Directing

Pat Jackson

Born 1916-03-26 · Eltham, London, England, UK

Patrick Douglas Selmes Jackson (26 March 1916 – 3 June 2011) was an English film and television director. Born in Eltham, to a formerly affluent family which was severely affected by the Wall Street Crash in 1929, and his father's long-term illness and early death ending Jackson's formal education. He joined the GPO Film Unit on his 17th birthday as a messenger boy after his mother persuaded her MP, Sir Kingsley Wood, then also postmaster general, to find work for her son. Rising to production assistant, he was part of the crew for the short film Night Mail (1936). The voice narrating the poem by W.H. Auden ("This is the Night Mail crossing the border, bringing the cheque and the postal order.") was Jackson himself. He directed a number of documentaries, the first being The Horsey Mail (1938) about the rural postal service in Suffolk. The First Days (1939), co-directed by Harry Watt and Humphrey Jennings, was the first of the wartime documentaries, in this instance concerned with the 'Phoney War' period. Jackson's debut feature film was Western Approaches (1944), a semi-documentary war film for what was now the Ministry of Information's Crown Film Unit. For what became a three-year project, Jackson took on the writing, direction, editing and casting (of non-professional actors) a film about merchant seamen. Featuring an extended period on location at sea, the lifeboat sequences alone took six-months to complete. After the war, Jackson spent three years in Hollywood under contract to MGM, although the only film he directed during this period was Shadow on the Wall (1950), based on the novel Death in the Doll's House by Lawrence P. Bachmann and Hannah Leessuch. His film Encore (1951) was in competition at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival . White Corridors (1951), a semi-documentary drama about a hospital in the regions, was critically well received at the time. What a Carve Up! (1961), a film in the old dark house genre, was the most commercially successful of Jackson's later feature films. Jackson worked in television during the 1960s and 1970s. Impressed by the stage work of Patrick McGoohan, he seems to have been involved in casting him for Danger Man (US:Secret Agent), episodes of which he directed. Apart from McGoohan's The Prisoner (1967), he was also involved with episodes of The Saint and The Professionals. Jackson died on 3 June 2011 aged 95.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Builders poster
NR

A short film about how builders help contribute to the war effort.

Builders

1942

Western Approaches poster
6.4

A World War II drama-documentary showing the struggles of Merchant Navy seamen following an attack by a U-Boat. Western Approaches is a vast area of ocean control covering thousands of square miles of the Atlantic. In these waters is set this single incident in the fiercest and longest sea battle in history. The players are not professional actors but serving officers and men of Allied Navies and Merchant Fleets. This film is dedicated to them and their comrades who made the Allied victory possible.

Western Approaches

1944

Western Approaches poster
6.4

A World War II drama-documentary showing the struggles of Merchant Navy seamen following an attack by a U-Boat. Western Approaches is a vast area of ocean control covering thousands of square miles of the Atlantic. In these waters is set this single incident in the fiercest and longest sea battle in history. The players are not professional actors but serving officers and men of Allied Navies and Merchant Fleets. This film is dedicated to them and their comrades who made the Allied victory possible.

Western Approaches

1944

Ferry Pilot poster
5.0

Focuses on the work of the Air Transport Auxiliary or ATA. By 1941, literally hundreds of RAF fighters and bombers needed to be flown each day between aircraft factories, maintenance depots and RAF aerodromes. This vital task was carried out by the men and women of the ATA, a civilian air force operating from their own pools and stations all over Britain. Essentially a dramatised account of typical ATA deliveries, the film features coverage of the ATA's own fleet of Ansons, as well as being notable for some excellent Spitfire film and very rare footage of the Whitley bomber, including take off and in-cockpit sequences.

Ferry Pilot

1942

Encore poster
6.2

Encore is a 1951 anthology film composed of adaptations of three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham: "The Ant and the Grasshopper", directed by Pat Jackson and adapted by T. E. B. Clarke; "Winter Cruise", helmed by Anthony Pelissier, screenplay by Arthur Macrae; "Gigolo and Gigolette", directed by Harold French, written by Eric Ambler. It is the last film in a Maugham trilogy, preceded by Quartet and Trio.

Encore

1951

Shadow on the Wall poster
6.7

Angered that her sister Celia has stolen her fiance, Dell Faring kills her and allows Celia's husband David, knocked out in an argument with Celia, to take the blame and end up on death row. Later Dell, finding out that David's young daughter Susan was witness to the crime and is undergoing psychiatric treatment, plans to eliminate her before her memory returns.

Shadow on the Wall

1950

White Corridors poster
6.8

White Corridors was based on Yeoman Hospital, a novel by Helen Ashton. Told episodically, the story concentrates on the day-to-day activities in a busy hospital, where research pathologist Neil Marriner (James Donald) conducts experiments in the hopes of curing diseases impervious to penicillin. Marriner is aided in this endeavor by lady surgeon Dr. Sophie Dean (Googie Withers), who happens to be in love with him. After a tragedy occurs for which Marriner holds himself responsible, the film builds steadily to an exciting climax involving a untested -- and potentially dangerous -- serum. The top-rank British supporting cast includes Barry Jones, Moira Lister, Petula Clark, Basil Radford, Dagmar (later Dana) Wynter, Bernard Lee, and, in a minor role, future "Dr. Who" Patrick Troughton.

