Chichester Cinema at New Park

A Selective Retrospective of films by director Lewis Gilbert.

LEWIS GILBERT







88 years ago, aged four, Lewis Gilbert danced on the variety stage, a golden haired tot, milking applause for his parent’s act. After his father’s premature death in 1927, he became the family breadwinner as a boy actor in films with Victor McLaglen, Will Hay, Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon and Ralph Richardson. Aged 17, following a career defining talk with producer, Alexander Korda, he moved behind the camera as third assistant director. With the Second World War looming, he assisted Alfred Hitchcock directing Charles Laughton in the last British film Hitchcock was to make before leaving for Hollywood, ‘Jamaica Inn’.
During the war, he was seconded to the Hollywood director, William Keighley, boss of the US Army Air Corps’ film unit. Keighley, hating the cold, asked his young assistant to go out and shoot scenes for the documentary, ‘Target for Today’. It was Lewis’s first directing job.
After the war, he embarked on a career which led him to direct 40 features of nearly all genres, including ‘Carve her Name with Pride’, ‘Sink the Bismarck!’, ‘Alfie’, ‘Educating Rita’, ‘Shirley Valentine’ and three James Bonds. The following notes for each film were compiled jointly by Lewis Gilbert and his official biographer Peter Rankin.

Special Offer: Book for all 6 films + talk for £30.