Michael Leighton George Relph (16 February 1915 – 30 September 2004) was an English film producer,

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

. He was the son of actor George Relph.

Films

Relph began his film career in 1933 as an assistant

under Alfred Junge at

Gaumont British The Gaumont-British Picture Corporation was a British company that produced and distributed films and operated a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. It was established as an offshoot of France's Gaumont. Film production Gaumont-British was fou ...

then headed by

Michael Balcon Sir Michael Elias Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in west London from 1938 to 1956. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film ...

. In 1942, Relph began work at

Ealing Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...

as chief art director, where his designs included the influential 1945 supernatural anthology '' Dead of Night''. He worked mainly on

Basil Dearden Basil Dearden (born Basil Clive Dear; 1 January 1911 – 23 March 1971) was an English film director. Early life Dearden was born as Basil Clive Dear at 5 Woodfield Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex to Charles James Dear, a steel manufacturer, and the ...

's films, and in 1949 was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for art direction for his work on the Stewart Granger vehicle '' Saraband for Dead Lovers'' (1948).

Theatre

Michael Relph also designed for the theatre, particularly the West End in the 1940s, including '' The Doctor's Dilemma'', '' A Month in the Country'', and '' The Man Who Came to Dinner''.

Producer

Relph is largely known as a film producer. He served as associate producer on the Ealing comedy ''

Kind Hearts and Coronets ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' is a 1949 British crime film, crime black comedy film directed by Robert Hamer. It features Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, Valerie Hobson and Alec Guinness; Guinness plays eight characters. The plot is loosely based ...

'' (1949); and had a significant 20-year partnership with

beginning in 1949 and ending with Dearden's death in 1971. Their work included a series of social problem films examining issues such as racism ('' Pool of London'' and ''

Sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon. The name ''sapphire ...

''), juvenile delinquency ('' Violent Playground''), homosexuality ('' Victim''), and religious intolerance ('' Life for Ruth''). Relph believed that because film was "genuinely a mass medium," it therefore had "social and educative responsibilities as well as artistic ones." In their review of ''Life For Ruth'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote, "in avoiding blatant bias, mawkish sentimentality and theatrical flamboyance, it makes a statement that is dramatic, powerful and provocative." From 1972 to 1979, Relph was chairman of the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

's Production Board. Simultaneously he was the Chairman of the Film Production Association of Great Britain, and went on to be Head of Production for Boyd's Company in the 1980s, where he helped foster the emerging talents of Derek Jarman (''

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

'') and

Julien Temple Julien Temple (born 26 November 1953) is a British film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including ''The Great Rock 'n' Roll ...

(''

The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle ''The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle'', also known as ''The Great Rock and Roll Swindle'', is a 1980 British mockumentary film directed by Julien Temple and produced by Don Boyd and Jeremy Thomas. It centres on the British punk rock band Sex P ...

'').

Family

His son, Simon Relph, was also a film producer and former chairman of

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

. His daughter, Emma Relph, had several parts on television and in the films as an actress during the 1980s. His stepson Mark Law is a former Fleet Street journalist and author of ''The Pyjama Game, A Journey Into Judo''.

Selected filmography

Producer * '' The Captive Heart'' (1946) * '' Frieda'' (1947) * '' Saraband for Dead Lovers'' (1948) * ''

'' (1949) * '' Train of Events'' (1949) * '' The Blue Lamp'' (1950) * '' Cage of Gold'' (1950) * '' Pool of London'' (1951) * '' The Gentle Gunman'' (1952) * '' The Square Ring'' (1953) * '' The Rainbow Jacket'' (1954) * '' Who Done It?'' (1956) * '' The Smallest Show on Earth'' (1957) * '' Violent Playground'' (1958) * ''

'' (1959) * ''

The League Of Gentlemen ''The League of Gentlemen'' is a British surreal comedy horror series that premiered on BBC Two in 1999. The programme is set in Royston Vasey, a fictional town in northern England originally based on Alston, Cumbria, and follows the lives ...

'' (1960) * '' Victim'' (1961) * '' The Secret Partner'' (1961) * '' All Night Long'' (1961) * '' Life for Ruth'' (1962) * '' The Mind Benders'' (1963) * '' Scum'' (1979) * '' An Unsuitable Job for a Woman'' (1982) * '' Heavenly Pursuits'' (1986) * '' Torrents of Spring'' (1989) (production consultant) Art director * '' They Drive by Night'' (1938) * '' Went the Day Well?'' (1942) (assistant) * '' The Bells Go Down'' (1943) * '' My Learned Friend'' (1943) * '' Champagne Charlie'' (1944) * '' My Learned Friend'' (1943) * '' The Halfway House'' (1944) * '' They Came to a City'' (1944) * '' Dead of Night'' (1945) * '' The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (1947) * '' The Captive Heart'' (1946) Production designer * '' Frieda'' (1947) * '' Saraband for Dead Lovers'' (1948) * '' Cage of Gold'' (1950) * '' All Night Long'' (1961) * '' The Assassination Bureau (1968)''

References

External links

* *
The Cinema of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph
amazon.com. Accessed 12 February 2024.

independent.co.uk. Accessed 12 February 2024. {{DEFAULTSORT:Relph, Michael 1915 births 2004 deaths English film producers English art directors People educated at Bembridge School People from Broadstone, Dorset People from Selsey 20th-century English businesspeople