Directing

Cyril Frankel

Born — Died

1921-12-28 — 2017-06-07

Place of birth

Stoke Newington, London, UK

Known for

Directing

Credits

26 titles

Cyril Solomon Israel Frankel (28 December 1921 – 7 June 2017) was a British film and television director. His career in television began in 1953 and he directed for over 30 TV programmes until 1990. He directed many episodes of popular British TV shows, such as The Avengers, and the pilot episodes of the ITC Entertainment shows Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Department S in 1969. In 1970, he directed "Timelash", an episode of UFO, which he described as a very interesting script and one of his personal favourites. Frankel also directed many documentaries and feature films, including Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960) and School for Scoundrels (1960; taking over from Robert Hamer, w…

Known for

The Witches poster
6.0

Following a nervous breakdown, Gwen takes up the job of head teacher in the small village of Haddaby. There she can benefit from the tranquillity and peace, enabling her to recover fully. But under the facade of idyllic country life she slowly unearths the frightening reality of village life in which the inhabitants are followers of a menacing satanic cult with the power to inflict indiscriminate evil and death if crossed.

The Witches

1966

Goodbye, Mr. Chips poster
7.4

Throughout the late 19th-century and early 20th-century, Mr Arthur Chipping rises from a shy, nervous teacher to the beloved, revered headmaster of Brookfield School, with his life and career shaped by his love for his wife and his unwavering dedication to his students.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

1939

On the Fiddle poster
5.7

Tricked into joining the RAF by a wily judge, wide boy Horace Pope sets his sights on the main chance, teams with slow-witted, good-hearted gypsy Pedlar Pascoe, and works up a lucrative racket in conning both his colleagues and the RAF. By means of various devious schemes Pope and Pascoe manage to avoid the front lines until they are sent to France - where they find themselves making unexpected and uncomfortably close contact with the enemy.

On the Fiddle

1961

Invasion: UFO poster
5.7

The Earth is threatened by an alien race who kidnap and kill humans and even animals and use them for their body parts. In the year 1980 S.H.A.D.O. (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization), a highly secret military organization, is set up in the hope of defending the Earth from this alien threat. This organization operates from a secret location beneath the Harlington-Straker film studio in London. S.H.A.D.O. also has a base on the moon with Interceptors as well as an early warning satellite that detects inbound UFOs (called S.I.D.), and operate a fleet of submarines. General James Henderson and commander Ed Straker have a team of highly trained and well equipped females and males to battle the regularly incoming hostile UFOs.

Invasion: UFO

1980

No artwork available
5.0

No synopsis available yet.

Scheidungsgrund: Liebe

1960

Never Take Sweets from a Stranger poster
7.3

Peter Carter, his wife Sally and their young daughter Jean move to a sleepy Canadian village, where Peter has been hired as a school principal. Their idyll is shattered when Jean becomes the victim of an elderly, and extremely powerful, paedophile. The film was neither a box office nor a critical success, it garnered criticism for breaking a significant public taboo.

Never Take Sweets from a Stranger

1960

Film credits

Behind the camera

The Witches poster
6.0

Following a nervous breakdown, Gwen takes up the job of head teacher in the small village of Haddaby. There she can benefit from the tranquillity and peace, enabling her to recover fully. But under the facade of idyllic country life she slowly unearths the frightening reality of village life in which the inhabitants are followers of a menacing satanic cult with the power to inflict indiscriminate evil and death if crossed.

The Witches

1966

On the Fiddle poster
5.7

Tricked into joining the RAF by a wily judge, wide boy Horace Pope sets his sights on the main chance, teams with slow-witted, good-hearted gypsy Pedlar Pascoe, and works up a lucrative racket in conning both his colleagues and the RAF. By means of various devious schemes Pope and Pascoe manage to avoid the front lines until they are sent to France - where they find themselves making unexpected and uncomfortably close contact with the enemy.

On the Fiddle

1961

Invasion: UFO poster
5.7

The Earth is threatened by an alien race who kidnap and kill humans and even animals and use them for their body parts. In the year 1980 S.H.A.D.O. (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization), a highly secret military organization, is set up in the hope of defending the Earth from this alien threat. This organization operates from a secret location beneath the Harlington-Straker film studio in London. S.H.A.D.O. also has a base on the moon with Interceptors as well as an early warning satellite that detects inbound UFOs (called S.I.D.), and operate a fleet of submarines. General James Henderson and commander Ed Straker have a team of highly trained and well equipped females and males to battle the regularly incoming hostile UFOs.

Invasion: UFO

1980

No artwork available
5.0

No synopsis available yet.

Scheidungsgrund: Liebe

1960

Never Take Sweets from a Stranger poster
7.3

Peter Carter, his wife Sally and their young daughter Jean move to a sleepy Canadian village, where Peter has been hired as a school principal. Their idyll is shattered when Jean becomes the victim of an elderly, and extremely powerful, paedophile. The film was neither a box office nor a critical success, it garnered criticism for breaking a significant public taboo.

Never Take Sweets from a Stranger

1960

The Trygon Factor poster
6.5

A Scotland Yard detective is investigating a string of robberies and a murder, and the information he uncovers leads him to the estate of a wealthy but strange English family, who share their mansion with a group of nuns. The detective comes to suspect that neither the family nor the nuns is quite what they seem to be.

