Alexander Mackendrick(1912-1993)
- Writer
- Director
- Art Department
One of the most distinguished (if frequently overlooked) directors ever
to emerge from the British film industry, Alexander Mackendrick, was in
fact born in the US (to Scottish parents), but grew up in his native
Scotland, where he studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He started out
as a commercial illustrator, and his first film endeavors were in
animation (for advertising films) but he soon found himself attracted
by live-action, shooting numerous short documentaries and writing
screenplays throughout the 1940s. He made his feature debut in 1948
with the Ealing comedy classic
Whisky Galore! (1949), set in his
native Scotland, and more than half his total feature output would be
for the studio including such masterpieces as
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
and The Ladykillers (1955) --
comedies with a rather darker, more satirical edge to them than the
rather cosy and parochial British comedy more typical of the era. His
first Hollywood film pushed this style to its limit in
Sweet Smell of Success (1957),
a vicious, no-holds-barred portrait of the world of ruthless New York
gossip columnists. Although now acclaimed as one of the great American
films, and a career high-point for Mackendrick, stars
Burt Lancaster and
Tony Curtis and cinematographer
James Wong Howe, it was a
critical and box-office disaster that, sadly, ensured that Mackendrick
would never again scale such heights. After just three more films, he
was offered an academic job as the Dean of the Film Department of the
California Institute of the Arts, which he accepted and held from 1969
until shortly before his death.
