Basil Dearden

Directing

Basil Dearden

Born — Died

1911-01-01 — 1971-03-23

Place of birth

Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England

Known for

Directing

Credits

41 titles

Basil Dearden (born Basil Clive Dear; 1 January 1911 – 23 March 1971) was an English film director.

Known for

Dead of Night poster
7.2

An architect, visiting an English country house, realizes the other guests are familiar from his recurring nightmare. When they share their tales of the supernatural, he is filled with a growing dread.

Dead of Night

1945

Khartoum poster
6.4

English General Charles George Gordon is appointed military governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by the Prime Minister. Ordered to evacuate Egyptians from the Sudan, Gordon stays on to protect the people of Khartoum, who are under threat of being conquered by a Muslim army.

Khartoum

1966

The Man Who Haunted Himself poster
6.1

Executive Harold Pelham suffers a serious accident after which he faces the shadow of death. When, against all odds, he miraculously recovers, he discovers that his life does not belong to him anymore.

The Man Who Haunted Himself

1970

Sapphire poster
7.0

Two Scotland Yard detectives investigate the murder of a young woman of mixed race who had been passing for white. As they interview a spate of suspects -- including the girl's white boyfriend and his disapproving parents -- the detectives wade through a stubbornly entrenched sludge of racism and bigotry.

Sapphire

1959

Saraband for Dead Lovers poster
6.6

Sophie Dorothea is a young woman forced into a loveless marriage with Prince George Louis of Hanover. George Louis is later crowned King George I of England. Despairing of ever experiencing true love, the depressed queen finds life at court no solace. Sophie then falls for a dashing Swedish soldier of fortune, Count Konigsmark.

Saraband for Dead Lovers

1948

Woman of Straw poster
6.2

Anthony Richmond schemes to get the fortune of his tyrannical, wheelchair-using tycoon uncle Charles Richmond by persuading Maria, a nurse he employs, to marry him.

Woman of Straw

1964

Film credits

Behind the camera

Dead of Night poster
7.2

An architect, visiting an English country house, realizes the other guests are familiar from his recurring nightmare. When they share their tales of the supernatural, he is filled with a growing dread.

Dead of Night

1945

Khartoum poster
6.4

English General Charles George Gordon is appointed military governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by the Prime Minister. Ordered to evacuate Egyptians from the Sudan, Gordon stays on to protect the people of Khartoum, who are under threat of being conquered by a Muslim army.

Khartoum

1966

The Man Who Haunted Himself poster
6.1

Executive Harold Pelham suffers a serious accident after which he faces the shadow of death. When, against all odds, he miraculously recovers, he discovers that his life does not belong to him anymore.

The Man Who Haunted Himself

1970

The Man Who Haunted Himself poster
6.1

Executive Harold Pelham suffers a serious accident after which he faces the shadow of death. When, against all odds, he miraculously recovers, he discovers that his life does not belong to him anymore.

The Man Who Haunted Himself

1970

Sapphire poster
7.0

Two Scotland Yard detectives investigate the murder of a young woman of mixed race who had been passing for white. As they interview a spate of suspects -- including the girl's white boyfriend and his disapproving parents -- the detectives wade through a stubbornly entrenched sludge of racism and bigotry.

Sapphire

1959

Saraband for Dead Lovers poster
6.6

Sophie Dorothea is a young woman forced into a loveless marriage with Prince George Louis of Hanover. George Louis is later crowned King George I of England. Despairing of ever experiencing true love, the depressed queen finds life at court no solace. Sophie then falls for a dashing Swedish soldier of fortune, Count Konigsmark.

Saraband for Dead Lovers

1948

Woman of Straw poster
6.2

Anthony Richmond schemes to get the fortune of his tyrannical, wheelchair-using tycoon uncle Charles Richmond by persuading Maria, a nurse he employs, to marry him.

