James Clavell

Writing

James Clavell

Born 1924-10-10 · Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

James Clavell, born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell (10 October 1924 – 7 September 1994) was an Australian (later naturalized American) novelist, screenwriter, director and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known for his epic Asian Saga series of novels and their televised adaptations, along with such films as The Great Escape and To Sir, with Love.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

The Great Escape poster
7.9

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

The Great Escape

1963

The Great Escape poster
7.9

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

The Great Escape

1963

The Fly poster
7.0

Industrialist François Delambre is called late at night by his sister-in-law, Helene, who tells him that she has just killed her husband. Reluctant at first, she eventually explains to the police that he invented a matter transportation apparatus and, while experimenting on himself, a fly entered the chamber.

The Fly

1958

To Sir, with Love poster
7.4

A British Guianese engineer starts a job as a high school teacher in London’s East End, where his uninterested and delinquent pupils are in desperate need of attention and care.

To Sir, with Love

1967

To Sir, with Love poster
7.4

A British Guianese engineer starts a job as a high school teacher in London’s East End, where his uninterested and delinquent pupils are in desperate need of attention and care.

To Sir, with Love

1967

To Sir, with Love poster
7.4

A British Guianese engineer starts a job as a high school teacher in London’s East End, where his uninterested and delinquent pupils are in desperate need of attention and care.

To Sir, with Love

1967

The Satan Bug poster
6.1

A US government germ warfare lab has had an accident. The first theory is that one of the germs has been released and killed several scientists. The big fear is that a more virulent strain, named The Satan Bug because all life can be killed off by it should it escape, may have been stolen.

The Satan Bug

1965

633 Squadron poster
6.2

When Norwegian resistance leader Lieutenant Erik Bergman reports the location of a German V-2 rocket fuel plant, the Royal Air Force's 633 Squadron is assigned the mission to destroy it. The plant is in a seemingly-impregnable location beneath an overhanging cliff at the end of a long, narrow fjord lined with anti-aircraft guns. The only way to destroy the plant is by collapsing the cliff on top of it.

633 Squadron

1964

The Last Valley poster
6.5

People in a small German village in the last valley to remain untouched by the devastating Thirty Years' War try to exist in peace with a group of soldiers occupying the valley.

The Last Valley

1971

The Last Valley poster
6.5

People in a small German village in the last valley to remain untouched by the devastating Thirty Years' War try to exist in peace with a group of soldiers occupying the valley.

The Last Valley

1971

The Last Valley poster
6.5

People in a small German village in the last valley to remain untouched by the devastating Thirty Years' War try to exist in peace with a group of soldiers occupying the valley.

The Last Valley

1971

Walk Like a Dragon poster
6.3

California, 1870s. The cowboy Lincoln 'Linc' Bartlett finds out there's a slave auction of Chinese women in San Francisco and he intervenes and purchases the Chinese Kim Sung from the auction with the intent of setting her free. But it doesn't occur to Linc that setting her free isn't enough. Where is she going to go? Kim doesn't speak English and she's just going to be exploited by somebody else. Linc takes Kim home to serve as a housekeeper. Ma Bartlett Linc's mother, is not happy that a Chinese girl is living in her home, and even less happy when Kim and her son fall in love. Their affair also arouses the jealousy of Cheng Lu, a Chinese immigrant.

Walk Like a Dragon

1960

Walk Like a Dragon poster
6.3

California, 1870s. The cowboy Lincoln 'Linc' Bartlett finds out there's a slave auction of Chinese women in San Francisco and he intervenes and purchases the Chinese Kim Sung from the auction with the intent of setting her free. But it doesn't occur to Linc that setting her free isn't enough. Where is she going to go? Kim doesn't speak English and she's just going to be exploited by somebody else. Linc takes Kim home to serve as a housekeeper. Ma Bartlett Linc's mother, is not happy that a Chinese girl is living in her home, and even less happy when Kim and her son fall in love. Their affair also arouses the jealousy of Cheng Lu, a Chinese immigrant.

Walk Like a Dragon

1960

Walk Like a Dragon poster
6.3

California, 1870s. The cowboy Lincoln 'Linc' Bartlett finds out there's a slave auction of Chinese women in San Francisco and he intervenes and purchases the Chinese Kim Sung from the auction with the intent of setting her free. But it doesn't occur to Linc that setting her free isn't enough. Where is she going to go? Kim doesn't speak English and she's just going to be exploited by somebody else. Linc takes Kim home to serve as a housekeeper. Ma Bartlett Linc's mother, is not happy that a Chinese girl is living in her home, and even less happy when Kim and her son fall in love. Their affair also arouses the jealousy of Cheng Lu, a Chinese immigrant.

Walk Like a Dragon

1960

Where's Jack? poster
7.5

Based on the adventures of Jack Sheppard, the thief and jail-breaker who became a folk hero in 1720s London.

Where's Jack?

1969

Five Gates to Hell poster
5.6

A group of nurses, doctors and nuns are taken hostage in Vietnam and sent up river to a castle hideout so they can cure an ailing war general.

Five Gates to Hell

1959

Five Gates to Hell poster
5.6

A group of nurses, doctors and nuns are taken hostage in Vietnam and sent up river to a castle hideout so they can cure an ailing war general.

Five Gates to Hell

1959

Five Gates to Hell poster
5.6

A group of nurses, doctors and nuns are taken hostage in Vietnam and sent up river to a castle hideout so they can cure an ailing war general.

Five Gates to Hell

1959

Watusi poster
5.8

Following WWI, fortune hunter Allen Quartermain's son Harry travels to Africa to search for King Solomon's mines. He dons a special medallion given by his father from the Watusi tribe, who guard the mines. Along the way, Harry and his friend Rick meet and take with them Erica, daughter of a missionary killed by a local tribe.

Watusi

1959

The Children's Story poster
8.0

A just-established totalitarian government places a new teacher in a classroom of young children while the old teacher is sent away. The new teacher challenges the students' view of their world. Young Johnny asks questions, but the teacher manages to twist the truth into reasonable answers. It doesn't take long for the children to see things the new teacher's way.

The Children's Story

1982

No artwork available
7.0

A Japanese woman arrives in Vancouver seeking revenge against the businessman who ruined her family.

The Sweet and the Bitter

1967

No artwork available
7.0

A Japanese woman arrives in Vancouver seeking revenge against the businessman who ruined her family.

The Sweet and the Bitter

1967