Desmond Davis

Desmond Davis

Birth : 1926-05-24, London, England

Death : 2021-07-03

History

Desmond Davis (born 24 May 1926) is a British film and television director.

Profile

Desmond Davis

Movies

Doggin' Around
Director
The past catches up with an ageing American jazz pianist when he returns to the clubs of Lancashire and Yorkshire that he last visited 10 years previously.
The Man Who Lived at the Ritz
Director
In this drama, an American art student is trapped amidst the political turmoil of war-torn Europe while visiting Paris and staying at the fabulous Ritz hotel. Rather than cope constructively with it all, the fellow opts to ignore it and continue living the high-life for as long as possible.
Wall of Tyranny
Director
A U.S. soldier sees the Berlin Wall go up in 1961 and helps a group of East Germans escape to the West.
Love with a Perfect Stranger
Director
Beautiful wealthy American businesswoman meets eccentric Irishman on an Italian train, who sets out to woo her. What ensues is something neither imagined happening.
Camille
Director
Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hope of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Camille discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her.
Ordeal by Innocence
Director
Dr. Arthur Calgary visits the Argyle family to return an address book lost some time ago by Jack Argyle, only to find out that Jack has been executed for the murder of his mother. Calgary can prove that Jack was innocent. In spite of opposition from a hostile family, he is determined to solve the crime.
The Country Girls
Director
The lifelong friendship of two rural Irish girls is put on the test when they grow up and leave for the big city, each with different life goals in mind.
The Sign of Four
Director
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson try to track down the Great Mogul, the second-largest diamond in the world.
Clash of the Titans
Director
To win the right to marry his love, the beautiful princess Andromeda, and fulfil his destiny, half-God-half-mortal Perseus must complete various tasks including taming Pegasus, capturing Medusa's head and battling the feared Kraken.
The Man of Destiny
Director
One of Shaw's "pleasant plays", The Man of Destiny is a one-act lighthearted comedy of egos and social hypocrisy. Set in 1796 in northern Italy, it features a battle of wits between Napoleon Bonaparte and a mysterious, daring woman who has stolen his documents. Can she really challenge the strategic mind of a general still celebrating a famous victory?
Measure for Measure
Director
When the Duke of Vienna takes a mysterious leave of absence and leaves the strict Angelo in charge, things couldn't be worse for Claudio, who is sentenced to death for premarital sex. His sister, Isabella (a nun-in-training), however, is a very persuasive pleader. She goes to Angelo, but instead of freeing her brother, she gets an offer from Angelo to save Claudio's life if Isabella sleeps with him. The only sympathetic friend Isabella has is a priest who, in actuality, is the Duke in disguise...and he has a plan.
The Spirit of Adventure: Night Flight
Director
British TV-movie, starring Trevor Howard and Bo Svensson
Back of Beyond
Director
Olwen lives in a tumbledown farm up in the mountains - a lonely widow, virtually a recluse. Her only human contact is with the occasional shopkeeper and young Rachel, who delivers her papers. For Rachel, her visits to Olwen are half adventure, half honest friendship. But they also mean a time to 'put aside childish things.'
A Nice Girl Like Me
Screenplay
Candy is a fetching unwed young lady with a penchant for pregnancy. Her adventures begin when she leaves her sheltered boarding school background for Paris. The result is the birth of Valentine nine months later.
A Nice Girl Like Me
Director
Candy is a fetching unwed young lady with a penchant for pregnancy. Her adventures begin when she leaves her sheltered boarding school background for Paris. The result is the birth of Valentine nine months later.
Smashing Time
Director
Two young women arrive in London to make it big in show business, and become corrupted by money and fame in the process.
I Was Happy Here
Writer
Cass followed the bright lights to London and was quickly disillusioned. She met and married Doctor Langdon, but soon realised she wanted to return to her home by the sea, and to her first love, Colin.
I Was Happy Here
Director
Cass followed the bright lights to London and was quickly disillusioned. She met and married Doctor Langdon, but soon realised she wanted to return to her home by the sea, and to her first love, Colin.
The Uncle
Writer
Gus is a seven-year-old uncle who struggles with the responsibility placed upon him when his nephew Tom comes to spend the summer holidays with his family.
