Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for ''
Odd Man Out
''Odd Man Out'' is a 1947 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, and starring James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, and Kathleen Ryan. Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it follows a wounded Nationalist leader who attempts to evade polic ...
'' (1947), ''
The Fallen Idol'' (1948), ''
The Third Man
''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotten ...
'' (1949), and ''
Oliver!'' (1968),
for which he was awarded the
Academy Award for Best Director.
''Odd Man Out'' was the first recipient of the
BAFTA Award for Best British Film
The BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film is given annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts presented at the British Academy Film Awards. The award was first given at the 1st British Academy Film Awards, first recognising the ...
. ''The Fallen Idol'' won the second BAFTA Award for Best British Film. The
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
voted ''The Third Man'' the
greatest British film of the 20th century.
Early life and career
Carol Reed was born in
Putney
Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
History
Putney is an ancient paris ...
, southwest London.
[Philip Kem]
"Reed, Carol (1906-1976)"
''Reference Guide to British and Irish Film Director'', reprinted at BFI Screenonline. The
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
' has Wandsworth, London as Reed's place of birth. He was the son of actor-producer
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English actor and theatre manager.
Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous progr ...
and his
mistress
Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to:
Romance and relationships
* Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a ...
, Beatrice May Pinney, who later adopted the surname of Reed. He was educated at
The King's School, Canterbury
The King's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for 13 to 18 year old pupils) in Canterbury, Kent, England. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group. It is Britain's ...
.
He embarked on an acting career while still in his late teens. A period in the theatrical company of the thriller writer
Edgar Wallace
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer.
Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was a war correspondent during th ...
followed, and Reed became his personal assistant in 1927.
[Trevor Hog]
"A Great Reed: A Carol Reed Profile (Part 1)"
''Flickering Myth'', 21 October 2009 Apart from acting in a few Wallace derived films himself, Reed became involved in adapting his work for the screen during the day while he was a stage manager in the evenings. This connection ended when Wallace died in February 1932. Taken on by
Basil Dean
Basil Herbert Dean CBE (27 September 1888 – 22 April 1978) was an English actor, writer, producer and director in the theatre and in cinema. He founded the Liverpool Repertory Company in 1911 and in the First World War, after organising unof ...
, Reed worked for his
Associated Talking Pictures Associated may refer to:
*Associated, former name of Avon, Contra Costa County, California
* Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto, a school in Canada
*Associated Newspapers, former name of DMG Media, a British publishing company
See also
*Associat ...
, successively for ATP as a dialogue director, second-unit director and then assistant director.
His films in the later role working under Dean were ''
Autumn Crocus'', ''
Lorna Doone
''Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor'' is a novel by English author Richard Doddridge Blackmore, published in 1869. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly ar ...
'' and ''
Loyalties'' and (with
Thorold Dickinson
Thorold Barron Dickinson (16 November 1903 – 14 April 1984) was a British film director, screenwriter, film editor, film producer, and Britain's first university professor of film. Dickinson's work received much praise, with fellow directo ...
) ''
Java Head
Tanjung Layar, formerly Java's Eerste Punt in Dutch, and Java's First Point, or Java Head in English is a prominent cape at the extreme western end of Java, at the Indian Ocean entrance to the Sunda Strait. Java Head is a bluff at the sea's ed ...
''.
Early films
His earliest films as director were "
quota quickies
Quota may refer to:
Economics
* Import quota, a trade restriction on the quantity of goods imported into a country
* Market Sharing Quota, an economic system used in Canadian agriculture
* Milk quota, a quota on milk production in Europe
* Indi ...
". Of his experience making ''
Midshipman Easy'' (1935) his first solo directorial project he was harsh on himself. "I was indefinite and indecisive", he said later. "I thought I had picked up a lot about cutting and camera angles, but now, when I had to make all the decisions myself and was not just mentally approving or criticising what somebody else decided, I was pretty much lost. Fortunately, I realised that this was the only way to learn – by making mistakes."
