Arthur Crabtree

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Arthur Crabtree (born November 29, 1900 in Shipley , Yorkshire , † March 15, 1975 in Worthing , Sussex ) was a British cameraman and film director , a specialist in visual extravagant, high-profile costume and social drama of the 1940s.

Live and act

Crabtree had worked on international (photo) exhibitions from 1923 to 1928, and in 1928 he became a partner (not full membership) of the Royal Photographic Society , before starting in 1929 as a camera assistant in film.

In 1932 he became a simple camera operator, from 1935 until the end of the war he worked as chief cameraman for ten years. In this capacity he photographed a few small comedies (so-called 'quota quickies') for the Gainsborough Pictures comedies production company , mostly directed by Marcel Varnel , and two early Carol Reed productions.

With the costume romance The Lord in Gray , Crabtree was involved for the first time in a top production in the middle of the Second World War, which should prove to be a veritable box-office filler. After two more dignified plush stories from the upper class ( Dear Octopus and Gaslicht und Schatten ), he decided to continue as a director on the same, promising path.

Even his first work, the somewhat stiff Madonna of the Seven Moons , was a hit with the public, even if the " haunted story - a lady from fine English society raped during her childhood, as a result of a split in consciousness, becomes the mistress of a gypsy and thief - badly received criticism ". His next works, the sister melodrama Drei Ehen and the " crude adventurer-loves-gypsy romance " dangerous journey , set in Spain , followed the same pattern. It was only with the nested murder plan story The Perfect Murderer and the not too exciting Edgar Wallace adaptation Decision in Ascot that Crabtree changed genre. After his episode ( 'The Dragon') of the four directors-demanding Somerset Maugham film version Quartet , Crabtree's inexorable decline began simultaneously with its separation of 'Gainsborough'. He made a few more weird comedies, a handful of third-rate cheap crime novels and, most recently, in 1958, two horror films.

Crabtree's best productions are primarily characterized by their visual style, which strongly proves his origins as a cameraman, while his staging skills always revealed strong weaknesses. Often, it is reported, the main actors of his most famous successes of the 1940s had to stage their scenes largely themselves.

Filmography

camera operator

  • 1935: First Offence
  • 1936: Wedding Group
  • 1936: Good Morning, Boys
  • 1937: Said O'Reilly to McNab
  • 1937: Otto, put the brakes on (Oh, Mr. Porter!)
  • 1937: Bank Holiday
  • 1938: Old Bones of the River
  • 1938: Convict 99
  • 1939: The Frozen Limits
  • 1939: Band wagon
  • 1940: For Freedom
  • 1941: Kipps - novel of a simple person (Kipps)
  • 1941: Uncensored
  • 1942: Much Too Shy
  • 1942: King Arthur Was a Gentleman
  • 1942: The Man in Gray (The Man in Gray)
  • 1943: Dear Octopus
  • 1943: Gaslight and Shadow (Fanny by Gaslight)
  • 1944: Waterloo Road

Director

annotation

  1. ↑ a b Kay Less : The large personal dictionary of the film . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 2: C - F. John Paddy Carstairs - Peter Fritz. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 191.
  2. ↑ At http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/447106/ it says: His frequent leading lady Phyllis Calvert admitted many years later that the lead actors largely directed themselves in Crabtree's films, though his photographic background ensured that they always looked good .

literature

  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary. Volume 2, p. 191 f. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Crabtree, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British film director and cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Shipley
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1975
Place of death Worthing , Sussex