Peter Handford, sound recordist R.I.P.

[julian_craster]

THE INDEPENDENT Obituary

Peter Handford: Master of sound location shooting who won an Oscar for 'Out of Africa'

Peter Thomas Handford, sound recordist: born Four Elms, Kent 21 March 1919; twice married (two daughters); died Wickham Skeith, Suffolk 6 November 2007
Published: 30 November 2007

Peter Handford pioneered the use of original sound recording in the heady days of the British New Wave. Not only did he record the soundtracks of some of the finest British films of all time, but in 1985, having come out of semi-retirement, he won an Academy Award for Best Sound on Out of Africa. He also left an enduring legacy to railway historians by recording, and therefore preserving, the sounds of the great steam engines, and ensuring their release on a record label which he himself instigated.

Born into a vicarage family in 1919, Handford was determined on a career in films from an early age, and at 17 managed to secure a job as an apprentice sound camera loader for London Films at Denham Studios, learning his craft on the job on such films as MGM's A Yank at Oxford (1938).

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Handford volunteered for the British Expeditionary Force and spent time in the Army Film Unit, including shooting footage of the D-Day landings. Reverting back to sound after the war, he achieved his feature break and first screen credit on the Italian-shot Black Magic (1949), starring Orson Welles as Cagliostro, officially directed by Gregory Ratoff but with Welles's uncredited help. The same year, Handford recorded Under Capricorn for Alfred Hitchcock and the huge commercial success Maytime in Mayfair, the first of nine features for the prolific producer-director Herbert Wilcox throughout the 1950s.

Handford became known for the skilful recording of usable location soundtracks, valuably delineating aural atmosphere on such movies as the Richard Widmark noir classic Night and the City (1950) and other such combinations of studio and location shoots as the war films The Gift Horse (1952) and Seagulls over Sorrento (1954). The director David Lean asked for him on the major location shoot Summer Madness (1955), the Katharine Hepburn romance filmed almost entirely in Venice, for which Handford utilised his wartime experience of shooting synchronous sound to develop a new method of recording soundtracks on location.

The producer Jack Clayton then hired Handford and his equipment on three British location and studio-shot farces in 1956, Sailor Beware, Dry Rot and Three Men in a Boat, and when Clayton himself made his feature début as a director, he took Handford with him in what became the most important British film of its period, the 1959 Room at the Top, which virtually single-handedly ushered in the British New Wave, utilising realistic situations filmed on natural locations with adult dialogue and, importantly, original sound – location sound actually recorded on location. The film was an international triumph for all who worked on it, not least for Handford as sound recordist.

Handford became known as the master of sound location shooting and in swift succession recorded soundtracks for the finest achievements of the New Wave. In 1960 he was sound recordist on Sons and Lovers, The Entertainer and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning; in 1963 he worked on Billy Liar (on which he met the actress Helen Fraser, whom he later married) and the multiple Oscar-winner Tom Jones; and in 1964 The Pumpkin Eater; Darling (1965) and Morgan: a suitable case for treatment (1966) marked the end of the great period, as former New Wave directors edged towards the mainstream.

A collaboration with the director Joseph Losey followed, which included such films as The Go-Between (1971), The Romantic Englishwoman (1975) and Steaming (1985), Losey's last film. Alfred Hitchcock, for whom Handford had recorded Under Capricorn back in 1949, made a point of personally seeking him out, especially tracking him down in Suffolk, to ask him to do the sound on Frenzy (1972), Hitch's first British film for 25 years.

Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Fred Zinnemann's Julia (1977) followed, but after the unfortunate experience of working with the director Michael Cimino on the commercial disaster (but aesthetic triumph) Heaven's Gate (1980), Handford decided to take a sabbatical from a rapidly changing film industry, and worked freelance for Anglia Television in Norwich, supplying location sound for local news reports.

He was rescued from Anglia's "Farming Diary" by a telephone call from the director Sidney Pollack, who wanted him for Out of Africa (1985). Not only did Handford provide usable location dialogue, but he also travelled deep into the bush, recording African atmospheres and animal and bird sound effects, and the resultant soundtrack brought him the 1985 Academy Award for Best Sound, a highlight of a long career.

The Oscar led to other international assignments, including two more in Africa, Gorillas in the Mist (1988) for the director Michael Apted, and White Hunter, Black Heart (1990) for its director and star Clint Eastwood. Hope and Glory (1987) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988) were also prestigious, but after Havana (1990), again for Sidney Pollack, Handford decided to retire.

He worked on his garden and archived his wondrous collection of sound recordings, supervising the transfers of his unique steam train effects onto CD, and lodging his whole collection with the National Railway Museum in York. "I've always loved trains, steam locomotives," he said. "I love the sound of trains because that's what gives them their aura and mystique. You can get a sense of the weight and power of these mighty machines from the sound they make when they are puffing up an incline."