The Uncle
Producer
Gus is a seven-year-old uncle who struggles with the responsibility placed upon him when his nephew Tom comes to spend the summer holidays with his family.
The Uncle
Director
Gus is a seven-year-old uncle who struggles with the responsibility placed upon him when his nephew Tom comes to spend the summer holidays with his family.
Girl with Green Eyes
Director
Catholic-Irish farm girl Kate, along with her gregarious best friend Baba, moves to Dublin to pursue a more exciting life.
Tom Jones
Camera Operator
Tom loves Sophie and Sophie loves Tom. But Tom and Sophie are of differering classes. Can they find a way through the mayhem to be true to love?
Freud: The Secret Passion
Camera Operator
An examination of Czech-Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud's career when he began to treat patients diagnosed with hysteria, using the radical technique of hypnosis.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Camera Operator
A rebellious youth sentenced to a reformatory for robbing a bakery rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as a prized athlete.
A Taste of Honey
Camera Operator
A working class girl struggles to create a life for herself with her gay co-worker after becoming pregnant from a one-night stand with a black sailor.
Taste of Fear
Camera Operator
A wheelchair-bound young girl returns to her father's estate after ten years, and although she's told he's away, she keeps seeing his dead body on the estate.
Faces in the Dark
Camera Operator
A businessman loses his sight in an explosion on the day his wife planned to leave him for another man.
Behemoth, the Sea Monster
Camera Operator
Marine atomic tests cause changes in the ocean's ecosystem resulting in dangerous blobs of radiation and the resurrection of a dormant dinosaur which threatens London.
Make Mine a Million
Camera Operator
Sid Gibson is a soap powder salesman who decides what he really needs is TV advertising. The problem is, he's absolutely broke. He calls upon his friend Arthur Ashton, who arranges to sneak a plug for Sid's suds into a live TV spectacular. The public goes bananas for the product but to maintain sales Sid and Arthur must arrange for ever more outrageous plugs on TV shows. The Ascots races, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo - no show is safe.
Tread Softly Stranger
Camera Operator
Unable to pay his bookie, a man returns to his hometown where his embezzler brother and girlfriend plot a robbery that ends in tragedy.
Stormy Crossing
Camera Operator
After murdering his lover, cross-channel swimmer Joy Webster, Derek Bond attempts to do same to her other boyfriend, Sheldon Lawrence. John Ireland plays an Interpol detective who stems Bond's homicidal hijinks. Black Tide was produced by Monty Berman in his pre-Saint days.
The Trollenberg Terror
Camera Operator
An American investigator for the U.N., a German scientist and a British reporter join forces to investigate a series of disappearances and mutilation-deaths confined to a Swiss Alp and involving a thick, mobile cloud, a telepathic girl, an animate dead man, and tentacled, cyclopean beings from another planet.
High Hell
Camera Operator
Tempers and sexual jealousies flare when five men and a woman share a mountain cabin while mining for gold.
Man from Tangier
Camera Operator
International crook Armstrong flees post-war Tangier with priceless forgery plates and is pursued to London where he accidentally swaps coats in a barber's shop with film actor Chuck Collins, setting off a train of events.
Strangers' Meeting
Camera Operator
A fateful Stranger's Meeting leads to a maelstrom of crime, deception and murder in this 64-minute British programmer. The beautiful Delphi Lawrence heads a stellar cast, including such reliables as Victor Maddern, Norman Rossington, Conrad Phillips and Reginald Hearne. The plot centers around acrobat Peter Arne, falsely accused of murder. Escaping from the authorities, Arne hides out in a rustic inn, allowing first-time director (and former cinematographer) Robert Day ample opportunity for dark, menacing shadows and sinister underlighting. The genuine murderer is revealed just seconds before the culprit's death. Stranger's Meeting was held back from release until Robert Day's "official" directorial debut, The Green Man, had made the rounds.
The Surgeon's Knife
Camera Operator
A doctor becomes the victim of extortionists when one of his patients dies under questionable circumstances.
Stranger in Town
Camera Operator
A vacationing journalist investigates the mysterious death of a composer and debunks the theory that it was suicide.
Kill Me Tomorrow
Camera Operator
A reporter who needs cash for his son's operation is paid by a smuggler to take a murder rap.
Hour of Decision
Camera Operator
A reporter tries to prove that his wife is not responsible for the murder of a famous newspaper columnist.
You Pay Your Money
Camera Operator
Crime drama in which a couple get involved in a web of intrigue surrounding the husband's employer.
The Strange Case of Dr. Manning
Camera Operator
A doctor receives an early morning callout and is kidnapped. American detective Nick Logan assists Scotland Yard in tracking down the perpetrator.
High Terrace
Camera Operator
A British theater actress unable to get out of her contract is assisted by an American playwright when a pair of her scissors is discovered lodged in her producer's back.
Breakaway
Camera Operator
When Johnny Matlock whisks away a cold war secret from under the noses of Berlin's top secret agents, his every move is followed when he returns to England. His girlfriend Paula is kidnapped but her handbag is discovered at the scene of the crime by the aristocratic private eye, Duke Martin. Inside it he discovers the secret formula that the agents are searching for and tracks down her sister Paula. As Johnny grows frantic for the safe return of his girlfriend, Duke Martin plays a deadly game of double bluff with the enemy agents.
Bond of Fear
Camera Operator
An escaped killer hides out by forcing a travelling family to take him with them.
Passport to Treason
Camera Operator
After being consulted by a friend concerning a murder case, a private eye learns the friend has become the next victim. Passport to Treason was put together by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman, the same team who’d later collaborate on the UK TV series The Saint. Rod Cameron stars as an American private eye, stationed in London. For the sake of a murdered friend, the detective takes over the dead man’s case, which turns out to have international ramifications. The villains are members of a phony pacifistic society, all of whom harbor plans for taking over the world.
No Smoking
Focus Puller
A scientist invents a pill to cure smokers of their nicotine addiction. However, when he makes his discovery public, he encounters strong resistance from the tobacco industry.
Tiger by the Tail
Focus Puller
On the first night of his London assignment, newsagency reporter John Desmonmd becomes heavily involved with enigmatic Anna Ray. The affair ends when she is shot struggling for a gun she has pulled on him. This is only the start of his troubles, as Anna worked for a criminal organisation who know Desmond has now got her valuable contacts list.
Colonel March Investigates
Focus Puller
This is a feature-length compilation of three short episodes taken from a TV series called 'Colonel March of Scotland Yard' (1954-56, 26 episodes) starring Boris Karloff as Colonel March, head of Scotland Yard's Department D.3, otherwise known as The Bureau of Queer Complaints.
The Reluctant Bride
Focus Puller
A money-to-burn and girl-chasing Texas oilman, and a sensitive, dignified entomologist find themselves in charge of a brood of wild kids whose parents, both famous explorers, are reported lost while on an African safari.
Barbados Quest
Focus Puller
Special investigator Duke Martin is in London to investigate the authenticity of a rare postage stamp called the Barbados Overplate. Someone is willing to commit murder to get his or her hands on the stamp, which puts a crimp in Duke's efforts to romance every beautiful woman he meets.
The Gilded Cage
Camera Operator
Steve and Harry become involved in an art theft. Harry is framed by the crooks, and arrested by the police. Steve has to prove his brother's innocence.
The Gilded Cage
Focus Puller
Steve and Harry become involved in an art theft. Harry is framed by the crooks, and arrested by the police. Steve has to prove his brother's innocence.
The Embezzler
Focus Puller
Bank robber's plans for a wealthy lifestyle gradually turn to more noble aims.
Three Steps to the Gallows
Focus Puller
A U.S. sailor (Scott Brady) docks in London and in three days tries to save his brother from the gallows.
Escape by Night
Focus Puller
An Italian racketeer on the run in London holes up in a disused theatre with a hard-drinking journalist out to get the full story.
Recoil
Focus Puller
A jeweller is killed in a gang robbery leaving the daughter as the only witness. When the police can't build a case against him she decides to go undercover to infiltrate the home of the killer's brother. Slowly she is drawn into the world of the rival gangs.
Wheel of Fate
Focus Puller
Two brothers work in their invalid father's repair garage. Johnny is the quiet, reliable one while Ted is younger and wilder. The brothers feud over Lucky, a beautiful band singer. Then their life is complicated: first by a police search for the unknown killer of a man in a dance hall fight, and then by a bookie pressuring Ted to pay his gambling debts.
