Thorold Dickinson and the British Cinema

Thorold Dickinson has been called the "major lost talent of the British film industry." Nevertheless, four of his films, Gaslight, Men of Two Worlds, The Next of Kin, and Queen of Spades are among the most critically respected British films of all time. Although he directed only nine feature films and a handful of short documentaries, he devoted his life to the advancement of cinema. After his directorial career ended, he became Chief of Film Services of the U.N. Department of Public Information in New York and later returned to England to establish the first department of film studies in a British university. This book explores in detail every aspect of the life and career of Thorold Dickinson (1903-1984). It is based on extensive interviews with Dickinson and a number of his colleagues and friends, an examination of his papers, and a detailed analysis of each of his films. Thorold Dickinson and the British Cinema begins with a re-examination of Dickinson's career in the light of ten years of a new writing about British cinema, and in particular, about the options open to a British cinema permanently dwarfed by Hollywood. Illustrations.