The Instant Expert's Guide to: Charles Crichton

Such was the impact made by the much-loved Ealing comedies that whenever a whimsically witty picture becomes a hit, critics invariably reach for those Ealing comparisons. In the latest entry in Cinema Paradiso's Instant Expert series, we follow the fortunes of Charles Crichton, who not only directed three of these timeless classics, but also rescued a fourth through his skills as an editor.

Charles Crichton is not alone in making the transition from the cutting room to the director's chair. Contemporary David Lean found his way into the editing suite after starting out as a teaboy and could count acclaimed titles like Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard's Oscar-winning adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1938) and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's wartime flagwaver, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1941), among his editorial achievements. Anthony Harvey would edit the likes of Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) en route to guiding Katharine Hepburn to the Academy Award for Best Actress in The Lion in Winter (1968). Similarly, Peter R. Hunt and John Glen made the step up from editing James Bond movies to directing them. Type their names into the Cinema Paradiso search to see which ones.

The same path has been trodden by a number of celebrated Hollywood film-makers, with Robert Wise graduating from editing Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) to directing The Sound of Music (1965). Wise and Mark Robson shared the blame for hacking Welles's follow-up feature, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), with the latter going on to earn an Oscar nomination for the classic soap opera, Peyton Place (1957). John Sturges gained experience as an uncredited cutter on George Stevens's Gunga Din (1937) before landing an Oscar nod for Bad Day At Black Rock (1955), while Don Siegel created montages for mastepierces like Michael Curtiz's Casablanca (1942) before directing such Clint Eastwood classics as Dirty Harry (1976). Moreover, Hal Ashby followed an Oscar win for editing Norman Jewison's In the Heat of the Night (1967) to being nominated for directing Peter Sellers in his last great role in Being There (1979).

On the Cutting Edge

Charles Ainslie Crichton was born in Wallasey on the Wirral on 6 August 1910, the son of Hester and John Crichton, an iron and steel merchant who was renowned for wearing a beret to work instead of a bowler hat. One of six siblings, Charles was sent to Oundle School in Northamptonshire and surprised the family by announcing that he would rather go gold prospecting in Canada than study at university. On returning without a fortune, he read History at New College, Oxford, where he became interested in film-making after watching Zoltan Korda shoot the lost student drama, Men of Tomorrow (1932), with the German director Leontine Sagan, who had made her name with the girls' school saga, Mädchen in Uniform (1931).

The young Crichton clearly made an impression on Korda, who invited him to become an assistant editor at producer brother Alexander's company, London Films. Based at Denham Studios, Crichton reunited with Zoltan on Cash (1933) and Sanders of the River (1935), an Edgar Wallace take of colonial control that would be remade by Lawrence Huntington as Death Drums Along the River (1963). Crichton also assisted Stephen Harrison in shaping Charles Laughton's performance in Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), which saw him become the first British actor to win an Academy Award.

Having worked on William Cameron Menzies's boldly ambitious HG Wells's adaptation, Things to Come (1936), Crichton took his first editing credits on Zoltan Korda and Robert Flaherty's Rudyard Kipling adventure, Elephant Boy, and Basil Dean's 21 Days (both 1937), which was enlivened by the fact that married co-stars Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh were romancing on and off the screen. However, Crichton's sojourn at Denham ended with the effects-laden Arabian Nights fantasy, The Thief of Bagdad, which was variously directed by Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell and Tim Whelan, and Ian Dalrymple's Old Bill and Son (both 1940), which teamed Morland Graham and John Mills as a father and son volunteering for military action.

The shift to wartime production spared Crichton active service because editing propaganda pictures was deemed to be a reserved occupation. Director Alberto Cavalcanti was so taken by his work on the Ministry of Information shorts, Yellow Caesar (1940) and Young Veteran (1941), that the Brazilian advised Ealing Studios boss Michael Balcon to hire Crichton to work on Charles Frend's The Big Blockade (1942), a collection of scenarios and sketches on the topic of economic warfare that featured such popular stars as Will Hay, John Mills and Leslie Banks. This flag waving curio can be found on Volume 2 of the Ealing Rarities Collection and Cinema Paradiso users can also assess Crichton's editorial contribution to Harry Watt's Nine Men (1942), a flash-backing docudramatic account of an army unit's struggles in the Libyan desert.

