C. M. Pennington-Richards

London-born Cyril Montague Pennington-Richards was a notable film director, writer and cinematographer who started out producing films for J. Arthur Rank’s Religious Film Society. His debut feature as cinematographer was the low-budget Jimmy O'Dea vehicle Blarney (1937). During national service with the Crown Film Unit, Penny’s was employed as director of photography on Humphrey Jennings landmark documentary Fires were Started (1943).

After the war, he was engaged as cinematographer on the projects of documentary makers and other Crown directors who had moved into feature films. Collaborations included Brian Desmond Hurst’s Theirs is the Glory (1946), Ian Dalrymple’s Esther Waters (1948), Jack Lee’s The Wooden Horse (1950) and Pat Jackson’s White Corridors (1951).

In 1951, he photographed Brian Desmond Hurst's Scrooge (1951), which received a mixed reception at the time of release but is now considered the definitive version of Dickens's tale. He made three films with the blacklisted American director Edward Dmytryk; The Reluctant Saint (1962), Depression drama Give Us This Day (1949) and grim nourish chiller Obsession (1949).

Penny made his directorial debut with the typically whimsical Group Three production The Oracle (1953), and this was followed by a series of modest comedies including Inn for Trouble (1959), Double Bunk (1961), Dentist on the Job (1961) and Ladies Who Do (1963). Pennington-Richards directed his last film, Sky Pirates, in 1977, then retired to Bognor Regis with his second wife, Beausie.