David Lean
When Sir David Lean died in 1991, he left behind a huge home in Wapping and a reputation as a maker of some of the world’s most famous films.
Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Bridge Over The River Kwai were all big-budget, star-laden epics, and huge hits at the box office.
But it was a far cry from Lean’s humble beginnings in the business – and if it had been down to his devoutly religious parents, the most successful director the British industry has ever seen would never have got on the set.
The Croydon couple were strict Quakers who forbade the young David to go to the sinful cinema. He would sneak off from school to watch movies and dreamed of a career in films.
After throwing in a accountancy job, he became a clapper boy at Gainsborough studios. He swiftly moved to the editor’s chair, cutting documentaries and production line B-movies.
Noel Coward was at Gainsborough directing his first film and, with his keen eye for young talent, co-opted Lean to co-direct.
It couldn’t have gone better. In Which We Serve was a massive wartime hit, striking all the right notes with a patriotic British public. Coward was a film and stage star, and Lean was a winning director.
A string of hits ensued. Brief Encounter, starring Celia John-son and Trevor Howard, the Coward-scripted Blithe Spirit and This Happy Breed, followed by Great Expectations.
In the Fifties, Lean continued his dual path – the romantic themes of The Passionate Friends and Summer Madness and the patriotic harking back to the war years in the Bridge Over The River Kwai and the Sound Barrier.
Lean’s huge hits of the Sixties relied as much on great writing as tight direction.
Doctor Zhivago, shot in Spain and Finland, breathtakingly evoked the huge open spaces of the Russian Steppes, lasted nearly three and a half hours, cost a fortune and was the biggest hit of the mid-Sixties. It also boasted the heavyweight talents of novelist Boris Pasternak and screenwriter Robert Bolt.
But perhaps the movie which will stand as Lean’s masterwork was one made three years before and which, at 226 minutes, dwarfs even Zhivago.
Lawrence of Arabia, staring Peter O’Toole as the British colonel leading an Arab revolt, broke the mould.
“Traditional movie storytelling raised to its highest form,” raved one critic.
The audiences agreed and the film won seven Oscars, including best picture, best director, photography and score.
Ryan’s Daughter, in 1970, didn’t strike gold with the critics and the fans stayed away. Lean found himself out of fashion and it was difficult for him to finance the blockbusters which had been his trademark. He didn’t make another film for 14 years.
When he did, it was a triumphant return. A Passage to India in 1984 saw him writing as well as directing. It won five Oscar nominations, with Dame Peggy Ashcroft winning best supporting actress in her last film.
Lean was working on a film of Nostromo when he died – an adaptation of the novel by Joseph Conrad, who had made his home in Whitechapel a century before.
Who knows what that union of East End minds might have produced?