Calling the Shots

While at London Films, Crichton had learned the valuable lesson that 'a script is not the bible, it is not a blueprint that must be followed precisely, word for word'. At Ealing, however, Balcon held writers like TEB Clarke in high esteem and Crichton had to adapt to a new way of collaborative working on his directorial debut, For Those in Peril (1943). Produced as a tribute to the Air-Sea Rescue service, the story employed the docudramatic style that Ealing had perfected with pictures like Charles Frend's San Demetrio, London (1943) to show how RAF pilots David Farrar and Ralph Michael take time adapting to their new coastal responsibilities. Several non-actors add to the authenticity of action that Crichton and cinematographer Douglas Slocombe filmed in a choppy Channel swell with Spitfires actually firing at their boat.

The craft were confined to calmer waters in Painted Boats (1945), an account of canal life that was accompanied by some verses by poet-narrator Louis MacNeice. In essence, the narrative grafted a Romeo and Juliet story on to a debate about whether barges should be pulled by horses or propelled by motors and typified Ealing's fascination with tradition in a time of change. The light tone was retained in the 'Golfing Story' segment of the iconic horror anthology, Dead of Night (1945), a variation on an HG Wells story that saw Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne continue their Charters and Caldicott double act as Parratt and Potter, who fall out after falling for the same woman.

The fact that Crichton had been selected for such a prestigious project says much about Balcon's estimation of him. But there was an element of fortune in the way he secured his place in Ealing folklore, as no one at the time knew that Hue and Cry (1946) was going to launch a series of cosy comedies that would remain the gold standard for British whimsical wit for decades to come. Tibby Clarke based the story around an image of dozens of children running through London's many remaining bombsites and Crichton and Douglas Slocombe do a fine job of capturing the Blitz rubble before it was cleared away. Focusing on a gang of boys who tumble to the fact that crooks are using a comic to convey coded messages, the story reminded eminent critic Richard Winnington of Gerhard Lamprecht's adaptation of Erich Kästner's Emil and the Detectives (1931).

Set in occupied Belgium during the Second World War, Against the Wind (1948) failed to find favour, despite being co-scripted by Clarke, who joined Crichton in blaming the misfire on the fact that popular actor Jack Warner (the future star of Dixon of Dock Green, 1955-76) had been cast as the villain. However, Crichton redeemed himself by offering his services in the cutting room for free after Balcon and director Alexander Mackendrick had despaired of making anything worthwhile of Whisky Galore! (1948), a comedy pitting some rebellious Scottish islanders against a jobsworthy Home Guard captain that had been adapted from a bestseller by Compton Mackenzie.

Epitomising the Ealing spirit that Balcon had fostered, this gesture cemented Crichton in his good books. This was perhaps as well, as his take on Kenneth Sheils Reddin's novel, Another Shore (1948), struggled to find an audience. Yet those renting the film on high-quality DVD or Blu-ray from Cinema Paradiso will discovet that there's much to enjoy in this tale of indolent Dubliner Robert Beatty, who hopes that a rich person will reward his good graces in the busy city traffic by giving him the wherewithal to relocate to the Cook Islands.

Having enjoyed photographing the splendours of the Irish capital with Slocombe, Crichton found himself partially confined to a railway carriage for 'The Composer', an episode starring John Clements, Irina Baronova. John Gregson and Valerie Hobson in Train of Events (1949), a portmanteau that also contained stories directed by Sidney Cole and Basil Dearden (who has also been the subject of one of Cinema Paradiso's Instant Expert guides). The narrative for Dance Hall (1950) was also loosely linked, although Crichton drew on his editorial skills to interweave the vignettes, as factory girls Natasha Parry, Diana Dors, Petula Clark and Jane Hylton find release in their Saturday nights out at the Chiswick Palais. For all the workplace and dance floor bustle, however, the standout moment centres on the face of proud mum Gladys Henson watching Clark compete in a dance-off.