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
, then reviewing films for ''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
'', was much more forgiving, commenting that Reed "has more sense of the cinema than most veteran British directors". Of Reed's comedy ''
Laburnum Grove'' (1936), he wrote: "Here at last is an English film one can unreservedly praise". He was perceptive about Reed's potential, describing the film as "thoroughly workmanlike and unpretentious, with just the hint of a personal manner which makes one believe that Mr. Reed, when he gets the right script, will prove far more than efficient."
Reed's career began to develop with ''
The Stars Look Down
''The Stars Look Down'' is a 1935 novel by A. J. Cronin which chronicles various injustices in an English coal mining community. A film version was released in 1940, and television adaptations include both Italian (1971) and British (1975) ve ...
'' (1940), from the
A. J. Cronin
Archibald Joseph Cronin (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981), known as A. J. Cronin, was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel is ''The Citadel'' (1937), about a Scottish doctor who serves in a Welsh mining village before achievi ...
novel, which features
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author. He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Mourning Becomes Elec ...
in the lead role. Greene wrote that Reed "has at last had his chance and magnificently taken it." He observed that "one forgets the casting altogether: he
eedhandles his players like a master, so that one remembers them only as people."
War years
The scripts of several of Reed's films in this period were written by
Frank Launder
Frank Launder (28 January 1906 – 23 February 1997) was a British writer, film director and producer, who made more than 40 films, many of them in collaboration with Sidney Gilliat.
Early life and career
He was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire ...
and
Sidney Gilliat, with the screenwriters and director working for producer
Edward Black, who released through the British subsidiary of
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
. The best known of these films are probably ''
Night Train to Munich
''Night Train to Munich'' is a 1940 British-American thriller film directed by Carol Reed and starring Margaret Lockwood and Rex Harrison. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, based on the 1939 short story ''Report on a Fugitive'' by Go ...
'' (1940), with
Rex Harrison; ''
Kipps
''Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul'' is a novel by H. G. Wells, first published in 1905. It was reportedly Wells's own favourite among his works, and it has been adapted for stage, cinema and television productions, including the musical '' ...
'' (1941), again with Michael Redgrave; and ''
The Young Mr. Pitt'' (1942), with
Robert Donat
Friedrich Robert Donat (18 March 1905 – 9 June 1958) was an English actor. He is best remembered for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's '' The 39 Steps'' (1935) and '' Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1939), winning for the latter the Academy Award f ...
in the title role, set during the
French Revolutionary
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...
and
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
.
From 1942, Reed served in the
Royal Army Ordnance Corps
The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equip ...
: he was granted the rank of Captain and placed with the film unit, and then with the Directorate of Army Psychiatry. For the latter body a training film, ''The New Lot'' (1943), was made, recounting the experiences of five new recruits. It had a script by
Eric Ambler
Eric Clifford Ambler OBE (28 June 1909 – 22 October 1998) was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels, who introduced a new realism to the genre. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for book ...
and
Peter Ustinov, with contributions from Reed, and was produced by
Thorold Dickinson
Thorold Barron Dickinson (16 November 1903 – 14 April 1984) was a British film director, screenwriter, film editor, film producer, and Britain's first university professor of film. Dickinson's work received much praise, with fellow directo ...
. It was remade as ''
The Way Ahead
''The Way Ahead'' (also known as ''Immortal Battalion'') (1944) is a British Second World War drama film directed by Carol Reed. The screenplay was written by Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov. The film stars David Niven, Stanley Holloway and Willi ...
'' (1944).
Post-war
Reed made his three most highly regarded films just after the war, beginning with ''
Odd Man Out
''Odd Man Out'' is a 1947 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, and starring James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, and Kathleen Ryan. Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it follows a wounded Nationalist leader who attempts to evade polic ...
