Basil Dearden

Biography

Basil Dearden (1911 - 1971) was an English film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his work at Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s and, later, for socially conscious dramas. He was born Basil Clive Dear, but changed his surname to avoid confusion with his mentor, Basil Dean.

After working as Dean's assistant in theatre and film, Dearden began directing at Ealing, co-directing comedies with Will Hay. Titles such as Dead of Night and The Blue Lamp followed, and with the producer Michael Relph he formed one of the most durable partnerships in British cinema. Together they tackled subjects rarely seen at the time, including homosexuality in Victim and race relations in Sapphire, which won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film.

In the early 1960s he made large-scale productions such as Khartoum, with Charlton Heston, and he ended his career with The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970), starring Roger Moore. He died in 1971 after a car accident on the M4 motorway. Today he is valued for the craftsmanship of his films, although critics have sometimes found them lacking in ambition.

Key films

• Dead of Night (1945), a linking-story chiller on which he directed the framing narrative and one segment.
• The Blue Lamp (1950), an Ealing police drama that introduced PC George Dixon.
• Pool of London (1951), a crime film with a black lead, very rare for the period.
• Sapphire (1959), a thriller about race relations in London.
• Victim (1961), a drama about homosexuality and one of his biggest successes.
• Khartoum (1966), an epic historical film with Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier.