Ian Dalrymple (26 August 190328 March 1989) was a British screenwriter, film director, film editor and film producer.
Early life
Born in
Johannesburg,
South Africa, he was educated at
Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge.
Career
He worked in advertising then went into the film industry.
[Pinewood Has the Community Spirit
Graves, Charles. The Sphere; London Vol. 188, Iss. 2455, (8 February 1947): 208.]
Editor
Initially, he worked as an editor at Gainsborough Pictures working his way up to head editor. He then went to become head editor at Gaumont-British pictures from
Rome Express onwards.
[Technicians of the unknown cinema: British critical discourse and the analysis of collaboration in film production
Stollery, Martin. Film History; Sydney Vol. 21, Iss. 4, (December 2009): 373-393.]
Screenwriter
He went into screenwriting with great success.
He won an Oscar for his contribution to the script of
Pygmalion.
[HOLLYWOOD NAMES AWARD CANDIDATES New York Times 6 February 1939: 13.][Associated Press. Cecil Lewis, 98, Pilot In Wartime, Writer And Oscar Winner. New York Times, 2 February 1997. Retrieved 29 January 2025]
Dalrymple went to work on Alexander Korda's propaganda film The Lion Has Wings (1939). One of its directors, Michael Powell, called Dalrymple "an extremely able and very nice man and a wonderful organiser."[Powell and Pressburger: the war years
Badder, David. Sight and Sound; London Vol. 48, Iss. 1, (Winter 1978): 8.]
Crown Film Unit
During World War II, from 1940 to 1943 he was a producer for the Crown Film Unit, the government run agency for information and propaganda films, in particular working, and forming a close friendship, with Humphrey Jennings.
[The Crown prince of documentary
Dalrymple, Ian. The Guardian 5 May 1989: 37.]
Dalrymple said in 1941 their goal was:
We say in film to our own people 'This is what the boys in the services, or the girls in the factories, or the men and women in Civil Defence, or the patient citizens themselves are like, and what they are doing. They are playing their part in the spirit in which you see them in this film. Be of good heart and go and do likewise'. And we say to the world, 'Here in these films are the British people at war' ... It has seen the truth and it can make up its own mind.[Fires were started
Richards, Jeffrey. History Today; London Vol. 45, Iss. 4, (April 1995): 29.]
Korda
In 1943 Dalrymple went to work for Alex Korda as production supervisor.
[Report on the Doings of a Knight
By C.A. LEJEUNE. New York Times 22 August 1943: X3.][Busy Britons: Two Down and One to Go
By C.A. LEJEUNE. New York Times 24 June 1945: 27.]
Wessex
In 1946 Dalrymple formed his own production company, Wessex Productions, based at
Pinewood Studios. Among his employees were
Pat Jackson and Jack Lee, who worked with him at the Crown Film Unit. The company signed an agreement with Rank, and made
The Woman in the Hall (1947), written and produced by Dalrymple and directed by Lee. It was followed by
Esther Waters (1948), which Dalrymple directed alongside Peter Proud, and is remembered today for introducing
Dirk Bogarde.
[LONDON TALKS OF QUOTAS By C.A. LEJEUNE. New York Times 22 December 1946: 49.] Bogarde starred in two other Wessex films,
Once a Jolly Swagman (1949), directed by Lee, and
Dear Mr. Prohack (1949) directed by Thornton Freeland. They also made
All Over the Town (1949), directed by
Derek Twist.
None of the films had been particularly successful at the box office. In 1949 Wessex moved from Rank to Korda's London Films, who distributed through British Lion Films.
Dalrymple returned to documentary filmmaking with Jennings with Family Portrait (1950) and The Changing Face of Europe (1951) but Jennings then died in an accident.[KILLED IN FALL FROM CLIFF
The Manchester Guardian 26 September 1950: 4.] He had a critical success with The Heart of the Matter (1953) starring Trevor Howard. It was followed by Three Cases of Murder (1955), a horror anthology, and Raising a Riot (1955), a Kenneth More comedy directed by Wendy Toye which was a big success.
Wessex made a film about the Korean War, A Hill in Korea (1956), best remembered today for giving early roles to actors such as Robert Shaw, Stanley Baker and Michael Caine.
In the late 1960s he was film adviser to Decca and supervisor of film projects at Argo.
Personal life
In the 1940s he lived at 'The Manor' at Bourton-on-the-Water in the
Cotswolds.
[ Cheltenham Chronicle Saturday 14 August 1948, page 7] On Saturday 7 August 1948 his daughter Janet married Flying Officer Michael John Eldon Swiney (19 August 1926 - 30 September 2016), later Station Commander from 28 January 1972 until 12 October 1973 of
RAF Leuchars. Janet died in 2011. Flight Lieutenant Michael Swiney, with Lieutenant David Crofts, took part in the 1952 Little Rissington UFO incident.
He died in London on 28 March 1989.
Selected filmography
Sources
-
Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies – published by Harper-Collins
-
Chronicle of the Cinema published by D & K –
External links