'' (1947), with
James Mason in the lead. It is the tale of an injured IRA leader's last hours in an unidentified Northern Irish city. In fact,
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
was used for the location work, but it remains unnamed in the film. Filmmaker
Roman Polanski
Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a ( né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, tw ...
has repeatedly cited it as his favourite film.
It was the producer
Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)[Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...](_blank)
.
[Trevor Hog]
"A Great Reed: A Carol Reed Profile (Part 2)"
''Flickering Myths'', 28 October 2009 The next two films were made from screenplays by Greene: ''
The Fallen Idol'' (1948) and ''
The Third Man
''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotten ...
'' (1949).
''The Third Man'' was co-produced by
David O. Selznick and Korda, with the American actors
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
and
Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of '' The Philadelphia Story'' and '' Sab ...
in two of the leading roles. Reed insisted on casting Welles as Harry Lime, although Selznick had wanted
Noël Coward for the role. The film required six weeks of location work in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, during which Reed by chance discovered
Anton Karas
Anton Karl Karas (7 July 1906 – 10 January 1985) was an Austrian zither player and composer, best known for his internationally famous 1948 soundtrack to Carol Reed's ''The Third Man''. His association with the film came about as a result of ...
, the zither player who became responsible for the film's music, in a courtyard outside a small Viennese restaurant.
Reed once said: "A picture should end as it has to. I don't think anything in life ends 'right'". While Greene wanted Holly Martins (Cotten) and Anna Schmidt (
Alida Valli
Alida Maria Laura, '' Freiin'' Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg (31 May 1921 – 22 April 2006), better known by her stage name Alida Valli (or simply Valli), was an Italian actress who appeared in more than 100 films in a 70-year career, ...
) to reconcile at the end of the film, after Lime, her lover, is killed by Martins, Reed insisted that Anna should ignore him and walk on. "The whole point of the Valli character in that film is that she'd experienced a fatal love – and then comes along this silly American!"
According to the film critic
Derek Malcolm
Derek Elliston Michael Malcolm (born 12 May 1932) is an English film critic.
Son of J. Douglas Malcolm (died 1967) and Dorothy Vera (died 1964; née Elliston-Taylor), Malcolm was educated at Eton College and Merton College, Oxford. As a child h ...
, ''The Third Man'' is the "best film noir ever made out of Britain".
The film won the Grand Prix at the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
,
the predecessor of the
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
.
Later career
''
Outcast of the Islands'' (1952), based on a novel by
Joseph Conrad, is considered by some to mark the start of his creative decline. ''
The Man Between
''The Man Between'' (also known as ''Berlin Story'') is a 1953 British thriller film directed by Carol Reed and starring James Mason, Claire Bloom and Hildegard Knef. The screenplay concerns a British woman on a visit to post-war Berlin, who is ...
'' (1953) is dismissed as a rehash of ''The Third Man''.
It "makes no startling impact, such as we have learned to expect from its director, on either the mind or the heart", complained Virginia Graham in ''The Spectator''. While the fable ''
A Kid for Two Farthings'' (1955), Reed's first colour film, set in the
East End of London, has been claimed as one of very few authentic cinematic depictions of an Anglo-Jewish community,
[Michael Brook]
"''Kid for Two Farthings, A'' (1955)"
BFI Screenonline it suffers from the stereotyping of Jews and is no more than a "whimsical curiosity" according to Michael Brooke.
It was the last film Reed made for Korda's
London Films
London Films Productions is a British film and television production company founded in 1932 by Alexander Korda and from 1936 based at Denham Film Studios in Buckinghamshire, near London. The company's productions included ''The Private Life o ...
; the producer died at the beginning of 1956.
''
Trapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a ceiling support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances. Trapeze acts may be static, spinning (rigged from a single point), swinging or flying, an ...
