Frank Launder was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
writerA writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
,
directorA film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and
producerA film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, who made more than 40 films, many of them in collaboration with
Sidney GilliatSidney Gilliat was an English film director, producer and writer.He was born in the district of Edgeley in Stockport, Cheshire. In the 1930s he worked as a scriptwriter, most notably with Frank Launder on The Lady Vanishes for Alfred Hitchcock, and its sequel Night Train to Munich , directed by...
.
He was born in
HitchinHitchin is a town in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 30,360.-History:Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce people mentioned in a 7th century document, the Tribal Hidage. The tribal name is Brittonic rather than Old English and derives from *siccā, meaning...
,
HertfordshireHertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and began working as a screenwriter on British films in the 1930s, contributing the story for the classic
Will HayWilliam Thomson "Will" Hay was an English comedian, actor, film director and amateur astronomer.-Early life:He was born in Stockton-on-Tees, in north east England, to William R...
comedy
Oh, Mr Porter!Oh, Mr Porter! is a British comedy film starring Will Hay with Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt and directed by Marcel Varnel. While not his most commercially successful, it is probably his best-known film to modern audiences...
(1937). After writing a number of screenplays with Gilliat, including
The Lady VanishesThe Lady Vanishes is a 1938 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder from the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White...
(1938) and
Night Train to MunichNight Train to Munich is a 1940 British thriller film. It was directed by Carol Reed, with writing credits by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. It is liberally adapted from the Gordon Wellesley novel Report on a Fugitive.-Plot:...
, the two men produced and directed the wartime drama
Millions Like UsMillions Like Us is a 1943 British propaganda film, showing life in a wartime aircraft factory in documentary detail. It stars Patricia Roc, Eric Portman, Megs Jenkins, and Anne Crawford, was written by Sidney Gilliat, and directed by Gilliat and Frank Launder...
(1943). After founding their own production company Individual Pictures, they produced a number of memorable dramas and thrillers including
I See a Dark StrangerI See a Dark Stranger is a British 1946 World War II spy film with touches of light comedy, by the team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and starring Deborah Kerr and Trevor Howard.-Plot:...
(1945) and
Green for DangerGreen for Danger is a 1946 British thriller film, based on the popular 1944 detective novel by Christianna Brand.The book Green for Danger was praised for its clever plot, interesting characters, and wartime hospital setting. The film version, starring Alastair Sim and Trevor Howard, with Sally...
(1946), but were best known for their comedies including
The Happiest Days of Your LifeThe Happiest Days of Your Life is a 1950 British comedy film directed by Frank Launder, based on the play by John Dighton. The two men also wrote the screenplay. It's one of a stable of classic British film comedies produced by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat for British Lion Film Corporation. The...
(1950) and most famously, the St Trinians series, based on
Ronald SearleRonald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI, is a British artist and cartoonist, best known as the creator of St Trinian's School. He is also the co-author of the Molesworth series....
's cartoons set in an anarchic girls school. He was married to actress
Bernadette O'FarrellBernadette O'Farrell was an Irish actress.She is best known for playing Maid Marian in the 1950s TV version of The Adventures of Robin Hood...
from 1950 until his death in Monaco.
Selected films
- How He Lied to Her Husband
How He Lied to Her Husband is a one-act comedy play by George Bernard Shaw, who wrote it, at the request of actor Arnold Daly, over a period of four days while he was vacationing in Scotland in 1905...
(1931) co-writer
- Those Were The Days
Those were the Days is a film primarily remembered as Will Hay's first major film role. It was based on the farce The Magistrate written by playwright Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, and was the first of two Hay movies that were based Pinero's plays, the other being Dandy Dick...
(1933) writer
- Get Off My Foot
Get Off My Foot is a 1935 British comedy film, directed by William Beaudine and starring Max Miller and Chili Bouchier. It is classed as a lost film....
(1935) writer
- Educated Evans
Educated Evans is a 1936 British comedy film, directed by William Beaudine and starring Max Miller. The film, set in the world of horse racing, was based on the 1924 novel of the same name by the prolific Edgar Wallace. It is one of five films starring Miller which is not known to be extant, and...
(1936) writer
- Where's Sally?
Where's Sally? is a 1936 British comedy film, directed by Arthur B. Woods and starring Chili Bouchier, Gene Gerrard and Claude Hulbert. The film was a quota quickie production and is now believed to be lost.-Plot:...
(1936) writer
- Don't Get Me Wrong
Don't Get Me Wrong is a 1937 British comedy film, co-directed by Arthur B. Woods and Reginald Purdell and starring Max Miller and George E. Stone....
(1937) writer
- Oh, Mr Porter!
Oh, Mr Porter! is a British comedy film starring Will Hay with Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt and directed by Marcel Varnel. While not his most commercially successful, it is probably his best-known film to modern audiences...