White Corridors

1951

White Corridors poster
6.8

White Corridors was based on Yeoman Hospital, a novel by Helen Ashton. Told episodically, the story concentrates on the day-to-day activities in a busy hospital, where research pathologist Neil Marriner (James Donald) conducts experiments in the hopes of curing diseases impervious to penicillin. Marriner is aided in this endeavor by lady surgeon Dr. Sophie Dean (Googie Withers), who happens to be in love with him. After a tragedy occurs for which Marriner holds himself responsible, the film builds steadily to an exciting climax involving a untested -- and potentially dangerous -- serum. The top-rank British supporting cast includes Barry Jones, Moira Lister, Petula Clark, Basil Radford, Dagmar (later Dana) Wynter, Bernard Lee, and, in a minor role, future "Dr. Who" Patrick Troughton.

White Corridors

1951

What a Carve Up! poster
7.0

Ernie's Uncle Gabriel has just died but to claim his inheritance he must spend the night in the ancestral family home with the rest of his rather eccentric relatives. Ernie's imagination has been affected by his constant immersion in cheap horror novels, but his wildest fears turn out to be justified when the guests begin to drop dead.

What a Carve Up!

1961

The Birthday Present poster
7.3

Returning from a business trip, toy salesman Simon Scott is caught attempting to smuggle a wristwatch bought for his wife's birthday through Customs. He is arrested and, due to a bungled defence by his solicitor, obliged to serve a three-month prison sentence. It is only the beginning of his woes; his employer, Colonel Wilson, is understanding, but he is ultimately forced to sack Simon, who discovers that finding another job under such circumstances is extremely difficult. But Colonel Wilson is determined to help his former employee find a solution.

The Birthday Present

1957

Seven Keys poster
6.9

Convict Russell is bequeathed a set of seven keys by a fellow prisoner. After discovering that the deceased embezzled an unrecovered £20,000, Russell sets out to find the cash after finishing his sentence. However, he must first solve the mystery of which locks the keys fit, and run the gauntlet of the police and gangsters who are after him and the money.

Seven Keys

1961

King Arthur, the Young Warlord poster
7.0

This is the inspiring, epic journey of a noble warrior's quest to prove his worth, his might, and his destined fate to become the next ruler of Britain.

King Arthur, the Young Warlord

1975

The Feminine Touch poster
6.8

Following a group of five very different student nurses during their first year of training at an NHS hospital in London called St. Augustine’s Hospital (filmed at Guy's Hospital), where they live in a dormitory. Susan (Belinda Lee) is reliable and sensible; Pat (Delphi Lawrence) is flighty and open; Maureen (Adrienne Corri) is Irish and loud; Ann (Henryetta Edwards) is a typical public school girl; and Liz (Barbara Archer) comes from a typical working class background. As they get to know each other, they bond in spite of their differences.

The Feminine Touch

1956

Virgin Island poster
6.3

A British woman marries an American writer in spite of her family's disapproval and goes to live with him on a tropical island.

Virgin Island

1959

Virgin Island poster
6.3

A British woman marries an American writer in spite of her family's disapproval and goes to live with him on a tropical island.

Virgin Island

1959

Snowball poster
7.4

A boy tells his parents that a bus conductor turned him off the bus home for not having a ticket. The story gets out of control and the conductor, a war veteran with memory problems, is harassed until events take a tragic turn.

Snowball

1960

To Chase A Million poster
7.0

When former Russian spy Max Stein is murdered, private investigator McGill inherits a key to a safe deposit box in a Lisbon bank – a box that contains secret intelligence documents and a cool million dollars! With both the CIA and rogue elements within the Russian intelligence community in hot pursuit, McGill puts his life on the line in a race to the fortune! Featuring a powerful performance from Richard Bradford as McGill, a discredited ex-CIA agent reduced to working as a private investigator, To Chase a Million is the exceptionally rare, feature-length version of the Man in a Suitcase two-parter Variation on a Million Bucks.

To Chase A Million

1967

Seventy Deadly Pills poster
7.5

A small boy, Dickie Goodwin, finds some strychnine pills mixed with sweets in a stolen car left in a deserted garage. With them he buys his way into the Rocket Gang. Brian, the leader, shares out the pills for swaps next day. One of the gang eats hers and collapses. The police frantically search for the pills and a broadcast appeal is made. Brian hears this and reaches the gang at Battersea funfair just in time to save them.

Seventy Deadly Pills

1963

Seventy Deadly Pills poster
7.5

A small boy, Dickie Goodwin, finds some strychnine pills mixed with sweets in a stolen car left in a deserted garage. With them he buys his way into the Rocket Gang. Brian, the leader, shares out the pills for swaps next day. One of the gang eats hers and collapses. The police frantically search for the pills and a broadcast appeal is made. Brian hears this and reaches the gang at Battersea funfair just in time to save them.

Seventy Deadly Pills

1963

Don't Talk to Strange Men poster
6.8

An innocent girl is "groomed" over the telephone, and nearly becomes the victim of an attacker.

Don't Talk to Strange Men

1962

The First Days poster
7.0

Londoners prepare for war.

The First Days

1939

The Stable Door poster
NR

This is a film made as an elaborate advert for the Insurance Industry. A group of criminals conspire to rob a warehouse which has also been spotted as a vulnerable target by an insurance salesman who suggests precautions, including buying insurance. Will the works be done in time and sufficient to stop the robbers?

The Stable Door

1966

Something Money Can't Buy poster
5.7

A British Army Officer returning to civilian life after WWII, starts a catering company with some of his ex-army pals.

Something Money Can't Buy

1952

Something Money Can't Buy poster
5.7

A British Army Officer returning to civilian life after WWII, starts a catering company with some of his ex-army pals.

Something Money Can't Buy

1952