Anthony Asquith (British Film Makers)

the long version

"This is the first sustained and comprehensive critical study of Anthony Asquith. Tom Ryall sets the director's work in the context of the history of British cinema from the silent period to the 1960s, and examines the artistic and cultural influences within which his films can be understood: Hollywood, European cinema, British theatre and literature, documentary cinema, popular culture, film and literary genres, and middlebrow culture." "Asquith's silent films were compared favourably to those of his eminent contemporary Alfred Hithchock, but his career faltered during the 1930s. However, the success of Pygmalion (1938) and French Without Tears (1939), based on plays by George Bernard Shaw and Terence Rattigan respectively, together with his significant contributions to wartime British cinema, re-established him as one of Britain's leading film-makers. Asquith's post-war career includes several pictures in collaboration with Terence Rattigan, and the definitive adaptation of Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest (1951) - but his versatility is demonstrated effectively in a number of modest genre films including The Woman in Question (1950), The Young Lovers (1954), and Orders to Kill (1958)."--Jacket.