This priceless snapshot of Austerity Britain at play deserves to be better known. But Crichton would seal his place in national screen history with his next outing. Fresh from the success of Basil Dearden's The Blue Lamp (1950), Tibby Clarke (who was himself an ex-copper) was asked to come up with another crime story. He hit upon the idea of a bullion robbery, but The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) was born the moment he decided to have the gang smuggle the loot abroad as Eiffel Tower paperweights. Alec Guinness earned an Oscar nomination for his performance of the milquetoast-turned-mastermind. But don't overlook the contributions of criminous cohorts Stanley Holloway, Alfie Bass and Sidney James.

Ealing Twilight

Notwithstanding The Lavender Hill Mob's critical and commercial success, Ealing didn't have an assignment for Crichton and he was loaned to Rank to make Hunted, in which Dirk Bogarde's fugitive strikes up a rapport with lonely six year-old, Jon Whiteley. Once again, the director made evocative use of his location, as well as some barges and steam engines. And trains played a crucial part when he returned to his home studio to team up with Clarke on The Titfield Thunderbolt (both 1952). The first Ealing comedy made in Technicolor, this paean to tradition in an age of railway reform covered familiar ground with customary ease. But there was a feeling in the press that such cosy insularity was out of keeping with the changing times and Clarke and Crichton didn't work together at the studio again.

He remained on the light side for The Love Lottery (1953), although this was much closer to the Rank concept of comedy than Ealing's, as exhausted film star David Niven retreats to an Italian island, only to find himself accidentally volunteering to marry the winner of a competition to spend a week as his guest. Niven is the epitome of debonair charm, while Crichton directs deftly. But, if he had been keen to spend some time in an exotic locale, the better bet might have been JM Barrie's desert island satire, The Admirable Crichton (1957), which Columbia offered to Lewis Gilbert, instead.

In fact, location shooting was required for what turned out to be Crichton's last picture for Ealing Studios, as The Divided Heart (1954) was partly filmed in the Austrian Tyrol. Based on a true story, this account of a 10 year-old adopted boy being rediscovered by the mother who was thought to have perished in a concentration camp earned BAFTAs for both Cornell Borchers and Yvonne Mitchell, as well as a special United Nations award. Cinema Paradiso users can find one of Crichton's least appreciated works on Volume 10 of the Ealing Rarities Collection. along with Walter Forde's Let's Be Famous (1939) and Saloon Bar (1940), and Robert Hamer's His Excellency (1952). You don't get bargains like that from streaming sites!

By the time Crichton made The Man in the Sky (1957) for Ealing Films, the BBC had sold the famous studios and Balcon's independent production company would prove to be a short-lived enterprise. Starring Jack Hawkins as a test pilot who is determined to save a stricken experimental plane, the story was co-written by William Rose, the American who had imparted some satirical edge to Alexander Mackendrick's Ealing gems, The Maggie (1954) and The Ladykillers (1955), having scripted the best Ealing comedy the studio didn't make, Henry Cornelius's Genevieve (1953), which was released by Rank. But, while Hawkins is on doughty form and the suspenseful mid-air drama did respectable business, it did little to bolster the 47 year-old Crichton's reputation, and he found himself without a creative home for the first time in his career.

A Spectacular Comeback

Years after his departure from Ealing, Crichton confessed, 'I felt I wanted to fly from another nest which I unsuccessfully did. I plummeted to the ground immediately, of course, and broke my bloody neck.' Like so many of the studio's alumni, he found it difficult to stand on his own creative feet, although he got off to a decent start with Law and Disorder (1958), a sprightly reworking of Denys Roberts's novel, Smugglers' Circuit, that counted Tibby Clarke among its co-writers. Given a rare chance to exhibit his comic timing, Michael Redgrave excels as a con man trying to go straight in order to avoid landing in the courtroom where his son is a judge's marshal. Yet Crichton felt the need to distance himself from comedy and try something new.

He played an active role in co-writing Floods of Fear (1958), which saw him direct a major Hollywood star for the first time in a disaster drama set around the remote American town of Lebanon. Howard Keel does his best, as a prisoner falsely accused of murder, but he is upstaged by both the torrential special effects and the assured support playing of fellow inmate Cyril Cusack and Harry H. Corbett, as a guard who survives the deluge at the nearby prison. Despite being in Blighty for almost two decades after marrying playwright Benn Levy, Constance Cummings also struggled to hold her own against that inveterate scene-stealer, Peter Sellers, in The Battle of the Sexes (1959), an adaptation of 'The Catbird Seat' by James Thurber, who will always be better known for the novel that inspired Norman Z. McLeod's Danny Kaye classic, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), which was capably remade in 2013 under the same title as a vehicle for himself by Ben Stiller.

