Douglas Slocombe

Douglas Slocombe

Birth : 1913-02-10, London, England, UK

Death : 2016-02-22

History

Ralph Douglas Vladimir Slocombe OBE, BSC, ASC, GBCT (10 February 1913 – 22 February 2016) was a British cinematographer, particularly known for his work at Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s, as well as the first three Indiana Jones films. He won BAFTA Awards in 1964, 1975, and 1979, and was nominated for an Academy Award on three occasions. Description above from the Wikipedia article Douglas Slocombe, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Profile

Douglas Slocombe

Movies

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Director of Photography
In 1938, an art collector appeals to eminent archaeologist Dr. Indiana Jones to embark on a search for the Holy Grail. Indy learns that a medieval historian has vanished while searching for it, and the missing man is his own father, Dr. Henry Jones Sr.. He sets out to rescue his father by following clues in the old man's notebook, which his father had mailed to him before he went missing. Indy arrives in Venice, where he enlists the help of a beautiful academic, Dr. Elsa Schneider, along with Marcus Brody and Sallah. Together they must stop the Nazis from recovering the power of eternal life and taking over the world!
Made In Ealing: The Story of Ealing Studios
Interviewee
Documentary about the British film studio. First appeared on the BBC television programme Omnibus.
Lady Jane
Director of Photography
The death of King Henry VIII throws his kingdom into chaos because of succession disputes. His weak son, Edward, is on his deathbed. Anxious to keep England true to the Reformation, a scheming minister John Dudley marries off his son, Guildford to Lady Jane Grey, whom he places on the throne after Edward dies. At first hostile to each other, Guildford and Jane fall in love, but they cannot withstand the course of power which will lead to their ultimate downfall.
Water
Director of Photography
A British diplomat to a West Indian island nation finds his idyllic existence thrown into chaos when a large American drilling company finds a huge source of natural mineral water there.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Director of Photography
After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone. He agrees – and stumbles upon a secret cult plotting a terrible plan in the catacombs of an ancient palace.
Never Say Never Again
Director of Photography
James Bond returns as the secret agent 007 to battle the evil organization SPECTRE. Bond must defeat Largo, who has stolen two atomic warheads for nuclear blackmail. But Bond has an ally in Largo's girlfriend, the willowy Domino, who falls for Bond and seeks revenge.
The Pirates of Penzance
Director of Photography
In spite of being apprenticed to a Pirate King as a child, Frederic has led a very sheltered life. So when he arrives in Cornwall with his boisterous shipmates, there are a few surprises in store for him!
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Director of Photography
When Dr. Indiana Jones – the tweed-suited professor who just happens to be a celebrated archaeologist – is hired by the government to locate the legendary Ark of the Covenant, he finds himself up against the entire Nazi regime.
Nijinsky
Director of Photography
The film suggests Nijinsky was driven into madness by both his consuming ambition and self-enforced heterosexuality, the latter prompted by his romantic involvement with Romola de Pulszky, a society girl who joins impresario Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes specifically to seduce Nijinsky. After a series of misunderstandings with Diaghilev, who is both his domineering mentor and possessive lover, Nijinsky succumbs to Romola's charms and marries her, after which his gradual decline from artistic moodiness to complete lunacy begins.
Lost and Found
Director of Photography
While visiting Switzerland, an American college professor, Adam, keeps running into a divorced British secretary, Patricia, wherever they go. First their cars collide. Then they smash into one another on a ski slope, each breaking a leg. In between numerous quarrels, the two develop lust and love. They hastily marry, but the disagreements continue. Patricia decides to leave, so Adam decides to fake a suicide. They lose and find each other, again and again.
The Lady Vanishes
Director of Photography
On the eve of World War II, zany heiress Amanda Kelly travels by train to Switzerland. While passing through Germany, she meets a sweet elderly lady, who suddenly vanishes. Distraught, she questions her fellow passengers who claim that the woman was never there. Unsure if it's all in her mind or if there's a more sinister plot afoot, Amanda teams up with photographer Robert Condon to discover the truth.
Caravans
Director of Photography
This epic adventure-drama based on James Michener's best-selling novel concerns a young American embassy official who is sent into the Middle-Eastern desert to find the missing daughter of a US Senator. The young woman has left her husband, a Colonel in the Shadom - she was his number two wife - and has opted for the lifestyle of a nomadic tribe. When the diplomat locates the girl he joins the caravan and attempts to persuade the girl to return.
