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Basil Dearden

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Basil Dearden
Born
Basil Clive Dear

(1911-01-01)1 January 1911
Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England
Died23 March 1971(1971-03-23) (aged 60)
Hillingdon, London, England
OccupationsFilm director, screenwriter, film producer
Years active1938–1970
Spouse(s)Margaret Ward (divorced)
Melissa Stribling
Children2, including James

Basil Dearden (born Basil Clive Dear; 1 January 1911 – 23 March 1971) was an English film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was best known for his work at Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s, and later for his socially-conscious dramas. He won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film for Sapphire (1959), and was thrice nominated for the Golden Lion, among other accolades.

One critic described him as "the journeyman-director of British cinema,"[1] while the Deutsches Filminstitut called him "one of the most outstanding directors of classic British cinema."[2]

Early life

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Dearden was born as Basil Clive Dear[3] at 5 Woodfield Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex to Charles James Dear, a steel manufacturer, and the former Florence Tripp.[4]

He left school as a teenager to work at an insurance company in London. Developing an interest in theatre, Dearden worked for Ben Greet's repertory company, and later joined the Grand Theatre in Fulham as an assistant stage manager.[5] He became Basil Dean's general stage manager in 1931, and changed his own name to Dearden to avoid confusion with his mentor.[3]

Career

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In the mid-1930s, while still working for Dean, Dearden graduated from theatre direction to film.[6] He wrote This Man Is News (1938), a hugely popular quota quickie[7] and wrote and directed a film for TV Under Suspicion (1939).

He was assistant director on Penny Paradise (1938), produced by Dean and directed by Carol Reed, and two George Formby comedies directed by Anthony Kimmins: George Takes the Air (1938), produced by Dean, and Come on George! (1939).[citation needed]

Dearden was promoted to associate producer on two more George Formby films, which he also co-wrote: To Hell with Hitler (1940) aka Let George Do It and Spare a Copper (1940).[citation needed]

Dearden went over to Ealing Studios where he produced The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941) with Will Hay, then he produced Turned Out Nice Again (1941) with George Formby.[citation needed]

Ealing Studios

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He first began working as a director at Ealing Studios, co-directing comedy films with Will Hay, starting with Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942). This was followed by The Goose Steps Out (1942) and My Learned Friend (1943), which was Hay's last movie.[citation needed]

Dearden's first solo director credit was The Bells Go Down (1943), a wartime movie with Tommy Trinder. It was produced by Michael Relph who would form a notable collaboration with Dearden.[8]

Dearden also directed The Halfway House (1944), a drama set in Wales, and wrote and directed They Came to a City (1944), based on a play by J.B Priestley.[citation needed]

Dearden worked on the influential chiller compendium Dead of Night (1945) and directed the linking narrative and the "Hearse Driver" segment.

He also directed The Captive Heart (1946) starring Michael Redgrave, which was a big hit. The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival. He directed Frieda (1947) with Mai Zetterling and produced by Relph, which was also popular.

Dearden directed Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948) an expensive costume picture that was not a large success.[9] He wrote and directed a segment of Train of Events (1949).

The Blue Lamp (1950), probably the most frequently shown of Dearden's Ealing films, is a police drama which first introduced audiences to PC George Dixon, later resurrected for the long-running Dixon of Dock Green television series. It was hugely popular.[10]

Less so were Cage of Gold (1950), a drama with Jean Simmons; Pool of London (1951), a crime film with a black lead, very rare for the time; and I Believe in You (1952), a drama which he also wrote and produced.

Dearden made The Gentle Gunman (1952), an IRA thriller with Dirk Bogarde; The Square Ring (1953), a boxing film with Jack Warner; The Rainbow Jacket (1954), a horse racing drama; and Out of the Clouds (1955), set at an airport.

He did a war film which he also wrote, The Ship That Died of Shame (1955) then a comedy with Benny Hill, Who Done It? (1956).

Dearden did some uncredited directing on The Green Man (1956) then made an Ealing style comedy for British Lion The Smallest Show on Earth (1957).

For Rank he made Violent Playground (1958) with Stanley Baker. He did some uncredited directing on one of Ealing's last films, Nowhere to Go (1958). He also produced Davy (1958), with Harry Secombe, for Ealing.