(1937) story
- The Lady Vanishes
The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder from the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White...
(1938) writer
- Night Train to Munich
Night Train to Munich is a 1940 British thriller film. It was directed by Carol Reed, with writing credits by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. It is liberally adapted from the Gordon Wellesley novel Report on a Fugitive.-Plot:...
(1940) writer
- The Young Mr Pitt
The Young Mr Pitt is a 1942 British, black-and-white, biographical film, directed by Carol Reed and starring Robert Donat, Robert Morley and John Mills. It was produced by Edward Black, Maurice Ostrer, Twentieth Century Productions Ltd. and Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.-Synopsis:The film...
(1942) writer
- Millions Like Us
Millions Like Us is a 1943 British propaganda film, showing life in a wartime aircraft factory in documentary detail. It stars Patricia Roc, Eric Portman, Megs Jenkins, and Anne Crawford, was written by Sidney Gilliat, and directed by Gilliat and Frank Launder...
(1943) writer/director/producer
- Two Thousand Women
Two Thousand Women is a 1944 British comedy-drama war film about a camp of interned British women in Occupied France. Three RAF aircrewmen whose bomber had been shot down enter the camp and are hidden by the women from the Germans...
(1944) writer/director
- I See a Dark Stranger
I See a Dark Stranger is a British 1946 World War II spy film with touches of light comedy, by the team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and starring Deborah Kerr and Trevor Howard.-Plot:...
(1945) writer/director
- Green for Danger
Green for Danger is a 1946 British thriller film, based on the popular 1944 detective novel by Christianna Brand.The book Green for Danger was praised for its clever plot, interesting characters, and wartime hospital setting. The film version, starring Alastair Sim and Trevor Howard, with Sally...
(1946) producer
- Captain Boycott (1947) writer/director
- The Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon is a 1949 British romance and adventure film produced and directed by Frank Launder, starring Jean Simmons and Donald Houston. The screenplay was adapted by John Baines, Michael Hogan and Frank Launder from the novel The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole...
(1949) writer/director/producer
- The Happiest Days of Your Life
The Happiest Days of Your Life is a 1950 British comedy film directed by Frank Launder, based on the play by John Dighton. The two men also wrote the screenplay. It's one of a stable of classic British film comedies produced by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat for British Lion Film Corporation. The...
(1950) writer/director/producer
- Folly to be Wise
Folly to Be Wise is a 1953 British comedy film directed by Frank Launder and starring Alastair Sim, Elizabeth Allan, Roland Culver, Colin Gordon, Martita Hunt and Edward Chapman. It is based on the play It Depends What You Mean by James Bridie...
(1952) writer/director/producer
- The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan (1953) producer
- The Belles of St Trinian's
The Belles of St Trinian's is a comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School, released in 1954. It and its sequels were inspired by British cartoonist Ronald Searle. Directed by Frank Launder and written by him and Sidney Gilliat, it was the first of a series of five...
(1954) writer/director/producer
- Geordie (film)
Geordie is a 1955 British film based on David Walker's novel of the same title, with Bill Travers in the title role as a Scotsman who becomes an athlete at the Olympic Games...
(1955) co-writer/producer
- The Green Man
The Green Man is a 1956 British comedy-drama film based on the play Meet A Body by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, who produced and adapted the big-screen version.-Plot:...
(1956) writer/producer
- Blue Murder at St Trinian's
Blue Murder at St Trinian's is British comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School. Directed by Frank Launder and written by him and Sidney Gilliat, it was the second of the series of five films and stars Terry-Thomas, George Cole, Joyce Grenfell, Lionel Jeffries and Richard...
(1957) writer/director/producer
- Left Right and Centre
Left Right and Centre is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Ian Carmichael, Patricia Bredin, Richard Wattis, Eric Barker and Alastair Sim. It was produced by Frank Launder...
(1959) writer/producer
- The Bridal Path
The Bridal Path is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Frank Launder and starring Bill Travers, George Cole and Bernadette O'Farrell. It is based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Nigel Tranter...
(1959) writer/director/producer
- The Pure Hell of St Trinian's
The Pure Hell of St Trinian's was a 1960 British comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School. Directed by Frank Launder and written by him and Sidney Gilliat, it was the third in a series of five films.-Plot:...
(1960) writer/director/producer
- Joey Boy
-Biography:Born into a Thai-Chinese family, Joey Boy started listening to hip hop when he was 14 years old and skateboarding. In 1994, he was signed to Bakery Music. His first release was a self-titled EP. He recorded nine more albums with the label....
(1965) writer/director
- The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery
The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery is a British comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School, released in 1966, three years after the Great Train Robbery had taken place...
(1966) writer/director
- The Wildcats of St Trinians (1980) writer/director
External links