Basil Dearden was initially an actor with the Ben Greet repertory company,
Briton Basil Dear later became a stage manager for director Basil
Dean. To avoid being confused with Dean, Dear added a "den"
to his professional name. When Dean became a staff director at Ealing
films, Dearden went along as a scriptwriter, production manager and
associate producer. He co-directed several comedies featuring such major
stars as George Formby and Will
Hay, finally getting a chance to solo with the morale-boosting wartimer
The Bells Go Down
(1943). From 1949 through 1971, Dearden was associated with producer
Michael Relph; the team won British Film
Academy Awards for the quasi-documentary The
Blue Lamp (1950) and the racially charged romantic melodrama Sapphire
(1959).
Dearden's efficient if impersonal technique enabled him to direct comedies;
The Smallest Show
on Earth (1957), psychological dramas including Victim
(1961) and murder mysteries like Woman of Straw (1964) with equal success.
He also helmed the 1966 historical epic Khartoum (1966), starring Charlton
Heston and Laurence Olivier. In 1959, Dearden
directed several half-hour instalments of the internationally produced
TV series The Four Just Men. Basil Dearden died in an auto crash at
the age of 60; he was survived by his son, writer/director James Dearden.
