Mervyn Ian Guy Hamilton (16 September 1922 – 20 April 2016) was an English film director. He directed 22 films from the 1950s to the 1980s, including four
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
films.
Early life
Hamilton was born in Paris on 16 September 1922, son of Frederick William Guy Hamilton (1895-1988), press attaché to the British embassy in Paris and Captain in the
King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, and Winifred Grace Culling (1895-1970), daughter of William Archibald Culling Fremantle, of the
Church Missionary Society in India
The Church Missionary Society in India was a branch organisation established by the Church Mission Society, Church Missionary Society (CMS), which was founded in Britain in 1799 under the name the Society for Missions to Africa and the East, as ...
. His mother was a great-granddaughter of the Christian campaigner Sir
Culling Eardley, 3rd Baronet, and of the politician
Thomas Fremantle, 1st Baron Cottesloe. His parents divorced in 1923, and Hamilton attended school in England. His first exposure to the film industry came in 1938, when he was a clapperboard boy at the
Victorine Studios in Nice. At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Hamilton escaped from France by the MV ''Saltersgate'', a
collier bound for
French North Africa
French North Africa (, sometimes abbreviated to ANF) is a term often applied to the three territories that were controlled by France in the North African Maghreb during the colonial era, namely Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. In contrast to French ...
; one of the other 500 refugees aboard was
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...
.
Having travelled from
Oran
Oran () is a major coastal city located in the northwest of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria, after the capital, Algiers, because of its population and commercial, industrial and cultural importance. It is w ...
to
Gibraltar
Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
before arriving in London, he worked in the film library at
Paramount News
Paramount News was a newsreel series that was produced by Paramount Pictures from 1927 to 1957.
History
The Paramount newsreel operation began in 1927 with Emanuel Cohen as an editor. It typically distributed two issues per week to theaters acro ...
before being commissioned in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
; he served in the 15th Motor Torpedo Boat 718 Flotilla, a unit that ferried agents into France and brought downed British pilots back to England.
During this service, he was left behind for a month in occupied
Brittany
Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...
; he was later awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross.
Career
Assistant director
After the war Hamilton wanted to get into film production and managed to get a job on a second unit in Dartmoor on a Trevor Heid picture. Then he was put under contract by
Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; ; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956) as a third assistant director. Over the next few years he worked his way up to a first assistant director.
Hamilton later said, "I found that working with bad directors was infinitely more useful because you watched them get into trouble three times a day and puddle around and you say, you know, I won't do that, I don't want to fall into that trap."
He worked on ''
They Made Me a Fugitive
''They Made Me a Fugitive'' (also known as ''They Made Me a Criminal''; U.S. title: ''I Became a Criminal'') is a 1947 British black-and-white film noir directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and starring Sally Gray and Trevor Howard. It was written b ...
'' (1947), ''
Mine Own Executioner'' (1947), ''
Anna Karenina
''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, Анна Каренина, p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Tolstoy called it his first true novel. It was initially released in serial in ...
'' (1948), and ''
The Fallen Idol'' (1949) directed by
Carol Reed
Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for '' Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), '' The Third Man'' (1949), and '' Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded th ...
. "I was devoted to Carol," said Hamilton later. "He made my life easy because I followed him around like a little dog while learning my trade. If you’d ask him a question, he’d always answer it...Carol Reed was the biggest influence on me and on everything that I did."
Hamilton assisted on ''
Britannia Mews'' (1949), a 20th Century Fox film shot in England, directed by
Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco (born Ioan Negulescu; – 18 July 1993) was a Romanian Americans, Romanian-American film director and screenwriter.Oliver, Myrna"Jean Negulesco 1900–1993 ''The Los Angeles Times'', 22 July 1993. He first gained notice for his Fi ...
; was reunited with Reed on ''
The Third Man
''The Third Man'' is a 1949 film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene, and starring Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, Alida Valli as Anna Schmidt, Orson Welles as Harry Lime and Trevor Howard as Major Calloway. Set in post-Worl ...
