Clive Donner | |
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| Born | Clive Stanley Donner (1926-01-21)21 January 1926 London, England |
| Died | 6 September 2010(2010-09-06) (aged 84) Virginia Water, England |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1943–1993 |
| Spouse | |
Clive Stanley Donner (21 January 1926 – 6 September 2010)[1][2] was a British film director who was part of theBritish New Wave, directing films such asThe Caretaker,Nothing but the Best,What's New Pussycat?, andHere We Go Round the Mulberry Bush. He also directed television movies andcommercials through the mid-1990s.[1]
Donner was born inWest Hampstead, London.[3] His father was a concert violinist and his mother ran a dress shop; his grandparents were Polish-Jewish immigrants.[1] Donner began his filmmaking career while attending Kilburn Polytechnic. He began working in the film industry as a cutting-room assistant atDenham Studios, having gained the job after joining his father, who was at the studio to record the soundtrack for the filmThe Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943).[4] Donner did his eighteen months ofNational Service with theRoyal Army Educational Corps,[1] and afterwards was hired byPinewood Studios as a film editor, where the movies he worked on includedScrooge (1951), withAlastair Sim;The Card (1952), withAlec Guinness;Genevieve (1953), a comedy about a vintage car rally;The Million Pound Note (1954), withGregory Peck; andI Am a Camera (1955), withLaurence Harvey.[4]
Donner began his professional directing career on a number of low-budget films, starting withThe Secret Place (1957), a crime drama about a troubled youth, starringBelinda Lee,Ronald Lewis, andDavid McCallum. After this Donner says he turned downRooney and a film which he said was a copy ofGenevieve with gliders. Then he agreed to makeHeart of a Child (1958) a melodrama starringJean Anderson andDonald Pleasence.[5] Donner says then a new manager came in, Connery, and Rank released him from his contract.[6]
Donner directed some commercials and some short features based onEdgar Wallace novels. He didSome People (1962), a film about a group of alienated youths who form a rock band, starringKenneth More andRay Brooks. His television work during that time included episodes ofDanger Man (1960) andSir Francis Drake (1961–62), as well asMighty and Mystical, a documentary series about India.
Donner's breakthrough directing role came withThe Caretaker (1963), a film made with a low-budget funded almost entirely by financial contributions starting at £1,000 each from such individuals asRichard Burton,Noël Coward,Peter Sellers andElizabeth Taylor, with the stars bypassing their standard fees and taking shares of the film's revenue. The movie, based on the play of the same name byHarold Pinter, was filmed inblack-and-white withcinematography byNicolas Roeg.[4]
Donner's next film,Nothing but the Best (1964), was a satire on the Britishclass system starringAlan Bates andDenholm Elliott, based on a screenplay byFrederic Raphael. The film tells the story of Jimmy Brewster (played by Bates) as a lower-class striver who seeks to move up in the system under the tutelage of his upper crust instructor Charlie Prince (Elliott). The reviews "briefly turned Clive Donner into one of the hottest directors in the world."[7]
Donner's first large-budget film wasWhat's New Pussycat? (1965), an American-financed comedy shot in France, starringPeter O'Toole andPeter Sellers. O'Toole played the womanizer Michael James, who does his best to remain faithful to his fiancée Carole Werner (Romy Schneider), while numerous women –Ursula Andress,Capucine,Paula Prentiss – fall in love with him, with Sellers playing the role of his psychoanalyst, Dr. Fassbender. The success of thetitle song, performed byTom Jones, added to the motion picture's success with audiences.[4]Woody Allen, who wrote the screenplay and made his first screen appearance in the movie, hated the end result, commenting that the vision he had for the movie in his original script had been distorted.[1]
Donner's filmLuv (1967), an adaptation of theplay byMurray Schisgal, starredPeter Falk,Jack Lemmon andElaine May, but the addition of locations and characters to the original work led to criticism of the casting and direction, and the film was a commercial failure. Donner rounded out the 1960s with the 9th-century period pieceAlfred the Great (1969), starringDavid Hemmings.
In 1973, Donner's essay into theatre, directingRobert Patrick's playKennedy's Children at theKing's Head Theatre, Islington was ultimately produced internationally.
Donner directed the filmVampira (US:Old Dracula, 1974), a comedy horror film of thevampire genre that sought to piggyback on the commercial success ofYoung Frankenstein for its US release. He directed themade-for-television movieSpectre (1977), produced byGene Roddenberry.
The Nude Bomb (1980) is a comedy based on the television seriesGet Smart, which featuredDon Adams reprising his role as secret agent Maxwell Smart.[4] This was followed by the parodyCharlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981) featuringAngie Dickinson,Michelle Pfeiffer, andPeter Ustinov.[2]Stealing Heaven (1988) is acostume drama based on the 12th-century romance ofPeter Abelard andHéloïse[8] and was Donner's last theatrical film.
For television, Donner directed a film version ofThe Scarlet Pimpernel (1982) withIan McKellen andJane Seymour[2] and productions based on twoCharles Dickens novels,Oliver Twist (1982) andA Christmas Carol (1984), both starringGeorge C. Scott.[4]
Donner died at age 84 on 7 September 2010 at a care home inVirginia Water, Surrey, due to complications ofAlzheimer's disease.[3][4] His Australian wife,Jocelyn Rickards, a costume designer whom he met while working onAlfred the Great and married in 1971,[3] had died in 2005.[4]
Donner discusses the making of all his films in the bookSix English Filmmakers (2014, Paul Sutton)ISBN 978-0957246256
