Val Guest | |
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| Born | Valmond Maurice Grossman (1911-12-11)11 December 1911 London, England |
| Died | 10 May 2006(2006-05-10) (aged 94) Palm Springs, California, U.S. |
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| Awards | Best British Screenplay: 1961The Day the Earth Caught Fire |
Val Guest (bornValmond Maurice Grossman; 11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer (and later director) of comedy films, he is best known for his work forHammer, for whom he directed 14 films, and for hisscience fiction films. He enjoyed a long career in the film industry from the early 1930s until the early 1980s.[1]
Guest was born to John Simon Grossman and Julia Ann Gladys Emanuel inSutherland Avenue inMaida Vale, London. He later changed his name to Val Guest (officially in 1939).[2] His father was ajute broker, and the family spent some of Guest's childhood in India before returning to England. His parents divorced when he was young, but this information was kept from him. Instead he was told that his mother had died.[3] He was educated atSeaford College in Sussex, but left in 1927 and worked for a time as a bookkeeper.
Guest's initial career was as an actor, appearing in productions in London theatres. He also appeared in a few early sound film roles, before he left acting and began a writing career.
For a time, around 1934, he was the London correspondent forThe Hollywood Reporter (when the publication began a UK edition),[4][5] before beginning work on film screenplays forGainsborough Pictures.
This came about because the directorMarcel Varnel had been incensed by comments Guest had made in his regular column, "Rambling Around", about the director's latest film. Challenged to write a screenplay by Varnel, Guest co-wrote his first script, which becameNo Monkey Business (1935) directed by Varnel.[4] This was to be the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership between the two men.[1] Guest was placed under contract as a staff writer at Gainsborough'sIslington Studios in Poole Street.[4]
Guest wrote screenplays for the rest of the decade. His credits includedAll In (1936) for Varnel;Public Nuisance No. 1 (1936);A Star Fell from Heaven (1936);O-Kay for Sound (1937) for Varnel withThe Crazy Gang;Alf's Button Afloat (1938) with Flanagan and Allen. He also wrote theWill Hay comediesOh, Mr Porter! (1937) andAsk a Policeman (1939). He wroteHi Gang! (1941) forBen Lyon andBebe Daniels.[6] Guest often worked with producer Ted Black.[7]
Guest became a fully-fledged director in the early 1940s (he had been responsible for some second-unit work previously). His first film was anArthur Askey short,The Nose Has It (1942), warning of the dangers of spreading infection.[1]
Guest's debut feature wasMiss London Ltd. (1943), again with Askey; Guest had worked on the scripts of earlier Askey films. Guest's second feature as director also starred Askey,Bees in Paradise (1944). He followed this with two films starringVic Oliver andMargaret Lockwood,Give Us the Moon (1944) andI'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945); the latter was the first and only musical from Gainsborough Studios.
Guest directed two films based on theJust William stories,Just William's Luck (1947) andWilliam Comes to Town (1948). He wrote and directed a thriller,Murder at the Windmill (1949).
Guest then made the comedyMiss Pilgrim's Progress (1949) withYolande Donlan, who became his wife in 1954. The two reunited onThe Body Said No! (1950);Mister Drake's Duck (1951), withDouglas Fairbanks Jr.; andPenny Princess (1952) withDirk Bogarde.
Guest began an association with Hammer films when he directedThe Men of Sherwood Forest (1954). AfterThe Runaway Bus (1955) withFrankie Howerd he madeLife with the Lyons (1955) with Daniels and Lyon, a spin off of their radio show. It was popular enough for Guest to make a sequelThe Lyons in Paris (1955).
He did a thrillerBreak in the Circle (1954) andDance, Little Lady (1954).
Despite his career in comedy films, he was offered the chance to direct Hammer's firstQuatermass film, adapted from the BBC television serial byNigel Kneale. Uncertain about taking it on, (he was not a fan of science fiction), he was persuaded to do so by his wife, Yolande Donlan. Guest shotThe Quatermass Xperiment (1955) as though it was a television documentary.[8] Its success led to the Hammer company changing its direction.
He followed it with a dramaThey Can't Hang Me (1955) and musicalIt's a Wonderful World (1956). Republic Pictures hired him to make the thrillerThe Weapon (1956) and he directed a comedy,Carry On Admiral (1957).
Quatermass had been a big hit and Hammer asked Guest to direct the first sequel,Quatermass 2 (1957). They also used him to doThe Abominable Snowman (1957), from a Kneale TV play, and a POW movie,The Camp on Blood Island (1958).
Guest made a comedyUp the Creek which led to a sequelFurther Up the Creek (1958).
Hammer asked him back to do another war movie,Yesterday's Enemy (1959) withStanley Baker. Then he made the film version ofExpresso Bongo (1959) with Donlan, giving an early role toCliff Richard.
Guest returned to comedy withLife Is a Circus (1960) starringBud Flanagan. He made another for Hammer with Stanley Baker, a tough crime film,Hell Is a City (1960). He followed this with a thriller for Hammer,The Full Treatment (1960).
Guest's next film,The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), won Guest andWolf Mankowitz aBAFTA Award for Best Screenplay.[9]
Guest madeJigsaw (1962) and80,000 Suspects (1963).The Beauty Jungle (1964) was an exposé on beauty competitions.[10]Where the Spies Are (1965) was a spy film for MGM starringDavid Niven.
Guest was one of five credited directors to work on the spoofJames Bond filmCasino Royale (1967), a critically mauled picture in its day. ProducerCharles K. Feldman asked Guest if he would direct linking material to make what was left uncompleted, after the departure ofPeter Sellers from the project, into a coherent narrative. Guest opted for an 'Additional Sequences' credit after he saw the completed film.
He made a thrillerAssignment K (1968) then a musicalToomorrow (1970) which, according to Christopher Hawtree, it is "a staggeringly dreadful movie".[6] Guest issued an injunction againstHarry Saltzman, the producer, because he had not been paid for his work, and the film was quickly pulled from screenings.[4] Around the same time, Guest wrote and directedWhen Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) for Hammer.[11]
Guest directed the softcore sex comedyAu Pair Girls (1972), followed byConfessions of a Window Cleaner (1974), the first of theConfessions series of sex comedies. He was also working in television, directing episodes of series includingThe Persuaders! (1971–72),The Adventurer (1972–73) andSpace: 1999 (1976–77).[12] He continued to direct films, includingKiller Force (1976).
Guest's final feature film work was writing and directingThe Boys in Blue (1982), a vehicle for the British comedy double actCannon and Ball. It was a remake of the Will Hay pictureAsk a Policeman (1939), which Guest had co-written.[6][13] In 2001 he published an autobiography,So You Want to be in Pictures.[14]
His last professional work was as the director of several episodes of theHammer House of Mystery and Suspense TV series in 1984 and 1985.[4]
Originally married to Pat Watson, the couple divorced after Guest fell in love with American actressYolande Donlan who eventually became his wife in 1954; Donlan appeared in eight of his films during the 1950s.[15] After Guest retired in 1985, the couple lived together in retirement in California.[6]
In 2004, a Golden Palm Star on thePalm Springs, California,Walk of Stars was dedicated to Guest and Donlan.[16] Guest died in a hospice inPalm Desert, California fromprostate cancer at the age of 94.[12]