'' (1949), in which Hamilton doubled for
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...
in a couple of shots; ''
The Angel with the Trumpet'' (1950), ''
State Secret'' (1950) for
Sidney Gilliat
Sidney Gilliat (15 February 1908 – 31 May 1994) was an English film director, producer and writer.
In the 1930s he worked as a scriptwriter, most notably with Frank Launder on ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938) for Alfred Hitchcock, and '' Nig ...
; ''
Outcast of the Islands
''Outcast of the Islands'' is a 1951 British adventure drama film directed by Carol Reed and starring Trevor Howard, Ralph Richardson, Robert Morley and Wendy Hiller. The screenplay was by William Fairchild by based on Joseph Conrad's 18 ...
'' (1951) for Reed; ''
The African Queen'' (1951) for
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...
; and ''
Home at Seven'' (1952) for
Ralph Richardson.
Early films as director
Reed suggested to Hamilton that if he wanted to direct he should refuse to re-sign with Korda unless he gave Hamilton a chance to direct. It worked and Korda allocated Hamilton the job of directing the
B-movie
A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...
''
The Ringer'' (1952).
Hamilton's second film as director was ''
The Intruder'' (1953) dealing with soldiers returning to civilian life, produced by
Ivan Foxwell. He followed it with an adaptation of ''
An Inspector Calls'' (1954).
Hamilton's fourth film was the prisoner-of-war story ''
The Colditz Story'' (1955), which he also co-wrote with producer Foxwell. It was his highest-grossing movie of the decade. He also tried a musical with
Max Bygraves, ''
Charley Moon'' (1956) and an adventure film which he co wrote with Foxwell, ''
Manuela'' (1957).
Hamilton had his first experience with larger-budget films towards the end of the decade, when he replaced the sacked
Alexander Mackendrick
Alexander Mackendrick (September 8, 1912 – December 22, 1993) was an American-born Scottish film director and screenwriter. He directed nine feature films between 1949 and 1967, before retiring from filmmaking to become an influential profess ...
on the set of ''
The Devil's Disciple'' (1959) featuring
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in '' The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. ...
and
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American actor. Initially known for playing tough characters with tender hearts, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-year caree ...
.
After ''
A Touch of Larceny'' (1960), which he co wrote with producer Foxwell, Hamilton again found himself working with a war theme on the
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian film producer and businessman who held both Italian and American citizenship. Following a brief acting career in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he moved into f ...
-produced Italian war comedy ''
The Best of Enemies'' (1961). This was the first film to show Hamilton's skill with intricate set-piece action sequences.
He turned down an offer to direct ''
Dr. No'' (1962), the first
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
film. His next release, and somewhat outside his developing œuvre, was ''
The Party's Over'', which, though filmed in 1963, was not released until 1965. The film was heavily censored and, in protest, Hamilton asked for his name to be removed when the film was finally released. He directed ''
Man in the Middle'' (1964) with
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He is known for his antihero roles and film noir appearances. He received nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. He received a star on the Holl ...
.
James Bond
Hamilton followed with his first James Bond film, ''
Goldfinger'' (1964). He later reflected that he was able to successfully merge the series's mix of action adventure, sexual innuendo and
black humour.
In the late 1960s, Hamilton directed two further films for Bond producer
Harry Saltzman: ''
Funeral in Berlin'' (1966, starring
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, 14 March 1933) is a retired English actor. Known for his distinct Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over Michael Caine filmography, a career that spanned eight decades an ...
), and the war epic ''
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...
'' (1969).
He returned to the Bond film franchise with the chase- and gadget-dependent ''
Diamonds Are Forever'' (1971),
''
Live and Let Die'' (1973) and ''
The Man with the Golden Gun'' (1974). He claimed in a much later interview that he had instructed
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the actor to portray Ian Fleming's fictional secret agent James Bond (literary character), James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the ...
not to mimic
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to Portrayal of James Bond in film, portray the fictional British secret agent James Bond (literary character), James Bond in motion pic ...
