Robert Hamer (31 March 1911 – 4 December 1963) was a British
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 ...
and
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 ...
best known for the 1949 black 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 ...
'' and the now acknowledged 1947 classic ''
It Always Rains on Sunday''.
Biography
Hamer was born at 24 Chester Road,
Kidderminster
Kidderminster is a market town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester, England, Worcester. Located north of the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour and east of the River Severn, in th ...
, along with his twin Barbara, the son of Owen Dyke Hamer, a bank clerk, and his wife, Annie Grace Brickell.
He was educated at
Rossall School
Rossall School is a private Day school, day and boarding school, boarding school in the United Kingdom for 0–18 year olds, between Cleveleys and Fleetwood, Lancashire. Rossall was founded in 1844 by St. Vincent Beechey, St Vincent Beechey as a ...
, an
independent school
A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...
for boys near the town of
Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census.
Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...
in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
, and won a scholarship to
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read the Economics
tripos
TRIPOS (''TRIvial Portable Operating System'') is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 a ...
.
Although claims have since been made that he was sent down (expelled),
["Hamer, Robert (1911–63)"](_blank)
screenonline.org.uk. Accessed 4 October 2022. with several sources suggesting that he was suspended for homosexual activities, he did in fact graduate with a third-class degree in 1933.
''
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' states that Hamer originally intended to join the
Treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...
as an economist or mathematician until scuppered by his poor academic performance, which he later jokingly put down to a combination of "the proximity of
Newmarket Heath acecourseto Cambridge and the existence in Cambridge of five cinemas changing programmes twice weekly".
Hamer began his film career in 1934 as a cutting room assistant for
Gaumont, and from 1935 worked as a film editor involved with such films as
Hitchcock's ''
Jamaica Inn'' (1939) co-produced by
Charles Laughton through his
Mayflower Pictures. At the end of the 1930s, he worked on documentaries for the
GPO Film Unit.
[Brian McFarlane ''The Encyclopedia of British Film'', 2003, London: BFI/Methuen, p. 281-82] When his boss at the GPO,
Alberto Cavalcanti, moved to
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in west London, England. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on th ...
, Hamer was invited to join him there. He gained some experience as a director by substituting for colleagues and contributed the 'haunted mirror' sequence to ''
Dead of Night'' (1945). He followed this with the three Ealing films under his own name for which he is best remembered: ''
Pink String and Sealing Wax'' (1946), ''
It Always Rains on Sunday'' (1947),
[John Patterso]
"There's more to Robert Hamer than Kind Hearts And Coronets"
''The Guardian'', 19 October 2012 both featuring
Googie Withers, and ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949), with
Dennis Price and
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. In the BFI, British Film Institute listing of 1999 of BFI Top 100 British films, the 100 most important British films of the 20th century ...
.
Hamer was an
alcoholic who, by the time of his last film as director, ''
School for Scoundrels'' (1960), was "often battling terrifying
DT hallucinations" (i.e. alcohol withdrawal symptoms, occurring only in patients with a history of alcoholism).
BFI Screenonline writes that Hamer was "a recovering alcoholic" and that "he fell off the wagon during production
f ''School For Scoundrels'' was sacked on the spot ... and would never work in the industry again." In fact, although he never directed again, he did contribute to two more film screenplays before he died.
Hamer was also
homosexual in an era when male homosexual acts were illegal in the UK. He died of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
at the age of 52 at
St Thomas's Hospital in London, and is buried at
Llandegley. Both of his parents survived him.
According to film critic
David Thomson, Hamer's career "now looks like the most serious miscarriage of talent in the postwar British cinema".
[David Thomson ''The New Biographical Dictionary of Cinema'', 2002, London: Little, Brown, p. 367]
Filmography
As director
* ''
Dead of Night'' (1945) – segment "The Haunted Mirror"
* ''
Pink String and Sealing Wax'' (1945) – also writer
* ''
It Always Rains on Sunday'' (1947) – also writer
* ''
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) – also writer
* ''
The Spider and the Fly'' (1949)
* ''
His Excellency
Excellency is an honorific style (manner of address), style given to certain high-level officers of a sovereign state, officials of an international organization, or members of an aristocracy. Once entitled to the title "Excellency", the holder ...
'' (1952) – also writer
* ''
The Long Memory'' (1953) – also writer
* ''
Father Brown'' (1954) – also writer
* ''
To Paris with Love'' (1955)
* ''
The Scapegoat
A scapegoat is a goat used in a religious ritual or the victim of scapegoating, the singling out of a party for unmerited blame.
Scapegoat or The Scapegoat may also refer to:
Places
* Scapegoat Wilderness, a Wilderness Area in Montana
** Scapego ...
'' (1959) – also writer
* ''
School for Scoundrels'' (1960)
Other film work
* ''
Vessel of Wrath'' (1938) – editor
* ''
St. Martin's Lane'' (1938) – editor
* ''
Jamaica Inn'' (1939) – editor
* ''French Communique'' (1940) (documentary short) – editor
* ''
Turned Out Nice Again'' (1941) – editor
* ''
Ships with Wings'' (1941) – editor
* ''
The Foreman Went to France'' (1942) – editor
* ''
My Learned Friend'' (1943) – associate producer
* ''
San Demetrio London'' (1943) – producer, writer, uncredited direction
* ''
While Nero Fiddled'' (1944) – lyrics
* ''
The Loves of Joanna Godden'' (1947) – uncredited direction
* ''Rowlandson's England'' (1955) (documentary short) – writer
* ''
55 Days at Peking'' (1963) – additional dialogue
* ''
They All Died Laughing'' (1964) – writer
Televised theater
* ''ITV Opening Night at the Guildhall'' (1955) – play "Private Lives" – director
* ''
ITV Play of the Week'' (1955) – "
A Month in the Country" – director, adaptation
* ''
ITV Play of the Week'' (1955) – "The Green of the Year" – director, adaptation
References
External links
oxforddnb: Hamer, Robert James 1911–1963 film Director*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamer, Robert
1911 births
1963 deaths
Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
English film directors
English male screenwriters
English LGBTQ writers
British LGBTQ film directors
British LGBTQ screenwriters
British gay writers
People educated at Rossall School
People from Kidderminster
Deaths from pneumonia in England
20th-century English screenwriters
20th-century English male writers
20th-century English LGBTQ people