The Trygon Factor

1966

Don't Bother to Knock poster
4.8

An Edinburgh travel agent loses his keys and his fiancé in one night. A friend finds the keys and makes loads of copies with his address attached as a joke. She gives them to him as he leaves for a holiday. He gives the keys to several women he romances across the continent. He gets engaged again by phone and arranges to meet his fiancé at his flat, but the flat isn't empty...

Don't Bother to Knock

1961

Harry and Harriet poster
4.7

A quiet, offbeat German dramedy about self-reinvention and the messy ways we try to escape ourselves. When a middle-aged woman decides to shed her old life and adopt the name “Harry,” her transformation unsettles family, friends, and lovers who can’t quite keep up. Blurring gender identity, midlife crisis, and dark humour, the film plays like a bittersweet character study — deadpan, gently absurd, and tinged with melancholy.

Harry and Harriet

1990

Permission to Kill poster
5.8

Western intelligence agents try, by all means necessary, to prevent a Communist-bloc defector from leaving the West in his bid to return home to lead an uprising.

Permission to Kill

1975

The Saint and the Brave Goose poster
10.0

A two-part episode of the 1978 TV series "The Return of the Saint," edited together and released as a feature.

The Saint and the Brave Goose

1979

UFO: Red alert... Attack on Earth! poster
6.0

Few people know of the chilling reality behind the mysterious phenomenon of unidentified flying objects. Beings from a dying planet have arrived on Earth to kidnap humans and take over their vital organs. Against this threat, SHADO has been created, a secret organisation equipped with the most advanced technology and the best men.

UFO: Red alert... Attack on Earth!

1971

Make Me an Offer! poster
7.4

A struggling antiques dealer (Peter Finch) thinks he has found the answer to his problems when he stumbles across a precious vase amid a range of other less desirable items. The trouble is, the owners of the vase are pretty shrewd themselves and are not keen on letting it go for a song - meaning that our hapless chap has to pull out every trick in the book in order to win his prize.

Make Me an Offer!

1954

The Baron: The Man in a Looking Glass poster
8.5

A robbery is prevented by an undercover art dealer pretending to be a criminal. Edited from TV series, The Baron.

The Baron: The Man in a Looking Glass

1972

Alive and Kicking poster
7.1

Three elderly residents of a nursing home, fed up with their monotonous existence, engineer an escape from their drab surroundings and head for an impromptu holiday on an Irish island.

Alive and Kicking

1959

It's Great to be Young! poster
6.8

IT’S GREAT TO A YOUNG stars John Mills as Dingle an easygoing high school teacher. When autocratic new headmaster Frome (Cecil Parker) begins imposing all sorts of repressive rules, Dingle does his best to stand up for his students, only to be dismissed for his troubles. The kids conspire to not only reinstate their favourite teacher, but to circumvent Frome's refusal to purchase new instruments for an upcoming music festival.

It's Great to be Young!

1956

The Very Edge poster
5.3

Tracey Lawrence is assautled in her home and is so affected by the traumatic event she now finds all men totally repulsive, including her husband. Her attitude does not change with time, and to make matters worse her husband has got romantically involved with his secretary. Also, the police still have not tracked down Tracey's attacker and there is no guarantee that she is safe.

The Very Edge

1963

No Time for Tears poster
6.0

The interwoven dramas of staff and patients in Mayfield Children's Hospital, where the doctors and nurses are in the business of restoring children's lives. One small child risks losing his sight, while twin boys fool the doctors over which one has appendicitis. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, new nurse Margaret Collier suffers pangs of unrequited love for houseman Dr. Nigel Barnes.

No Time for Tears

1957

Tennis Court poster
9.0

Maggie and Harry Dowl arrive in England to inspect a house left to Maggie. The house has a dilapidated tennis court, but this seems to have some force which takes over the daughter of the local holy man, as well as causing tennis balls to gush blood and kill people with animated nets.

Tennis Court

1984

She Didn't Say No! poster
6.6

Bridget Monaghan, a single mother who has had six children by different fathers, shocks the conservative inhabitants of an Irish village.

She Didn't Say No!

1958

Legend of the Champions poster
8.0

A secret agent is interrogated by his superiors on suspicion of being a double agent and being involved with a Tibetan guru who has supernatural powers.

Legend of the Champions

1983

No artwork available
6.0

A boy pursues his ambition to be a jockey

Devil on Horseback

1954

From the Ground Up poster
NR

Documentary short about how Britain is improving after WWII and what the populace can do to help.

From the Ground Up

1950

No artwork available
6.0

Part of BFI collection "They Stand Ready."

Eagles of the Fleet

1950

Man of Africa poster
7.0

Filmed in Uganda, Man of Africa was assembled by legendary documentary producer John Grierson. The film depicts the mass migration of the Bakija and Batwa tribes to a new territory after the natural resources of their native soil has been depleted. The pro-ecological message is always present, but never so much as to degenerate into fatuous speechmaking. As a means to introduce the semblance of a plot, writer/director Cyril Frankel concentrates on the trials and tribulations of clerk-cum-farmer Jonathan (Frederick Bijurenda) and his native sweetheart Violet (Violet Mukabuerza). Print quality in Man of Africa varies from adequate to murky.

Man of Africa

1953

No artwork available
NR

Feature on the modern airplanes in the year 1951.

Wing to Wing

1951