's rendition of James Bond and said the only Bond he regretted making was ''Golden Gun''.
Hamilton was later asked to direct ''
For Your Eyes Only'' (1981) but declined because the cash-strapped United Artists could not afford his salary.
Hamilton was originally chosen to direct ''
Superman: The Movie'' (1978), but due to his status as a
tax exile
A tax exile is a person who leaves a country to avoid the payment of income tax or other taxes. The term refers to an individual who already owes money to the tax authorities or wishes to avoid being liable in the future for taxation at what they ...
, he was allowed to be in England for only thirty days a year, where production had moved at the last minute to
Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London.
The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to t ...
. The job of director was then passed to
Richard Donner
Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg; April 24, 1930 – July 5, 2021) was an American film director, producer and actor. Described as "one of Hollywood's most reliable makers of action blockbusters", Donner directed some of the mo ...
, but Hamilton insisted that he be
paid in full.
Hamilton's only film projects in the latter part of the 1970s were the commercially unsuccessful ''
Force 10 from Navarone'' (1978) and the poorly received adaptation of
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...
's mystery ''
The Mirror Crack'd'' (1980).
[FILM; ANGELA LANSBURY ON THE TRAIL OF AGATHA CHRISTIE'S MISS MARPLE New York Times 14 Sep 1980: A.19]
Another Christie adaptation followed in 1982, with ''
Evil Under the Sun
''Evil Under the Sun'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1941Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. ''Collins Crime Club – A checklist of F ...
'' which was received more favourably than ''The Mirror Crack'd''.
Hamilton directed only two more films in the 1980s (''
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins'' in 1985 and 1989's ''
Try This One for Size'') before entering retirement.
In the late 1980s he was approached to direct ''
Batman
Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...
'' (1989), but declined. In a 2003 interview, he said that the contemporary Bond films relied too heavily on special effects and not as much on the spectacular and risky stunts of the Bond films of his era.
"I know that I’ve made some bad pictures, but when I was making a film, I knew I had to do the best I could with the material that I was working with," he said. "Sometimes I wished I had a more cooperative or a better writer, but that's the same for everybody."
Death
Hamilton died at the age of 93 on 20 April 2016.
Personal life
Hamilton was married twice, first to
Naomi Chance in 1953, and then to the actress
Kerima in 1964, many years after they first met during the filming of ''Outcast of the Islands''.
They lived in a villa in
Andratx on the Mediterranean island of
Mallorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...
from the mid-1970s
until his death.
Filmography
James Bond
* ''
Goldfinger'' (1964)
* ''
Diamonds Are Forever'' (1971)
* ''
Live and Let Die'' (1973)
* ''
The Man with the Golden Gun'' (1974)
Other films
* ''
The Ringer'' (1952)
* ''
The Intruder'' (1953)
* ''
An Inspector Calls'' (1954)
* ''
The Colditz Story'' (1955) (also co-writer)
* ''
Charley Moon'' (1956)
* ''
Manuela'' (1957)
* ''
A Touch of Larceny'' (1959)
* ''
The Devil's Disciple'' (1959)
* ''
The Best of Enemies'' (1961)
* ''
Man in the Middle'' (1964)
* ''
The Party's Over'' (1965)
* ''
Funeral in Berlin'' (1966)
* ''
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...
'' (1969)
* ''
Force 10 from Navarone'' (1978)
* ''
The Mirror Crack'd'' (1980)
* ''
Evil Under the Sun
''Evil Under the Sun'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1941Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. ''Collins Crime Club – A checklist of F ...
'' (1982)
* ''
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins'' (1985)
* ''
Try This One for Size'' (1989)
References
External links
*
Guy Hamiltonat
BFI Screenonline
Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and tele ...
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Guy
1922 births
2016 deaths
Action film directors
British expatriates in France
English film directors
English male screenwriters
Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)
Royal Navy officers of World War II