Crichton also had a hand in writing The Boy Who Stole a Million (1960), which centres on a young boy with an after-school job at a Valencia bank who 'borrows' money to help his father repair his taxi. Bearing a tonal resemblance to Ralph Smart and Maurice Cloche's Never Take No For an Answer (1951), this would turn out to be Crichton's last comic feature for 27 years. Regardless of its lukewarm reception, however, he was invited to Hollywood to direct Burt Lancaster in Birdman of Alcatraz (1962). Despite being given reassurances by producing partner Harold Hecht that Lancaster wouldn't interfere on set, Crichton quickly came to find the situation intolerable and handed the reins to John Frankenheimer, who guided Lancaster and co-stars Telly Savalas and Thelma Ritter to Oscar nominations.

Unsettled by the experience, Crichton seemed to lost faith in the movie business and focused solely on television after following The Third Secret (1964) with He Who Rides a Tiger (1965). The latter was a star-crossed romance that paired Tom Bell and Judi Dench, while the former saw Stephen Boyd play a TV personality investigating the apparent suicide of his psychiatrist. These turned out to be Crichton's last big screen originals for almost a quarter of a century, however, as Light Entertainment Killers (1969) was cobbled together from episodes of The Avengers (1961-91) that had been directed by Crichton and James Hill, while Aliens Attack (1976) and Cosmic Princess (1982) merged episodes from Space 1999 (1975-77) that had been helmed by Crichton, Lee H. Katzin and Peter Medak.

Although the amalgamated features aren't available on disc, Crichton's episodes - 'The Interrogators' from Season 7 of The Avengers and 'War Games' and 'The Metamorph' from Seasons 2 and 1 of Space 1999 - can be found on the box sets available from Cinema Paradiso. Similarly, you can catch up with Crichton's other splendidly eclectic small-screen offerings by ordering the sharp-imaged DVDs and/or Blu-rays for Man of the World (1963), Danger Man (1964-67), Man in a Suitcase (1968), Strange Report (1968-69), Shirley's World (1972), The Protectors (1972-74), The Professionals (1977-80), Return of the Saint (1979) and Dick Turpin (1982), as well as for such kids' favourites as Here Come the Double Deckers! (1970), The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972-74) and Rentaghost (1976-84).

Frustratingly, Crichton's Gerry Anderson pilot, The Day After Tomorrow (1976), is not currently available on disc. Nor is Perishing Solicitors (1983), a teleplay that Denis Norden wrote for George Cole. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that Video Arts has never released a DVD of their best known business films. Co-founded by John Cleese, the company has coaxed some of the biggest names in British entertainment into appearing in its management training shorts and it was during their collaboration on the likes of More Bloody Meetings (1984), The Unorganised Manager (1985) and If Looks Could Kill: The Power of Behaviour (1986) that Cleese and Crichton began kicking around the ideas that would coalesce into A Fish Called Wanda (1988).

Not many directors make a comeback at the age of 78, especially after they have been away from films for 23 years. But Crichton had a ball making this dark comedy that unexpectedly turned Cleese into a sex symbol and earned Kevin Kline a Best Supporting Oscar for his turn as Otto, the screw-loose crook who tries to exploit lover Jamie Lee Curtis's contact with Cleese's strait-laced barrister. He and fellow Python Michael Palin would win BAFTAs for their work, although Crichton was somehow overlooked for Best Director, even though he was nominated for an Academy Award, making him the second oldest recipient behind 79 year-old John Huston for Prizzi's Honor (1986).

Crichton would keep making Video Arts titles like The Paper Chase (1991), with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. But his 1996 hopes of starring Joanna Lumley in a new version of Noël Coward's Hay Fever were dashed and he lost out on the chance to direct Fierce Creatures (1997) after Cleese opted to reunite with Robert Young, who had directed him and Connie Booth in the Anton Chekhov-inspired short, Romance With a Double Bass (1974). However, Crichton continued puffing contentedly on his pipe, while taking photographs and fishing until he passed away at his Kensington home on 14 September 1999.