Dallas Bower

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Dallas Bower (born July 25, 1907 in London , † October 18, 1999 ibid) was a British film producer , film and television director , screenwriter and filmmaker who was nominated for an Oscar in 1947 as the producer of the period film Heinrich V.

biography

Bower, named Dallas after a village in Scotland, was a British television pioneer who began his career after graduating from Willington School in Putney and Lynton House in Notting Hill Gate and St. John's College in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex , Began as a sound engineer and editor in the early 1920s . In 1929 he was involved as sound engineer in Alfred Hitchcock 's first sound film Blackmail , in which Anny Ondra played one of the main roles. Bower directed the 1934 comedy film The Path of Glory starring Maurice Evans and Valerie Hobson in Great Britain . From 1936 to 1939 he was a director at BBC-TV . At this time, the BBC presented several plays by Shakespeare in the context of experimental television , in which Bower was involved, which also established his further collaboration with Laurence Olivier , which began with the film As You Like it from 1936 (German TV title Wie es sich wie es dich ) Started. The 1938 Shakespeare adaptation about Julius Caesar was directed by Bower. This was also the case with the television film The Tempest / II, which was broadcast in England in 1939, based on the Shakespeare play The Tempest , where he worked with the choreographer Antony Tudor .

From 1940 to 1942, Bower was director of film production for the Information Department ; at BBC Radio he produced a radio version of the Russian period film Alexander Nevsky in 1941 , a key work in film music history, with Laurence Olivier and the music of William Walton . He shared his office with John Betjeman and Graham Greene . After the end of the war, he worked primarily as a freelance producer and also as a director.

In 1947 , Bower was nominated for an Oscar in the "Best Film" category as executive producer of the film drama Heinrich V. by and with Laurence Olivier . However, the award went to Samuel Goldwyn and the drama The Best Years Of Our Lives .

In the 1949 film adaptation of the French musical of the fantasy novel Alice in Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll , Bower was entrusted with the direction. He was also the one who produced the first British television spots. His last job as a producer he made from 1956 to 1957 for the adventure series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot , of which he produced 13 episodes. In 1959 he was involved as a screenwriter on the family mystery film The Secret of the Mine and in 1960 he directed the short documentary New Minds for a New Firm , his last listed work.

Bower was a member of the traditional London gentlemen's club "Savile Club" for a long time until the end of his life. He was a great-great-grandson of the eminent English theater actress Sarah Siddons . During the Second World War he was briefly an officer in the Royal Corps of Signals . He was married from 1927 to 1945 to Violet Collings, with whom he had a son and two daughters. His older daughter died before him. His son is the publisher Delian Bower.

Award

Filmography (selection)

unless otherwise stated, * producer

  • 1929: Blackmail (Blackmail) * sound engineer
  • 1930: Suspense * sound engineer
  • 1930: Under the Greenwood Tree * Sound Department
  • 1934: The Path of Glory
  • 1934: Dick Turpin * Editor
  • 1936: Television Comes to London (television documentary)
  • 1936: As You Like It * assistant director
  • 1937: Pasquinade (TV film) + * screenplay, * music department
  • 1937: Paddle Steamer: Down River in 1850 (short film)
  • 1937: Round the Film Studios (TV series, 6 episodes)
  • 1938: Tristan and Isolda (TV film) + * screenplay
  • 1938: Julius Caesar (TV film) + * director, * screenplay
  • 1939: The Tempest / II (TV film) + * director, * screenplay
  • 1944: Heinrich V.
  • 1949: Alice in Wonderland (Alice au pays des merveilles) * director, * screenplay
  • 1950: Master of Arts (TV film)
  • 1951: BBC Sunday-Night Theater (TV series, 3 episodes) + * screenplay
  • 1952: The Second Mrs. Tanqueray * Director
  • 1954: Doorway to Suspicion * Director
  • 1956, 1957: The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (TV series, 13 episodes)
  • 1959: Mystery in the Mine * Screenplay
  • 1960: New Minds for a New Firm (short documentary) * Director

Movies about Dallas Bower

  • 1969: Frost on Saturday - episode Color TV Special
  • 1995: Kino Europa - The Art of Moving Images (TV miniseries)
    • Episode: End of an Era
    • Result: Opportunity Lost

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dallas Bower adS bfi.org.uk/films
  2. ↑ a b c d e Philip Purser: Dallas Bower - Innovative spirit of television's early days, he also left his mark on films with Hitchcock and Olivier. In: The Guardian , October 20, 1999, adS theguardian.com (English). Retrieved January 4, 2018.
  3. ↑ 19th Academy Awards 1947 adS oscar-lexikon.de
  4. ↑ Obituary: Dallas Bower adS the.hitchcock.zone. Retrieved January 4, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Bower, Dallas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British film producer, film director, screenwriter and filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH London , UK
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1999
Place of death London