's sober, no-nonsense direction (in collaboration with his co-director/editor, David Lean) and to watch his straightforward portrayal of navy captain Kinross, one would never suspect that he'd built his theatrical reputation upon sophisticated drawing-room comedies and brittle, witty song lyrics. The real star of In Which We Serve is the British destroyer Torrin. Torpedoed in battle, the Torrin miraculously survives, and is brought back to English shores to be repaired. The paint is barely dry and the nuts and bolts barely in place before the Torrin is pressed into duty during the Dunkirk evacuation. The noble vessel is finally sunk after being dive-bombed in Crete, but many of the crew members survive. As they cling to the wreckage awaiting rescue, Coward and his men flash back to their homes and loved ones, and, in so doing, recall anew just why they're fighting and for whom they're fighting. Next to Coward, the single most important of the film's characters is Shorty Blake, played by John Mills. (Trivia note: Mills' infant daughter Juliet Mills appears as Shorty's baby.) Even so, the emphasis in the film is on teamwork; here as elsewhere, there can be no stars in wartime. For many years, the only prints available to television were from the bowdlerized American version, which crudely cut out all "hells" and "damns." Fortunately, this eviscerated American release has since been shelved in favor of the full, glorious 115-minute version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Noël Coward, John Mills, (more)
A Yank in the RAF is brash pilot Tim Baker (Tyrone Power), freshly arrived in London. Hoping to impress his nightclub-singer girlfriend Carol Brown (Betty Grable), Tim joins the Royal Air Force, immediately alienating everyone with his cockiness and "What the Hell?" attitude concerning the war. All this changes when Baker is obliged to fly under combat conditions, whereupon he shows what he's really made of. One of the most popular of the pre-Pearl Harbor "preparedness" films, A Yank in the RAF comes to an exciting conclusion, with actual newsreel footage of the evacuation of Dunkirk expertly matched with studio mockups. As a bonus, Betty Grable sings such catchy numbers as Another Little Dream Won't Do Us Any Harm. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Betty Grable, (more)
This subtle, unadorned British war drama was the second collaboration between "The Archers," Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Six British bomber crewmen are obliged to bail out over Holland. To escape detection from the Nazis, the crewmen accept the hospitality of several Hollanders, all dedicated to the freedom-fighting activities of the Underground. The film is constructed along the lines of the earlier Powell-Pressburger film The Invaders, except that the escapees are British rather than German and their Dutch contacts are willing rather than reluctant co-conspirators. The six male stars are Godfrey Tearle, Eric Portman, Hugh Williams, Bernard Miles, Hugh Burden, and Emrys Jones; among those who aid them in their flight to freedom are Googie Withers, Joyce Redman, and Peter Ustinov. The austere photography by Ronald Neame is complemented by the to-the-point editing of future director David Lean. Adding to the verisimilitude of One of Our Aircraft Is Missing is the utter absence of a musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Godfrey Tearle, Eric Portman, (more)
- 1941
George Bernard Shaw's satiric comedy about wealth and poverty is brought to the screen with wonderful performances by Rex Harrison and Wendy Hiller. Hiller plays Major Barbara Undershaft, a major in the Salvation Army who is also a socialist and stridently attacks capitalists -- in particular her father Andrew (Robert Morley), the head of a munitions plant. In love with Barbara is the young Greek scholar Adolphus Cusins (Rex Harrison), whose attentions go unreturned since Barbara spends all her time on her crusade against wealth. To show up his daughter, Andrew donates 50,000 pounds to the Salvation Army which, to Barbara's horror, the Army's general (Sybil Thorndike) happily accepts. Barbara, in protest, quits her post and it is left to Adolphus to take her on a tour of her father's munitions plant and prove to her the benefits of capitalism. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wendy Hiller, Rex Harrison, (more)
- 1940
Let George Do It is one of the best and most successful of the George Formby vehicles. The toothy, guitar-strumming Formby plays a dimwitted entertainer who is mistaken for a notorious Nazi spy. The misunderstanding is played to the hilt, culminating with our hero battling the forces of the Axis on the fields of Norway. The film's highlight is a bakery routine which dates back to Charlie Chaplin's 1914 epic Dough and Dynamite. Let George Do It was distinguished by the leading-lady presence of Phyllis Calvert, just on the verge of bigger things. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Formby, Phyllis Calvert, (more)