Tony Sloman

[julian_craster]

The Times
December 22, 2007


Peter Handford
Distinguished film sound recordist much esteemed for his purist preference for natural, live sound over studio re-creations

During the half-century that he worked in film, Peter Handford was sought after as a sound recordist by the best-known directors in the UK and Hollywood. Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Pollack, Tony Richardson and David Lean were among those who employed him. And in the course of his career he became friends with many actors, including Robert Redford, Katharine Hepburn, Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood.

Like any good soundman Handford took pride in a clear, well-mixed soundtrack. He believed that although their technology had improved, new feature films were unnecessarily swamped with extraneous music. Handford always advocated, where possible, allowing the natural ambience speak for itself.

His career ran from the world of primitive mono sound of the mid-1930s, to the digital multichannel surround sound of the 1990s. In 1985 he won an Oscar and a Bafta for his work on Sidney Pollack's Out of Africa. He later worked on Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and White Hunter, Black Heart (1990), Clint Eastwood's homage to The African Queen (1951).
In the early 1960s Handford took a pivotal role in the development of English New Wave cinema which was led by such directors as Tony Richardson, John Schlesinger and Jack Clayton. Handford created the sound for a series of ground-breaking British films of the era, including Room at the Top (1959), The Entertainer (1960), Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), Sons and Lovers (1960), Billy Liar (1963), Tom Jones (1963), Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) and Oh! What a Lovely War (1969). Room at the Top, Handford said, “marked the beginning of a new age for British cinema. It was no longer a series of drawing-room comedies or stiff war films. Cinema was starting to reflect what was happening at the Royal Court Theatre in London”.
While on the set of Billy Liar, he met his future wife, the actress Helen Fraser, who was playing Billy's long-suffering girlfriend, Barbara. The loan of a coat during a cold morning's location shoot in a cemetery sparked a love affair that lasted until his death.
He also worked with the blacklisted American director Joseph Losey, who during the McCarthy witch-hunts had left the US for England. They collaborated on films including The Go-Between (1970), starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates; A Doll's House with Jane Fonda; The Romantic Englishwoman (1975) with Glenda Jackson and Michael Caine; and Steaming (1985), the final film for Diana Dors.
At a time when 95 per cent of exterior shots were being faked inside a studio, Handford used his wartime experiences to develop a system of location sound recording, which he pioneered on David Lean's location shoot in Venice for Summer Madness (1955), starring Katharine Hepburn.
Peter Handford was born near Weybridge, Surrey, in 1919 and joined Denham Film Studios in Buckinghamshire in March 1936 at the age of 17, as an unofficial apprentice. No apprentice scheme existed, so Handford was expected to pick up the necessary skills from observing the senior technicians at work. A highlight of his pre-war career was A Yank at Oxford (1938) starring Robert Taylor and Maureen O'Sullivan. During the war he was part of the British Expeditionary Force evacuated when the Germans overran France. He returned as a cameraman on the D-Day landings.
His first big film was Alfred Hitchcock's experimental Under Capricorn (1949), which featured the photography of Jack Cardiff.
“Working for Hitch was fairly boring,” Handford would later recall. “It was a great honour because he was a master film-maker but he was not interested in having a discussion. []Everything was mapped out and you did as you were told.” However, Handford was delighted when, in 1972, Hitchcock tracked him down in Suffolk, specifically to ask him to do the sound on Frenzy, the first film he had shot in London for 25 years. Despite working on such high-profile films as Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and The Lady Vanishes (the 1979 remake), Handford found films in the 1970s frustrating. His experience with Michael Cimino on the disastrous Heaven's Gate (1980) prompted a short sabbatical away from the big screen.
For several years he worked as a freelance sound man for Anglia Television in Norwich, supplying location sound for news reports. It was while he was working for Farming Diary that a message came through saying that the Hollywood director Sidney Pollack wanted to meet him in London to offer him — it later turned out — sound work on Out of Africa. “Sidney immediately got into my good books when he told me he wanted as much live sound as possible rather than trying to re-create it in the studio during post-production.”
The shoot took Handford to Kenya where he went deep into the bush to record the authentic sounds of the African landscape. Later he worked on the sets of Dangerous Liaisons and White Hunter, Black Heart, the latter starring and directed by Clint Eastwood. On Dangerous Liaisons he recalled Michelle Pfeiffer as being “painfully shy” but found John Malkovich “a great help because he shared my concerns about the sound of [background] traffic. A road ran too close to the château we were using as our main location. We agreed that if the noise got too bad he would simply stop and force a retake.”
Handford retired after finishing work on Havana with Sidney Pollack and Robert Redford in 1988.
Handford was a modest man who did not care for the fuss and glamour of the film industry. In his spare time he used film recording techniques to capture the vanishing world of steam railways. He established the renowned record label Transacord which is dedicated to steam railway recordings. His collection of steam recordings is now lodged with the National Railway Museum in York.
He leaves a widow, and two daughters from a previous marriage.


Peter Handford, sound recordist, was born on March 21, 1919. He died on November 6, 2007, aged 88

[smudge]

Quite a career. A nice tribute to one of the often overlooked members of a film crew, but who are just as vital as anybody. Glad to say that I do actually recall PH's name from various credits.