Woman of Straw

1964

The League of Gentlemen poster
7.1

Involuntarily-retired Colonel Hyde recruits seven other dissatisfied ex-servicemen for a special project. Each of the men has a skeleton in the cupboard, is short of money, and is a service-trained expert in his field. The job is a bank robbery, and military discipline and planning are imposed by Hyde and second-in-command Race on the team, although civilian irritations do start getting in the way.

The League of Gentlemen

1960

The Assassination Bureau poster
6.7

In 1908 London, a women's rights campaigner discovers the Assassination Bureau Limited, an organization that kills for justice. When its motives are called into question, she commissions the assassination of its chairman. Knowing that his colleagues have recently become more motivated by greed than morality, he turns the situation into a challenge for his board members: kill him or be killed.

The Assassination Bureau

1969

Masquerade poster
5.0

The British send an American and a war hero to kidnap and hide an oil-country prince.

Masquerade

1965

Cage of Gold poster
6.7

The love that Judy, a young painter, feels for Alan, a promising doctor to whom she is engaged, falters when Bill, an old friend, suddenly appears.

Cage of Gold

1950

Man in the Moon poster
6.7

William is an unsuccessful guinea pig for a medical group interested in researching the common cold. He is soon fired and offered a job by the nearby National Atomic Research Center where they figure anyone who could fail at being a guinea pig is just what they need. They con William into thinking he will continue his guinea pig career by testing out some equipment for them before they send a group of astronauts to the moon.

Man in the Moon

1960

The Halfway House poster
6.5

A group of travellers, each with a personal problem that they want to hide, arrive at a mysterious Welsh country inn. There is a certain strangeness in the air as they are greeted by the innkeeper and his daughter. Why are all the newspapers a year old? And why doesn't Gwyneth seem to cast a shadow?

The Halfway House

1944

Victim poster
7.5

A web of blackmail and murder attracts the attention of a barrister with a seemingly idyllic life, threatening to derail his career on the path of success.

Victim

1961

The Captive Heart poster
6.4

A series of stories about the lives and loves of men in a Prisoner of War camp over five years. The main story is of Hasek (Redgrave) a Czech soldier who needs to keep his identity a secret from the Nazis. To do this, he poses as a dead English Officer and corresponds with the man's wife. Other inmates’ stories are also revealed. Location shooting in the British occupied part of Germany adds believability.

The Captive Heart

1946

The Secret Partner poster
5.8

A shipping tycoon with a record becomes a suspect when money goes missing from the company vault.

The Secret Partner

1961

Pool of London poster
6.6

Jewel thieves, murder, and a manhunt swirl around a sailor off a cargo ship in post-war London.

Pool of London

1951

The Blue Lamp poster
6.6

P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of the 1950s.

The Blue Lamp

1950

Only When I Larf poster
7.1

A master conman leads a pair of British accomplices on an international adventure of highly profitable dirty tricks.

Only When I Larf

1968

Let George Do It! poster
6.2

Shortly after the start of World War II, a ukelele player (George) takes the wrong boat and finds himself in (still uninvaded) Norway. He is mistaken for a fellow British intelligence agent by a woman (Mary), and becomes involved in trying to defeat Nazi agents.

Let George Do It!

1940

The Gentle Gunman poster
6.5

The relationship between brothers Terry and Matt, both active in the IRA, comes under strain when Terry begins to question the use of violence.

The Gentle Gunman

1952

The Gentle Gunman poster
6.5

The relationship between brothers Terry and Matt, both active in the IRA, comes under strain when Terry begins to question the use of violence.

The Gentle Gunman

1952

The Rainbow Jacket poster
7.0

A champion jockey is banned from racing so spends his time helping a young lad to become the next champion.

The Rainbow Jacket

1954

All Night Long poster
6.8

Over the course of one eventful evening, the anniversary celebration of the musical and romantic partners Aurelius Rex and Delia Lane, a jealous, ambitious drummer, Johnny Cousin, attempts to tear the interracial couple apart.

All Night Long

1962

The Last Appointment! poster
10.0

Two jet-setting playboys, Brett Sinclair and Danny Wilde, investigate crimes. Two episodes of the TV series "The Persuaders" joined into a movie.