The Steel Key
Focus Puller
An adventurer investigates the theft of a formula for hardened steel, assisted by his girlfriend.
Rough Shoot
Additional Camera
An American military officer and his wife move to a cottage in what they think is the peaceful English countryside, only to discover the area is a hotbed of spies and secret agents.
Deadly Nightshade
Focus Puller
Escapee switches identities but finds the new one quite a handful.
Black Orchid
Focus Puller
Caught in a loveless marriage, Dr. John Winnington (Ronald Howard) can't stop himself from falling for his wife's (Mary Laura Wood) younger sister, Christine (Olga Edwardes). But when he suddenly becomes the prime suspect in his wife's tragic murder, John relies on his friend Eric (John Bentley) to clear his name. This classic murder mystery encourages viewers to evaluate all of the clues and guess the killer's identity.
Love in Pawn
Focus Puller
A British comedy about a struggling artist and his wife living on a houseboat. To raise money she pawns him! His new family takes a liking to him particularly the daughter! The wife tries to redeem her husband but finds she has lost the pawn ticket. In a short matter of time, the whole incident becomes a national sensation. Eventually, the husband arrives back at the houseboat just in time to prevent the wife from leaving him.
The Voice of Merrill
Focus Puller
A convicted female blackmailer is found murdered in her flat and suspicion falls on three men, all of whom the police believe may have had reason to wish her dead
The Lost Hours
Focus Puller
An ex-GI wakes up with blood on his clothes in a strange hotel room. He can't remember the night before but he later finds out that a man he got into a fight with earlier in the night was murdered.
Curtain Up
Clapper Loader
In a small town in the 1950's a repertory company meets on Monday morning to start rehearsing the following week's play. This is a ghastly thing written by the aunt of one of the theatre's directors. The producer doesn't try to hide his annoyance about it, and is further exercised when the authoress herself arrives to help. The cast have to try and sort out real-life problems that keep intruding as they wrestle with the play's dire dialogue.
13 East Street
Focus Puller
When police inspector Gerald Blake wants to infiltrate a London stolen-goods gang, he does a thorough job of it. First, he robs a jewelry store, gets caught and is sentenced to prison. Then he teams up with gang-member Joey to make their escape. Once in the gang, Blake identifies the boss, Larry, and most of the other thieves, but not the "inside man." As a big fur job looms closer, the detective's task is complicated by the playful but seductive advances of Judy, a dazzling blonde who happens also to be the jealous Larry's girl friend.
The Frightened Man
Clapper Loader
Kicked out of Oxford, a junk dealer's son (Dermot Walsh) joins a gang of thieves fenced by his father (Charles Victor).
Three Installations
Camera Operator
Early Lindsay Anderson industrial film promoting Sutcliffe's conveyors. Three different uses of Sutcliffe's conveyor installations.
The African Queen
Clapper Loader
At the start of the First World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.
Blackout
Focus Puller
A blind man is witness to a murder; later cured of his blindness he attempts to puzzle out the solution to the crime.
No Trace
Clapper Loader
A famous mystery writer uses his own plot tricks to murder a blackmailer in this British thriller.
The Happiest Days of Your Life
Clapper Loader
Nutbourne College, an old established, all-boys, boarding school is told that another school is to be billeted with due to wartime restrictions. The shock is that it's an all-girls school that has been sent. The two head teachers are soon battling for the upper hand with each other and the Ministry. But a crisis (or two) forces them to work together.
The Interrupted Journey
Clapper Loader
When John North, a budding author, pulls the communication cord of a late night train that is taking him away on a weekend with his publishers wife, he sets in motion a series of events that lead to a train crash, a murder and a police man hunt, but all is not what it seems.
Don't Take It to Heart
Clapper Loader
A stray World War Two bomb releases the ghost of the 3rd Earl of Chaunduyt after 400 years. A visiting professor, while wooing the beautiful Lady Mary, daughter of the present Earl, finds him an ally in his fight on behalf of the villagers to protect their ancient rights against a meddling newcomer.
It's in the Bag
Clapper Loader
Gert and Daisy attempt to retrieve an old dress containing £2,000. They have to impersonate two thespians, and bring all sorts of trouble to a stage-play.