Respect.

Smudge

[Arthur Linden-Jones]

Extremely saddened to hear this.

Even though I'm thousands of miles away, I came to know Peter Handford's work quite well, through my passionate (obsessive, my wife calls it) interest in steam railways in Britain pre-1968, and Peter Handford's distinguished reputation for his sound recordings of steam locomotives.

He was married to actress Helen Fraser, of whom my most immediate memory is the incessantly chattering young woman who comes to inspect the flat in the very first episode of "Man About the House" (the one who, when she finds a spider in the bath, opens her mouth and screams and then sticks a plug in it).

[Arthur Linden-Jones]

Thought I had a pic somewhere of Peter Handford and his wife .... You might recognise her


Steam World magazine, Issue 105 March 1996, p.12

[julian_craster]

Obituary
Peter Handford

Pioneering location sound recordist, he worked with Lean, Hitchcock and Losey
Andrew Clarke

Wednesday January 9, 2008
The Guardian

Peter Handford, a pioneer of location sound recording, who has died aged 88, was a man with two great loves: cinema and steam locomotives. Both captured his imagination as a young boy as he wandered the Kent countryside following the early death of his father from tuberculosis. In an interview shortly before his death, he complained that he had always hated living in cities because the sound of the city was always too jumbled. In the open air of the countryside he could make sense of the collage of sound. He also discovered a busy railway line running close to his home. He said: "I've always loved trains - I love the sound of steam locomotives because ... you can get a sense of the weight and power of these mighty machines from the sound they make when they are puffing up an incline."

In later years he made many track-side recordings of steam locomotives which he released on his own Transacord record label and are now highly sought-after collector's items. His vast catalogue of steam recordings are now lodged at the National Railway Museum in York.
Peter stumbled across the joy of steam railways as a nine-year-old and discovered cinema at a similar age, thanks to an indulgent grandfather. Peter said: "I was fascinated by cinema from the word go. I loved going to the big picture houses in Canterbury, so much so that I started a film club at school." At the age of 17, he was taken on as an apprentice sound technician at the newly built Denham Studios.

During the second world war he volunteered to be part of the British Expeditionary Force and had to be evacuated when the Germans overran France. He returned as a cameraman on the D-day landings. He was shot during the hedgerow fighting two days later. His life was saved by a diary and a silver cigarette case which stopped the bullet.

During a career which stretched from 1936 to 1988, he worked with a host of top directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Sydney Pollack, Tony Richardson, Joseph Losey and David Lean. He struck up friendships with Katharine Hepburn, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood and was the proud recipient of an Oscar and a Bafta award for his work on Out of Africa in 1985.
Although he worked closely with Hollywood during his later years, he will be forever linked with the English new wave cinema movement of the 1960s. This back-to-basics form of film-making was led by Tony Richardson and included other leading directors such as Karel Reisz, John Schlesinger and Jack Clayton. Peter helped create such classics as The Entertainer and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning in 1960, and Billy Liar and Tom Jones in 1963. Later he formed a close working relationship with the blacklisted American director Losey, creating the sound for The Go-Between (1970), starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, A Doll's House (1973), with Jane Fonda, as well as The Romantic English woman (1975) and Steaming (1985), the final film of Diana Dors.

At a time when 95% of exterior shots were being mocked up inside a studio, Peter pioneered the development of location sound recording in 1955 on Lean's Venice romance, Summer Madness, starring Hepburn - techniques he perfected for Room at the Top in 1959.

His skills for capturing complex location sound meant that he was always busy and went on to do the sound for such other modern classics as Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Dangerous Liaisons and Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and Clint Eastwood's homage to The African Queen, White Hunter Black Heart (1990). As any good soundman would, Peter took pride in a clear, well-mixed soundtrack. Although technology has improved, he said that the Americanisation of movies had meant that many feature films were swamped with unnecessary music. He advocated that wherever possible it was always better to let natural ambience speak for itself. "Sound recording is so good now that you don't need lots of music."

His first major film came in 1949 when he was offered the job working for Hitchcock on his experimental film Under Capricorn. "Working for Hitch was fairly boring," Peter said. "It was a great honour because he was a master film-maker but he wasn't interested in having a discussion. He came in every day totally prepared. He knew exactly what he wanted and how he was going to achieve it. Everything was mapped out and you did as you were told, and if you didn't you were off the film."
It was while he was working on Billy Liar in 1963 for Schlesinger that he met his future wife, actor Helen Fraser, who was playing Billy's long-suffering girlfriend, Barbara. The loan of a coat during a cold morning's location shoot in a cemetery sparked a relationship which lasted until his death.

Peter retired after finishing work on Havana with Robert Redford in 1988. He kept himself busy archiving his sound recordings, working in his garden and enjoyed the continued success of his wife as the infamous Sylvia in ITV's Bad Girls.

She survives him together with two daughters, Marilyn and Pamela, from a previous marriage.

Peter Thomas Handford, sound recordist, born March 21 1919; died November 6 2007