'' (1956) was Reed's first venture into the then relatively new
CinemaScope wide screen process, and, although largely shot in Paris, was made for the US
Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions
Hecht-Hill-Lancaster was a production company formed by the actor Burt Lancaster in association with his agent, Harold Hecht, and James Hill. In 1948 Lancaster and Hecht formed Norma Productions (named after his wife), which later became Hecht-L ...
company and was a success at the box-office. ''
Our Man in Havana'' (1959) reunited him with Graham Greene who adapted his own novel.
He was contracted to direct a remake of ''
Mutiny on the Bounty
The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set h ...
'' (1962) by
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
, but then
Marlon Brando was cast as
Fletcher Christian
Fletcher Christian (25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was master's mate on board HMS ''Bounty'' during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti during 1787–1789 for breadfruit plants. In the mutiny on the ''Bounty'', Christian se ...
, and problems with the mock ''Bounty'' and the weather at the locations caused delays. Brando had insisted on creative control, and the two men argued incessantly. Reed left at a relatively early stage of production and was replaced by
Lewis Milestone
Lewis Milestone (born Leib Milstein (Russian: Лейб Мильштейн); September 30, 1895 – September 25, 1980) was a Moldovan-American film director. He is known for directing '' Two Arabian Knights'' (1927) and ''All Quiet on the Weste ...
. ''
The Agony and the Ecstasy'' (1965), made in the United States, was a box-office failure, and was the last film over which Reed also served as producer. ''
Oliver!'' (1968), made at
Shepperton
Shepperton is an urban village in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, approximately south west of central London. Shepperton is equidistant between the towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Thames. The village is mentioned in a document of 959 AD ...
in
Surrey, was financially backed by
Columbia, and won the
Academy Award for Best Director. "The movie may have been over-produced but it seemed everyone liked it that way", writes Thomas Hischak.
Personal life
![213 and 215 King's Road 05](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/213_and_215_King%27s_Road_05.JPG)
From 1943 until 1947, he was married to the British actress
Diana Wynyard
Diana Wynyard, CBE (born Dorothy Isobel Cox; 16 January 1906 – 13 May 1964) was an English stage and film actress.
Life and career
Born in Lewisham, South London, Wynyard began her career on the stage. After performing in Liverpool and Lon ...
. After their divorce, he married in 1948 the actress
Penelope Dudley-Ward
Penelope Ann Rachel, Lady Reed (born Penelope Anne Rachel Dudley Ward; 4 August 1914 – 21 January 1982), known as Penelope Dudley-Ward, was an English actress.
Born in London, she was the elder daughter of William Dudley Ward and the lead ...
, also known as Pempie, the elder daughter of
Freda Dudley Ward, who had been a mistress of Edward,
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
(later
King Edward VIII
Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 19 ...
, then Duke of Windsor). They had one son, Max. His stepdaughter
Tracy Reed, Ward's daughter, also had an acting career.
Actor
Oliver Reed
Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. After making his first significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early 1960s, his ...
was his nephew.
In 1952, he became only the second
British film director to be knighted for his craft. The first was Sir
Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)[heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...](_blank)
on 25 April 1976, aged 69, at his home at
213 King's Road,
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
, where he had lived since 1948. He is buried in
Kensington Cemetery,
Gunnersbury
Gunnersbury is an area of West London, England.
Toponymy
The name "Gunnersbury" means "Manor house of a woman called Gunnhildr", and is from an old Scandinavian personal name + Middle English -''bury'', manor or manor house.
Development
Gunne ...
, West London. A
blue plaque has been placed on his former home in his honour.
Filmography
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, Carol
1906 births
1976 deaths
Military personnel from London
English film directors
English film producers
Beerbohm family
Best Directing Academy Award winners
British Army personnel of World War II
English people of German descent
English people of Lithuanian descent
Knights Bachelor
People educated at The King's School, Canterbury
People from Putney
Directors of Palme d'Or winners
20th-century English businesspeople
Royal Army Ordnance Corps officers
King's Road, Chelsea, London