About the Book:

J. Lee Thompson, the director of the blockbuster action movie The Guns of Navarone (1961), was one of Britain's most versatile film-makers.

This book is the first to examine the work of a man once hailed as the finest filmmaker to emerge from the British studio system after the Second World War. J. Lee Thompson first came to notice as a talented teenage playwright before entering the film business as a scriptwriter. In the 1950s, he established himself as a controversial figure known for his innovative ideas and public clashes with the Censor. Before being recruited by Hollywood, he made a string of classic films including: Yield to the Night (1956), Ice Cold in Alex (1958), Tiger Bay (1959), North West Frontier (1959) and The Guns of Navarone (1961).

Gregory Peck, who was keen to star in a film version of John D. MacDonald's book The Executioners, told his studio that he wanted Thompson as director and the film (retitled Cape Fear) took the director to the United States, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He . worked in the Hollywood industry for which he made nearly thirty films as a director and producer between 1960 and 1990, including the last two films in the "Apes" series. He also enjoyed a long association with the actor Charles Bronson, whom he directed in 10 films.

Author Steve Chibnall traces J. Lee Thompson's career in British cinema, and offers an analysis of his films which reveals remarkable, and previously unacknowledged, continuities of style and theme.

About the Author:

Steve Chibnall is Professor of British Cinema and Director of the British Cinema and Television History Research Centre at De Montfort University, Leicester.