J. Lee ThompsonFirst published on the fiftieth anniversary of his directorial debut, this book is the first to examine the work of a man once hailed as the finest film-maker to emerge from the British studio system after the Second World War. J. Lee Thompson first came to notice as a talented teenage playwright before entering the film business as a scriptwriter. In the unadventurous world of British film-making in the 1950s, he established himself as a controversial figure known for his innovative ideas and public clashes with the Censor. Before being recruited by Hollywood he made a string of classic films including: Yield to the Night (1956), Ice Cold in Alex (1958), Tiger Bay (1959), North West Frontier (1959) and The Guns of Navarone (1961). Lee Thompson worked in the Hollywood industry into his late eighties, making nearly thirty films as a director and producer between 1960 and 1990. He remains the best known, however, for his first: the immortal thriller Cape Fear (1962). |
Contents
From Jack of all trades | 14 |
To master of one | 31 |
Women who lie in gaol | 56 |
J Lee Thompson centre discusses | 108 |
Family entertainment | 111 |
Prisons without bars | 139 |
a dishevelled Amy Yvonne Mitchell | 176 |
The perilous passage | 182 |
Deutsche stars | 233 |
Greek mythology | 257 |
J Lee goes to Hollywood | 278 |
The prodigals return | 304 |
FILMOGRAPHY | 332 |
REFERENCES | 362 |