Ken Hughes

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Kenneth Graham Hughes (born January 19, 1922 in Liverpool , † April 28, 2001 in Los Angeles , California ) was a British film director , screenwriter and film producer . He has directed over 30 feature films, including cinema productions such as William Somerset Maugham's Der Menschen bondage , Tschitti Tschitti Bang Bang or Cromwell - War of the King .

life and work

Kenneth Graham Hughes, born in Liverpool in 1922 , won an amateur film award at the age of 14 and later joined the BBC to work as a sound effects assistant. He worked as a projectionist, sound engineer and documentary filmmaker before making his first small feature film with Wide Boy in 1952 .

In the mid-1950s he became known as a competent director of low-budget films such as The Secret of the Red Ape (1954), Seven Seconds Too Late (1955), Legion of Hell (1955), Nobody Passed It (1956) or The Journey into the Abyss (1957).

In his 1960 film adaptation of Oscar Wilde, The Man with the Green Carnation in the leading roles, stars such as Peter Finch , Yvonne Mitchell and James Mason already played ; with this film he achieved his first commercial success. The international film critics also received a lot of praise. Together with Irving Allen, he was honored at the Golden Globe Awards in 1961 .

In 1964 he directed Kim Novak in an adaptation of William Somerset Maugham's "Der Menschen bondage". The film entered the race as an official competition entry at the International Film Festival in Berlin .

In 1966, Ken Hughes acted in the Tony Curtis crime comedy Arrivederci, Baby in addition to his work as a director also as a screenwriter and producer of the film. In 1967 he was one of five directors, alongside John Huston , Joseph McGrath , Val Guest and Robert Parrish , who starred in the legendary Ian Fleming James Bond parody Casino Royale starring David Niven , Peter Sellers and Woody Allen .

A year later, in 1968, he directed the musical Tschitti Tschitti Bang Bang with a star cast for Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli based on Ian Fleming's novel . It played Dick Van Dyke , Sally Ann Howes , Lionel Jeffries and Gert Frobe .

In 1970 he filmed with Richard Harris in the role of Lord Protector of England Oliver Cromwell and Alec Guinness as King Charles I the historical epic Cromwell - War for the King , which won an Oscar in the category Best Costume Design by Vittorio Nino Novarese and was nominated in the Category Best Film Music with a dramatic and outstanding music by the composer Frank Cordell .

The thriller A Man Sets a Trap followed in 1974 with James Coburn in the lead role. Two years later, the comedy Alfie, the great philanderer with singer Alan Price and Jill Townsend. After sextets, a less successful musical with Mae West and Timothy Dalton , he directed his last movie with Rachel Ward in 1981.

Ken Hughes worked in the film industry for over 50 years . He shot over 30 feature films in all genres, wrote most of the scripts for his films himself and also produced two of his films on his own responsibility, one of them for television in 1958.

When Ken Hughes died in Los Angeles on April 28, 2001 at the age of 79 , he left behind his wife Charlotte Hughes and his daughter Melinda Hughes, who lived as an opera singer in London.

reception

“Ken Hughes experienced one of the more fluctuating careers among post-war British film-makers. For most of the 1950s he was clearly marked as a director of promise, a reliable crafter of slick, lively crime thrillers. "

“Ken Hughes has had one of the typically unsteady post-war careers as a British filmmaker. For most of the 1950s he was clearly marked the Director of Promise, a reliable handyman of intelligent, lively crime novels "

- Robert Murphy, Geoff Brown, Alan Burton : - Directors in British and Irish cinema: A reference companion

Awards

Filmography (selection)

movie theater
  • 1954: The Mystery of the red apes ( Little Red Monkey )
  • 1955: Seven seconds too late ( Timeslip )
  • 1955: Legion of Hell ( Joe MacBeth )
  • 1956: No one passed her ( Wicked as They Come )
  • 1957: The journey into the abyss ( The Long Haul )
  • 1960: The Man with the Green Carnation ( The Trials of Oscar Wilde )
  • 1964: Of Human Bondage ( Of Human Bondage )
  • 1966: Arrivederci, Baby ( Drop Dead Darling )
  • 1967: Casino Royale only the Berlin sequences
  • 1968: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ( Chitty Chitty Bang Bang )
  • 1970: Cromwell - War to the King ( Cromwell )
  • 1974: A man sets a trap ( The Internecine Project ) '
  • 1976: Alfie, the maddening ladyboy ( Alfie Darling )
  • 1978: sextets
  • 1981: Terror Eyes - Der Frauenköpfer ( Night School )
watch TV
  • 1958: Sammy
  • 1963: The Gehetzte of Soho ( The Small World of Sammy Lee )
  • 1964: Espionage (2 episodes, Snow on Mount Kama , We the Hunted )

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ken Hughes in: The Rough Guide to Film , by Richard Armstrong, Tom Charity, Lloyd Hughes, Jessica Winter, Rough Guides, 2007, p. 239
  2. ↑ Ken Hughes in: Destination Hollywood: The Influence of Europeans on American Filmmaking , by Larry Langman, Mcfarland & Co Inc, 1999, p. 172
  3. ^ Obituary for Ken Hughes in: BBC News
  4. ↑ Ken Hughes in: Directors in British and Irish cinema: a reference companion , by Robert Murphy, Geoff Brown, Alan Burton, BFI, 2006, p. 306.
personal data
SURNAME Hughes, Ken
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hughes, Kenneth Graham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Liverpool , England
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 2001
Place of death Los Angeles , California , USA