Brian Desmond Hurst

Directing

Brian Desmond Hurst

Born — Died

1895-02-12 — 1986-09-26

Place of birth

Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

Known for

Directing

Credits

35 titles

Brian Desmond Hurst was an Irish film director. With over thirty films in his filmography, Hurst was hailed as Northern Ireland's best film director by BBC film critic Mike Catto. He is perhaps best known for the 1951 A Christmas Carol adaptation Scrooge.

Known for

Scrooge poster
7.4

Ebenezer Scrooge malcontentedly shuffles through life as a cruel, miserly businessman, until he is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve who show him how his unhappy childhood and adult behavior has left him a selfish, lonely old man.

Scrooge

1951

The Tell-Tale Heart poster
6.0

A young man is driven mad by his obsession with the repulsive diseased eye of the old man who cares for him.

The Tell-Tale Heart

1934

Theirs Is the Glory poster
6.9

Re-enactment of World War 2 Battle of Arnhem using the survivors from the battle.

Theirs Is the Glory

1946

Tom Brown's Schooldays poster
7.0

In 1830s England, Tom Brown attends a rugby boys' school, where his moral and personal growth is formed through friendship, bullying–particularly from the cruel Flashman–and the influence of headmaster Dr Thomas Arnold.

Tom Brown's Schooldays

1951

The Lion Has Wings poster
6.4

This early, influential propaganda film blends documentary and studio footage to show the valiant efforts of the Royal Air Force to defend the British people against the Nazis.

The Lion Has Wings

1939

No artwork available
NR

A Letter From Ulster (1943). Northern Ireland's greatest film director Brian Desmond Hurst directed the film and his assistant director was fellow Ulsterman William (Bill) MacQuitty who went on to make the ultimate Titanic film A Night to Remember. The script was written by Terence Young who went on to direct the early Bond films. All the components were in place for a fine film and this short (32 minute) by the Crown Film Unit remains an important part of Ulster and America's cultural history. As the opening credit says "This film is dedicated to those members of the US Forces Who are our guests in these islands". The film shows American soldiers landing in Northern Ireland and settling into their new camps. The arrival of mail from 'back home' helps camp moral, however, two brothers receive none. Their commander realises that the two brothers have not sent any letters back to their parents and gives the order to write a letter home- A Letter From Ulster.

A Letter from Ulster

1943

Film credits

Behind the camera

Scrooge poster
7.4

Ebenezer Scrooge malcontentedly shuffles through life as a cruel, miserly businessman, until he is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve who show him how his unhappy childhood and adult behavior has left him a selfish, lonely old man.

Scrooge

1951

Scrooge poster
7.4

Ebenezer Scrooge malcontentedly shuffles through life as a cruel, miserly businessman, until he is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve who show him how his unhappy childhood and adult behavior has left him a selfish, lonely old man.

Scrooge

1951

The Tell-Tale Heart poster
6.0

A young man is driven mad by his obsession with the repulsive diseased eye of the old man who cares for him.

The Tell-Tale Heart

1934

The Tell-Tale Heart poster
6.0

A young man is driven mad by his obsession with the repulsive diseased eye of the old man who cares for him.

The Tell-Tale Heart

1934

Theirs Is the Glory poster
6.9

Re-enactment of World War 2 Battle of Arnhem using the survivors from the battle.

Theirs Is the Glory

1946

Tom Brown's Schooldays poster
7.0

In 1830s England, Tom Brown attends a rugby boys' school, where his moral and personal growth is formed through friendship, bullying–particularly from the cruel Flashman–and the influence of headmaster Dr Thomas Arnold.

Tom Brown's Schooldays

1951

The Lion Has Wings poster
6.4

This early, influential propaganda film blends documentary and studio footage to show the valiant efforts of the Royal Air Force to defend the British people against the Nazis.