- 1940
Director Walter Forde, a past master at blending mystery, melodrama and comedy (vide The Ghost Train and Bulldog Jack), is at his best with Saloon Bar. Most of the action takes place during one busy evening in an English pub, with a rich variety of believable comic characters weaving in and out of the scene. A murder is committed, and everyone falls under suspicion. Hero and heroine Gordon Harker and Elizabeth Allen solve the mystery with becoming modesty (compare this to the wisecracking protagonists in similar American films). Saloon Bar was based on a long-running stage play by Frank Harvey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gordon Harker, Elizabeth Allan, (more)
- 1940
A delightful film that begs to be rediscovered, Return to Yesterday was adapted from Goodness, How Sad, a play by Robert Morley. Clive Brook is ideally cast as Robert Maine, a famous movie star who longs for the simpler days before he became the idol of millions-and before he was trapped into a loveless marriage with his present wife. Maine takes a sentimental journey to the provincial repertory theatre where he got his first break, only to discover that the little troupe is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Without revealing his true identity, he joins the actors and helps to get them over their financial hump. He also happens to fall in love with ingenue Carol Sande (Anna Lee, the wife of director Robert Stevenson), but realizes eventually that she will be better off without him. Dame May Whitty heads the hand-picked supporting cast as Mrs. Truscott, the troupe's garrulous character woman, who is wise enough not to say anything when she overhears Maine letting Carol down gently by replaying a scene from one of his earlier stage triumphs. Long ignored by movie historians, Return to Yesterday was given an honored spot in William K. Everson's affectionate volume Love in the Film (1979). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clive Brook, Anna Lee, (more)
- 1940
The original British title of this wartime musical farce was George Takes The Air. George is George Formby, the toothy little chappy with the ukulele whose films made oodles of money in the 1930s and 1940s. This time, Formby is an 'umble Army private mistaken for a dashing RAF pilot. Had their not been a slapstick airborne finale, audiences might have grown violent. Manning the cameras in It's in the Air was future director Ronald Neame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Formby, Polly Ward, (more)
- 1939
In this gentle comedy, an aristocratic English fellow is not happy to be betrothed to a brewery heiress. One day he goes to a circus and ends up with a lively human cannonball in his life. He immediately falls for the daring young performer and they end up eloping and going to Paris to live out the rest of their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Griffith Jones, Anna Lee, (more)
In this mystery a Scotland Yard investigator and a police doctor unite to find "The Ringer" a mysterious killer and master of disguise before he can kill a lawyer who just received notice of his impending demise via a lovely bouquet with a note informing him that he has 48 hours to live. During their hurried investigation, the pair learn that the attorney's secretary had recently killed herself and that The Ringer blames the lawyer for the death. Time flies, and the lawyer does indeed die. It is only then that the investigators learn the killer's true identity. The story is based on an Edgar Wallace story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wilfred Lawson, Sonnie Hale, (more)
- 1939
An Irish fellow is determined to become a singing radio star. Unfortunately, fate seems to be determined to thwart him at every turn in this comedy. The trouble begins when he leaves his Irish village to go to a British radio station where he believes he is going to get his big chance to sing. Unfortunately, he soon discovers that he is to be a contestant in a spelling bee. This enrages him and he winds up throwing a major fit on the air. The resulting publicity lands him a talent agent who believes that the recent press will make the Irishman a singing star. It is not to be, and the agent loses his job. He and the Irishman end up drowning their sorrows, commandeering a sports broadcast where their drunken comments and shenanigans inspire the station to hire them as comedians. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy O'Dea, Betty Driver, (more)
- 1939
