Thorold Dickinson

Thorold Dickinson (born November 16, 1903 in Bristol , † April 14, 1984 in Woolton Hill , County Hampshire ) was a British director of feature and documentary films.

Life

Dickinson had already developed organizational talent while still a student at Oxford and performed plays on the student stage. Until he with in Africa gambling thriller The High Command learned Dickinson could turn 1936 his first feature film alone staged, the craft from scratch. He worked as an assistant director , screenwriter and film editor . From 1930 to 1936 he was only a second director under the guidance of more experienced colleagues such as Maurice Elvey . He landed his first major success in 1940 with the atmospheric thriller Gaslicht , which featured top-class Adolf Wohlbrück and Diana Wynyard . Dickinson then received an offer to shoot a biography of the Jewish-British politician Sir Benjamin Disraeli in 1940 . The Prime Minister with John Gielgud in the title role was not only a respectable directing achievement, but also deliberately set a clear example against the anti-Semitism of the war opponent Germany. Right after turning it Dickinson the propaganda film The next of kin ( Next of Kin ).

After a long break, Thorold Dickinson resumed directing as soon as the war ended. The first project was again a story set in Africa, the melodrama Zwei Welten . With the Pushkin film adaptation of the Queen of Spades he succeeded in his most successful late work, with which Dickinson once again demonstrated his feeling for atmosphere and acting. In 1954 Thorold Dickinson went to Israel and made a patriotic feature film about an episode from the time of the War of Independence against the Arab aggressors (1948) under the title Height 24 does not answer .

Between his pretentious, often committed feature film projects, Dickinson repeatedly made documentaries that had a completely different style. In 1955 he gave up directing a feature film and was appointed head of the UN Press and Information Office the following year . Prior to resigning from this position in 1960, Thorold Dickinson oversaw two informative documentaries for this world organization. One of them, Overture / Ouverture , earned him an Oscar nomination in 1959 .

Dickinson also held various official posts. In 1952/53 he chaired the British Film Academy , from 1958 to 1966 he was President of the International Federation of Film Societies . In 1967 he began teaching (film theory) at London University . In the same year he was jury president at the Berlinale .

Filmography

• 1930: School for Scandal
• 1932: Shikari
• 1932: The First Mrs. Fraser
• 1933: Loyalties
• 1934: Java Head
• 1936: Calling the Tune
• 1936: The High Command
• 1938: Spanish ABC (short documentary film)
• 1939: The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
• 1940: Gaslight ( Gaslight )
• 1940: Yesterday is Over Your Shoulder (short documentary film)
• 1940: The Prime Minister ( The Prime Minister )
• 1941: The Next of Kin (also script collaboration)
• 1946: Men of Two Worlds (also screenplay collaboration)
• 1948: Pique Dame ( The Queen of Spades )
• 1951: Die Verblendeten ( Secret People ) (also screenplay collaboration)
• 1954: Höhe 24 does not answer ( Hill 24 Doesn't Answer ) (also coproduction)
• 1958: Overture / Ouverture (short documentary for the UNO)
• 1959: Power Among Men (short documentary for the UNO)

literature

• Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . 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. 385.

Web links

• Thorold Dickinson in the Internet Movie Database (English)