Social awareness films

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Dearden and Michael Relph made a series of films on subjects generally not tackled by British cinema in this era starting with Sapphire (1959), a thriller about race relations that proved popular.[11]

Dearden and Relph helped set up Allied Film Makers, for whom they made The League of Gentlemen (1960), a bank heist comedy that was very popular.[12]

Dearden directed episodes of The Four Just Men on TV and produced two films directed by Michael Relph: Mad Little Island (1958) and Desert Mice (1959).[13]

For Allied, Dearden directed Man in the Moon (1960), a science fiction comedy with Kenneth More that lost money. The Secret Partner (1961) was a thriller for MGM starring Stewart Granger.[14]

Dearden directed Victim (1961) with Dirk Bogarde for Allied; a thriller about homosexuality, it was a huge success.[15]

However, his next few movies were not popular: All Night Long (1961), an adaptation of Othello; Life for Ruth (1962), for Allied, which dealt with religious objections to operations;[16] A Place to Go (1964), for Bryanston Films, a thriller not released for two years; and The Mind Benders (1963) a science fiction with Dirk Bogarde.

Later films

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Dearden and Relph then made two films for release by United Artists: Woman of Straw (1964) starring Sean Connery; and Masquerade (1965) with Cliff Robertson. He was then hired to replace Lewis Gilbert as director of Khartoum (1966), with Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier.[17]

Two films were then made for release by Paramount: Only When I Larf (1968) and the Edwardian era black comedy The Assassination Bureau (1969), again with Michael Relph; it was the 25th film they had made together.[18]

His last film was The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970), which he wrote and directed, starring Roger Moore, made for EMI Films. With Moore, Dearden made three episodes of the television series The Persuaders!: "Overture", "Powerswitch" and "To the Death, Baby".

Personal life

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Dearden married actress Melissa Stribling in 1947.[19] He had previously been married to Margaret Ward, also an actress. He had two sons, writer-director James Dearden and film editor Torquil Dearden.[19]

Death

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Dearden died on 23 March 1971 at Hillingdon Hospital, London after being involved in a road accident on the M4 motorway near Heathrow Airport, in which he suffered multiple injuries.[20]

An inquest heard that he had a very high amount of alcohol in his blood and that he was decapitated after his car crashed into a road sign and caught fire.[21]

Reputation

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The film critic David Thomson does not hold Dearden in high regard. He writes: "Dearden's films are decent, empty and plodding and his association with Michael Relph is a fair representative of the British preference for bureaucratic cinema. It stands for the underlining of obvious meaning".[22]

More positively, for Brian McFarlane, the Australian writer on film: "Dearden's films offer, among other rewards, a fascinating barometer of public taste at its most nearly consensual over three decades".[23]

The British Film Institute's Screenonline website writes "As film studies grope beyond auteurism towards a greater recognition of the importance of collaboration and versatility, the contribution of Basil Dearden and his collaborator Michael Relph might be more generously acknowledged."[5] Alex Barrett writes that Dearden and Relph "genuinely deserve to be placed alongside Powell and Pressburger as one of the most significant double-acts in British cinema."[8]

Regular Ealing cinematographer Douglas Slocombe enjoyed working with Dearden personally, describing him as the 'most competent' of the directors he worked with at Ealing.[24]

Theresa FitzGerald described Dearden as "par excellence, the journeyman-director of British cinema, standing in much the same relation to Ealing as, say, Michael Curtiz did to Warner Brothers."[1]

A 2022 retrospective of Dearden's work by the Deutsches Filminstitut called him, "one of the most outstanding directors of classic British cinema.... Their “studio cinema” fell into disrepute as a “new wave” emerged in Britain as well. Yet Dearden’s craftsmanship in particular continues to set his films apart to this day."[2]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Functioned as Notes
Director Writer Producer
1938 This Man Is News No Yes No
1940 Let George Do It! No Yes Associate
Spare a Copper No Yes Associate
1941 Turned Out Nice Again No Uncredited Associate
1942 The Black Sheep of Whitehall Yes No No Co-directed with Will Hay
The Goose Steps Out Yes No No
1943 The Bells Go Down Yes No No
My Learned Friend Yes No No Co-directed with Will Hay
1944 The Halfway House Yes No No
They Came to a City Yes Yes No
1945 Dead of Night Yes No No Segments: "Hearse Driver" and "Linking Narrative
1946 The Captive Heart Yes No No
1947 Frieda Yes No No
1948 Saraband for Dead Lovers Yes No No
1949 Train of Events Yes Yes No Segments: "The Prisoner-of-War" and "The Actor"
1950 The Blue Lamp Yes No No
Cage of Gold Yes No No
1951 Pool of London Yes No No
1952 I Believe in You Yes Yes Yes
The Gentle Gunman Yes No No
1953 The Square Ring Yes No Uncredited
1954 The Rainbow Jacket Yes No No
1955 The Ship That Died of Shame Yes Yes Uncredited
Out of the Clouds Yes No No
1956 Who Done It? Yes No Uncredited
The Green Man Uncredited No No
1957 The Smallest Show on Earth Yes No No
1958 Violent Playground Yes No No
1959 Sapphire Yes No No
1960 The League of Gentlemen Yes No No
Man in the Moon Yes Uncredited No
1961 Victim Yes No Yes
The Secret Partner Yes No No
1962 All Night Long Yes No Uncredited
Life for Ruth Yes No Yes
1963 A Place to Go Yes No No
The Mind Benders Yes No No
1964 Woman of Straw Yes No No
1965 Masquerade Yes No No
1966 Khartoum Yes No No
1968 Only When I Larf Yes No No
1969 The Assassination Bureau Yes No No
1970 The Man Who Haunted Himself Yes Yes No

