Basil Dearden

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Basil Dearden was an English film director, born Basil Dear in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, in 1911.

Dearden graduated from theatre direction to film, working as an assistant to Basil Dean. He later changed his own name to Dearden to avoid confusion with his mentor.

He first began working as a director at Ealing Studios, co-directing comedy films with Will Hay, including The Goose Steps Out (1942) and My Learned Friend (1943). In 1945, he co-directed the influential chiller compendium Dead of Night. One of his last Ealing films was The Blue Lamp (1950), a police drama which first introduced audiences to "Dixon of Dock Green".

In later years he became associated with the writer and producer Michael Relph, and the two made films on subjects not generally tackled by films in the 1950s and early-1960s. These included homosexuality (Victim) and race relations (Pool of London, Sapphire). In the late 1960s Dearden also made some big-scale epics including Khartoum, with Charlton Heston, and the Victorian era black comedy The Assassination Bureau, again for Michael Relph.

His last film was The Man Who Haunted Himself with Roger Moore, with whom he had also made some episodes of the television series The Persuaders!. Dearden was killed in a car accident in 1971.

His son is the screenwriter and director James Dearden.

[edit] Selected filmography

The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970) (writer, director)
The Assassination Bureau (1969) (director)
Only When I Larf (1968) (director)
Khartoum (1966) (director)
Masquerade (1965) (director)
Woman of Straw (1964) (director)
The Mind Benders (1963) (director)
A Place to Go (1963) (director)
Life for Ruth (1962) (director, producer)
The Secret Partner (1961) (director)
Victim (1961) (director, producer)
All Night Long (1961) (director, producer)
Man in the Moon (1960) (writer, director)
Sapphire (1959) (director)
Desert Mice (1959) (producer)
The League of Gentlemen (1959) (director)
Nowhere to Go (1958) (director)
Violent Playground (1958) (director)
Davy (1957) (producer)
Rockets Galore! (1957) (producer)
The Smallest Show on Earth (1957) (director)
Who Done It? (1956) (director, producer)
The Ship That Died of Shame (1955) (writer, director, producer)
Out of the Clouds (1955) (director)
The Rainbow Jacket (1954) (director)
The Square Ring (1953) (director, producer)
The Gentle Gunman (1952) (director)
I Believe in You (1952) (writer, director)
Pool of London (1951) (director)
Cage of Gold (1950) (director)
The Blue Lamp (1950) (director)
Train of Events (1949) (writer, director; segments "The Actor" and "The Prisoner-of-War")
Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948) (director)
Frieda (1947) (director)
The Captive Heart (1946) (director)
Dead of Night (1945) (director, segments "Hearse Driver" and "Linking Narrative")
They Came to a City (1945) (writer, director)
The Halfway House (1944) (director)
My Learned Friend (1943) (co-director)
The Bells Go Down (1943) (director)
The Goose Steps Out (1942) (co-director)
The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942) (co-director)
Turned Out Nice Again (1941) (writer, producer)
Spare a Copper (1941) (writer, producer)
Let George Do It (1940) (writer)
This Man Is News (1938) (writer)