The Lion Has Wings

1939

No artwork available
NR

A Letter From Ulster (1943). Northern Ireland's greatest film director Brian Desmond Hurst directed the film and his assistant director was fellow Ulsterman William (Bill) MacQuitty who went on to make the ultimate Titanic film A Night to Remember. The script was written by Terence Young who went on to direct the early Bond films. All the components were in place for a fine film and this short (32 minute) by the Crown Film Unit remains an important part of Ulster and America's cultural history. As the opening credit says "This film is dedicated to those members of the US Forces Who are our guests in these islands". The film shows American soldiers landing in Northern Ireland and settling into their new camps. The arrival of mail from 'back home' helps camp moral, however, two brothers receive none. Their commander realises that the two brothers have not sent any letters back to their parents and gives the order to write a letter home- A Letter From Ulster.

A Letter from Ulster

1943

On the Night of the Fire poster
5.4

A barber gives in to temptation and steals some money, leading to blackmail and murder.

On the Night of the Fire

1939

On the Night of the Fire poster
5.4

A barber gives in to temptation and steals some money, leading to blackmail and murder.

On the Night of the Fire

1939

Malta Story poster
6.3

Malta, 1942, during World War II. While the German air force is relentlessly bombing the island, a British pilot falls in love with a young Maltese girl.

Malta Story

1953

Simba poster
6.6

A European family in East Africa finds itself caught up in an uprising by local black Africans against their white colonial masters. Based on the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya in the early 1950s.

Simba

1955

The Black Tent poster
6.4

During the British retreat through Libya, a British officer takes shelter with a group of Arab Bedouin. He marries the chief's daughter. Sometime later, his younger brother, who had believed him to be dead, is informed that he may be alive in Libya - prompting him to set out and search for him.

The Black Tent

1956

The Mark of Cain poster
6.2

An attractive young French girl instigates rivalry between two brothers when she becomes the bride of the younger one. As the situation festers it leads to murder…

The Mark of Cain

1947

Behind the Mask poster
6.4

A newly qualified surgeon takes the blame for his drug addict colleague after the death their patient through neglect.

Behind the Mask

1958

His and Hers poster
5.3

Author-explorer Reggie Blake takes an unorthodox approach to his craft, apparently finding inspiration in the adventures suggested by his agent Charles Lunton; it matters little that most of his experiences are wildly embellished or even entirely fictitious...

His and Hers

1961

Trottie True poster
7.0

Tottie True is a gay-90s British music-hall performer who has her sights set on moving from rags to riches, who loses her heart to the pure-and-true blue balloonist, Sid Skinner, but continues her upward search on improving her social status. She finally settles for Lord Landon Digby who has lots of assets and a very-stiff upper lip. She gets a lot of the latter and very little of the former, and decides Sid might have been a better choice.

Trottie True

1949

Alibi poster
6.0

In 1930s France a bar hostess helps a man prove himself innocent of murder.

Alibi

1942

Miss Grant Goes to the Door poster
4.0

Two sisters encounter a German spy. A public service film showing how to thwart the enemy.

Miss Grant Goes to the Door

1940

Miss Grant Goes to the Door poster
4.0

Two sisters encounter a German spy. A public service film showing how to thwart the enemy.

Miss Grant Goes to the Door

1940

No artwork available
NR

"What a life for a couple of nudes!" Two dancers find a new way of doing their bit for the boys in this frothy wartime propaganda short. Lord Kitchener's famous finger persuades Joan and Ireen, dancers in a 'Non Stop Nudes' revue (not that we see anything that warrants that title), to make a radical career change. Swapping their skimpy costumes for dowdy munitions factory overalls, they join a growing domestic army of women keeping the machines rolling. Belfast-born Brian Desmond Hurst was essentially a feature film director, whose best-remembered work is the Dickens adaptation Scrooge, but whose credits also included the war films Dangerous Moonlight (1941) and The Malta Story (1953). The Call for Arms was one of three propaganda shorts he made between 1940 and 1941, the most memorable being Miss Grant Goes to the Door, in which a pair of village spinsters outwit a Nazi paratrooper.