The Last Appointment!

1977

The Persuaders! poster
8.2

Two episodes of the TV series "The Persuaders" joined into a movie. Two playboys, Brett Sinclair and Danny Wilde, investigate crimes along the French Riviera.

The Persuaders!

1973

Out of the Clouds poster
6.1

Multiple stories unfold over the course of twenty-four hours in and around a bustling central airport.

Out of the Clouds

1955

The Ship That Died of Shame poster
7.3

After World War II the crew of a motor gunboat join together to buy their old vessel and go into business for themselves. This may sound like a laudable scheme, but the business they choose to go into is smuggling.

The Ship That Died of Shame

1955

The Ship That Died of Shame poster
7.3

After World War II the crew of a motor gunboat join together to buy their old vessel and go into business for themselves. This may sound like a laudable scheme, but the business they choose to go into is smuggling.

The Ship That Died of Shame

1955

The Ship That Died of Shame poster
7.3

After World War II the crew of a motor gunboat join together to buy their old vessel and go into business for themselves. This may sound like a laudable scheme, but the business they choose to go into is smuggling.

The Ship That Died of Shame

1955

Violent Playground poster
7.2

A Liverpool juvenile liaison officer struggles with a young and dangerous pyromaniac.

Violent Playground

1958

The Smallest Show on Earth poster
6.7

Jean and Bill are a married couple trying to scrape a living. Out of the blue they receive a telegram informing them Bill's long-lost uncle has died and left them his business—a cinema in the town of Sloughborough. Unfortunately they can't sell it for the fortune they hoped as they discover it is falling down and almost worthless.

The Smallest Show on Earth

1957

The Black Sheep of Whitehall poster
8.2

A professor teaching at a correspondence school discovers that a Nazi agent is trying to prevent a trade treaty being signed between England and South America.

The Black Sheep of Whitehall

1942

The Green Man poster
7.0

Unknown to everyone but his shady Middle Eastern bosses, watchmaker Hawkins is actually a professional hired assassin with a predilection for killing his targets with bombs. After disposing of a dictator and millionaire, Hawkins is assigned to kill a politician who is heading to a remote hotel, The Green Man, for a secret tryst with his secretary. There, however, Hawkins' plot is discovered by vacuum salesman William Blake, who determines to stop him.

The Green Man

1956

The Mind Benders poster
6.3

A British scientist is discovered to have been passing information to the Communists, then kills himself. Another scientist decides that they might have brainwashed him by a sensory deprivation technique, but he doesn’t know if someone really can be convinced to act against their strongest feelings. So he agrees to be the subject in an experiment in which others will try to make him stop loving his wife.

The Mind Benders

1963

Life for Ruth poster
7.0

John Harris finds himself ostracized and placed on trial for allowing his daughter Ruth to die. His religious beliefs forbade him to give consent for a blood transfusion that would have saved her life. Doctor Brown is determined to seek justice for what he sees as the needless death of a young girl.

Life for Ruth

1962

Life for Ruth poster
7.0

John Harris finds himself ostracized and placed on trial for allowing his daughter Ruth to die. His religious beliefs forbade him to give consent for a blood transfusion that would have saved her life. Doctor Brown is determined to seek justice for what he sees as the needless death of a young girl.

Life for Ruth

1962

The Bells Go Down poster
7.2

Comedian Tommy Trinder plays it straight in this tribute to the wartime AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service). The dedicated band who kept the fires of London under control during the blitz and fire bombings of WWII.

The Bells Go Down

1943

A Place to Go poster
6.4

Set in contemporary Bethnal Green in east London, A Place to Go charts the dramatic changes that were happening in the lives of the British working-class at the time.

A Place to Go

1963

The Goose Steps Out poster
6.6

Schoolteacher William Potts is the double of a captured German spy, so he is sent to Germany by British Intelligence to obtain the plans of a new secret weapon, causing chaos in a Hitler Youth school in the process.

The Goose Steps Out

1942