Producers only

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Television

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Year Title Functioned as Notes
Director Writer Producer
1959–60 The Four Just Men Yes No No 13 episodes
1971 The Persuaders! Yes No No 3 episodes

Awards and nominations

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Institution Year Category Work Result
British Academy Film Awards 1960 Best Film Sapphire[25] Nominated
Outstanding British Film Won
Cannes Film Festival 1946 Palme d'Or The Captive Heart[26] Nominated
Locarno Film Festival 1946 Most Interesting Screenplay Dead of Night Won
New York Film Critics Circle 1959 Best Director Sapphire 3rd Place
San Sebastián International Film Festival 1954 Grand Prize The Rainbow Jacket Nominated
Venice Film Festival 1947 Golden Lion Frieda[27] Nominated
1950 The Blue Lamp[28] Nominated
1961 Victim[29] Nominated

References

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  1. 1 2 "TSPDT - Basil Dearden". TSPDT. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  2. 1 2 "Classics & Rarities: Basil Dearden". DFF.FILM. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Dearden [formerly Dear], Basil Clive (1911–1971)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57353. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ↑ Class: RG14; Piece: 10121; Schedule Number: 79, Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911. The National Archives of the UK.
  5. 1 2 "BFI Screenonline: Dearden, Basil (1911-1971) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  6. ↑ "Only When I Larf". Variety. 31 December 1967. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
  7. ↑ Matthew Sweet (2 January 2007). "Fancy a quickie?". The Guardian.
  8. 1 2 "Where to begin with Basil Dearden". BFI. 2 September 2024. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  9. ↑ "Britain To Double Film Production". The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. 89, no. 27526. South Australia. 26 December 1946. p. 4. Retrieved 2 June 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "Critics Praise Drama: Comedians Win Profits". The Sydney Morning Herald. NSW. 29 December 1950. p. 3. Retrieved 7 January 2015. at Trove
  11. ↑ Hill, William John (1985). CLASS, SEXUALITY AND THE*BRITISH CINEMA 1956-63 (PDF) (Thesis). University of York. p. 375.
  12. ↑ Sally Dux, 'Allied Film Makers: Crime, Comedy and Social Concern', Journal of British Cinema and Television 2012 9:2, 198-213
  13. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (27 June 2025). "Forgotten British Film Studios: The Rank Organisation, 1959". Filmink. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
  14. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (4 July 2025). "Forgotten British Film Studios: The Rank Organisation, 1960". Filmink. Retrieved 4 July 2025.
  15. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (11 July 2025). "Forgotten British Film Studios: The Rank Organisation, 1961". Filmink. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  16. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (20 July 2025). "Forgotten British Film Studios: The Rank Organisation, 1962". Filmink. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  17. ↑ Malcom, Derek (25 March 1971). "Basil Dearden". Obituary. The Guardian. p. 5. Retrieved 6 August 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ Malcolm, Derek (19 March 1969). "The survival bureau". The Guardian. p. 8.
  19. 1 2 British Film Director, Crash Victim: Basil Dearden. The Washington Post and Times-Herald (1959-1973); Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]25 Mar 1971: B7.
  20. ↑ Burton, Alan; O'Sullivan, Tim (2009). The Cinema of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph. Edinburgh University Press Ltd. p. xvii. ISBN 978-0-7486-3289-3. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  21. ↑ "Film man verdict". Western Daily Press. 17 April 1971. Retrieved 6 October 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  22. ↑ David Thomson The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, London: Little, Brown, 2002, p.213
  23. ↑ Brian McFarlane (ed.) The Encyclopedia of British Film, 2003, London: Methuen/BFI, p.168
  24. ↑ Alan Burton; Tim O'Sullivan (2009). The Cinema of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph. Edinburgh University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-7486-3289-3.
  25. ↑ "Film". Bafta. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  26. ↑ "Basil DEARDEN". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  27. ↑ "ASAC Dati: Annali 1947". asac.labiennale.org (in Italian). Archived from the original on 26 September 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  28. ↑ "Ricerca per anno". asac.labiennale.org. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  29. ↑ "Ricerca per anno". asac.labiennale.org. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
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