A Call for Arms!

1940

The Tenth Man poster
7.5

George Winter, a self-made businessman and MP, lets nothing get in the way of his climb to the top. Certain in his belief in the corruptible and foolish nature of others, whenever Winter meets a competitor who can't be bought, he destroys the man through methods both legal and underhanded. Then, he meets his 'tenth man': a victim who refuses to be silenced by threat or bribery, with the power to bring Winter's house of cards crashing down around him.

The Tenth Man

1936

Dangerous Moonlight poster
6.8

Stefan Radetzky, a Polish pilot and famous concert pianist, is hospitalised in England from injuries sustained while in combat, and having lost his memory. As Radetzky plays the piano in a trance-like state, the story moves back in time to war-torn Warsaw. During an air-raid, Radetzky meets American journalist Carole, and there is a mutual attraction. Following the fall of Poland, Radetzky and Irish pilot, Mike, escape to Rumania and then on to America. Radetzky continues his musical career in America and meets up again with Carole.

Dangerous Moonlight

1941

Hungry Hill poster
5.8

Life becomes a tragedy for the wife of an Irish heir to a 19th-century family feud and fortune.

Hungry Hill

1947

Sensation poster
6.0

Pat Heaton may be the best crime reporter in town but his fiancée Claire, despairing of the more tawdry aspects of his profession, makes him promise to give the job up. When a pretty waitress is found murdered, however, Pat falls in line with the rest of the 'Murder Gang' the pack of reporters who gather to glean stories by fair means or foul!

Sensation

1936

The Playboy of the Western World poster
6.3

A quiet little village, and especially a pretty young woman, falls under the spell of a charming, somewhat roguish stranger who suddenly appears one day.

The Playboy of the Western World

1962

The Playboy of the Western World poster
6.3

A quiet little village, and especially a pretty young woman, falls under the spell of a charming, somewhat roguish stranger who suddenly appears one day.

The Playboy of the Western World

1962

No artwork available
9.0

An accountant who has to take a second job working at a racetrack, soon becomes mixed up with a shady crowd.

The Hundred Pound Window

1944

Glamorous Night poster
7.5

Based on Ivor Novello's hit stage play: an opera singer and her gypsy friends try to rescue their king from the clutches of a would-be dictator.

Glamorous Night

1937

Riders to the Sea poster
10.0

In this story of Western Ireland, the most famous work of Irelands greatest dramatist JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE is brought to the screen by Ulsters greatest film director BRIAN DESMOND HURST.

Riders to the Sea

1935

Riders to the Sea poster
10.0

In this story of Western Ireland, the most famous work of Irelands greatest dramatist JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE is brought to the screen by Ulsters greatest film director BRIAN DESMOND HURST.

Riders to the Sea

1935

Dangerous Exile poster
6.3

Dangerous Exile is a 1957 British historical drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Louis Jourdan, Belinda Lee, Anne Heywood and Richard O'Sullivan. It concerns the fate of Louis XVII, who died in 1795 as a boy, yet was popularly believed to have escaped from his French revolutionary captors.

Dangerous Exile

1957

Ourselves Alone poster
7.5

In 1921, as Irish nationalists battle with British authorities, a young girl is torn between loyalty to her brother, an IRA leader, her fiance, a police inspector, and his comrade and rival in love, a British Army captain.

Ourselves Alone

1936

Prison Without Bars poster
7.5

Suzanne, Renee, Nina and Marta all hate being in prison, being slapped and treated badly, and so all the girls are trying to escape. Madame Appel just causes chaos all the time, with her harsh manners. When Yvonne with her free-thinking ways is put in charge of the school for misbehaving girls, and asks them to tell her their complaints, they don't believe her at first. Yvonne is in love and about to marry the establishment's doctor, and it does not help that one teenage girl falls for him - and is corresponded. It's a hard life for the girls, and for the new female warden.

Prison Without Bars

1938