The eponymous Four Just Men of this film are British World War I comrades, who reunite in peacetime to bring disaster to their country's enemies. The quartet is not above murder and sabotage to achieve their ends, but their patriotism is never in question. The goal of the heroes is to thwart a megalomaniac who plans to destroy the Suez Canal, then devastate the British empire in order to create his own world dictatorship. Francis L. Sullivan, Hugh Sinclair, Griffith Jones and Frank Lawton play the Four Just Men, though Lawton's early death reduces the ranks to three. The villainy is in the hands of Basil Sydney, who is every bit as ruthless and resourceful as the heroes. Four Just Men is based on a series of adventure novels by British "writing machine" Edgar Wallace--which also formed the basis of a 1959 TV series of the same name, starring Dan Dailey, Richard Conte, Jack Hawkins and Vittorio De Sica. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Sinclair, Griffith Jones, (more)
- 1939
Most of British regional comedian George Formby's vehicles were released in the US through Columbia Pictures; somehow Trouble Brewing slipped through the cracks. Bucktoothed Formby plays a newspaper printer who wins big at the racetrack. Unfortunately he is paid off in counterfeit bills. To avoid the long arm of the law, Formby sets about collaring the crooks himself. The trail leads inexorably (and hilariously) to Formby's own boss. George Formby's leading lady in Trouble Brewing was the gloriously named Googie Withers, later a major British film actress specializing in murder melodramas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1939
Cheer Boys Cheer is a provincial British comedy with slight Romeo and Juliet undertones. Edmund Gwenn and Moore Marriott play rival brewery owners who detest the sight of one another. Not so their children--the son of one man, the daughter of the other--who fall in love. One glance at the film's title, and the viewer knows that boy and girl will not take poison in the end. For so modest an endeavor, Cheer Boys Cheer has a remarkable talent lineup: Edmund Gwenn, Moore Marriott, Jimmy O'Dea, Nova Pilbeam and Alexander Knox in front of the cameras, and Walter Forde and Ronald Neame on the production end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1938
In this WWI drama, a group of captured British soldiers imprisoned in a German POW camp attempt to escape by building a tunnel beneath the camp. One of the prisoners is unable to stand the strain and lets the cat out of the bag, forcing the others to leave ahead of time. The pressure increases when the newest prisoner discovers that the group leader is the husband of his lover. In the end, the philandering new prisoner sacrifices his life for the leader. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1938
In this taut drama, a wealthy financier is tried for the murder of his brother-in-law after the damning corpse is found floating in his garden pond. He is eventually acquitted. Upon his return home, he is angered to find his lawyer has become romantically involved with his wife. An argument ensues, during which the financier confesses his guilt and then makes a fatal leap from a balcony. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clive Brook, Jane Baxter, (more)
- 1938
In this early film from director Sir Carol Reed, Edmund Gwenn stars as Joe Higgins, a hardworking tugboat captain who is ecstatic when he learns that he has won a lucrative soccer pool. To celebrate, Higgins quits his job and invites all his pals to the local tavern for a wingding. But during the party, the validity of the Liverpudlian captain's win comes into question. Star Gwenn would later be remembered by most movie lovers for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of Kris Kringle in 1947's Miracle on 34th Street. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1938
A brief encounter forms the basis of this romantic drama. It all begins when Helen Bernardi meets Jim Wyndham in a London restaurant. They end up spending the night and falling hopelessly in love. Unfortunately, in the cold morning light, they realize that must go back to their separate lives. Jim must got to India on business while Helen must continue her scientific research. When Jim gets to India, the lovesick fellow realizes that life without her is nothing and immediately sends her a cable asking for her hand. The message never arrives. Five years pass. Jim comes back to London and discovers that Helen is happily married to her professor. But when Helen sees her old love, all her repressed passion rushed back causing her husband to become quite jealous. Just as the lovers are planning their escape, they overhear the professor defending Helen's honor to the servant who is accusing her of adultery. This naturally, gives the two pause. In the end they decide that it is better to keep things as they are. Gallant Jim walks away, and the Helen happily returns to her husband for a lifetime of marital bliss. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Lukas, Linden Travers, (more)