Julia
Director of Photography
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
Nasty Habits
Director of Photography
In a Philadelphia convent, two nuns battle it out to be elected to the position of head abbess, and neither is about to let anything stand in the way of getting what she wants.
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
Director of Photography
When a widowed mother falls in love with an American sailor, her troubled young son is pressured by the bullying leader of his clique to seek revenge.
That Lucky Touch
Director of Photography
A European arms dealer meets a liberated woman journalist, who is writing a story about the ridiculous things men do with the armaments during a NATO war games meeting.
Rollerball
Director of Photography
In a corporate-controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of its powerful athletes is out to defy those who want him out of the game.
The Maids
Director of Photography
A film version of Genet's play. Two maids, Solange and Claire, hate their employers and, while they are out, take turns at dressing up as Madame and insulting her.
Love Among the Ruins
Director of Photography
An aging actress and socialite, Jessica Medlicott has ended her engagement with a younger man and is now being sued by her former fiancé. Esteemed barrister Sir Arthur Glanville-Jones is assigned to represent Jessica in the lawsuit, and he also happens to be an old suitor of hers from decades earlier. While Jessica claims not to remember him, and Arthur still smarts from her earlier rejection, the two form a close bond during the case.
Hedda
Director of Photography
Returning from her honeymoon with her husband, scholar Jorgen, the cold and manipulative Hedda Gabler is unmoved by the sacrifices he's made to provide her with an elegant home. But when she learns that Jorgen's rival for a university position, Ejlert, has made a surprising comeback with a recent publication, she's quick to push him back into his former alcoholism, steal the sequel to his book and even encourage the writer to kill himself.
The Marseille Contract
Director of Photography
An important drug lord settled in Marseille is suspected of having ordered the killing of an American agent, but it is impossible to impute him due to his political influences, so the dead agent's boss decides to hire the services of a hitman to kill him.
The Great Gatsby
Director of Photography
Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, the nouveau riche Jay Gatsby. He is drawn into Gatsby's circle, becoming a witness to obsession and tragedy.
The Return
Director of Photography
Stephen Royds arrives at an old house announcing that he intends to buy the property, much to the surprise of its solitary occupant, caretaker Mrs Parks. The house has been all but abandoned since its previous owner, Gerald Harboys had been committed to an asylum for the apparent murder of his wife Muriel on their wedding night. Harboys had been obsessive about the physical perfection of women and, discovering that Muriel had had her right middle toe amputated as a child, had murdered her. But her ghost is said to still haunt the old house.
Jesus Christ Superstar
Director of Photography
Recounts the last days of Jesus Christ from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, his betrayer. As Jesus' following increases, Judas begins to worry that Jesus is falling for his own hype, forgetting the principles of his teachings and growing too close to the prostitute Mary Magdalene. After Jesus has an outburst in a temple, Judas turns on him.
Travels with My Aunt
Director of Photography
At his mother's funeral, stuffy bank clerk Henry Pulling meets his Aunt Augusta, an elderly eccentric with more-than-shady dealings who pulls him along on a whirlwind adventure as she attempts to rescue an old lover.
The Music Lovers
Director of Photography
Composer, conductor and teacher Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky struggles against his homosexual tendencies by marrying, but unfortunately he chooses a wonky, nymphomaniac girl whom he cannot satisfy.
Murphy's War
Director of Photography
Murphy is the sole survivor of his crew, that has been massacred by a German U-Boat in the closing days of World War II. He is rescued, and ends up at a forgotten mission station near the mouth of the Orinoco, and begins to plot his vengeance. He wishes to sink the U-Boat by means of any method imaginable to him, and sets about to make the courageous attempt, assisted by Louis, the administrator of the local oil company.
The Buttercup Chain
Director of Photography
Born to twin sisters on the same day in London, France and Margaret are more like brother and sister than cousins. The close relationship between the cousins is suspended when Margaret is sent abroad for schooling. Now a young woman, Margaret returns to London and resumes her intimate connection with France.
The Italian Job
Director of Photography
Charlie's got a 'job' to do. Having just left prison he finds one of his friends has attempted a high-risk job in Torino, Italy, right under the nose of the mafia. Charlie's friend doesn't get very far, so Charlie takes over the 'job'. Using three Mini Coopers, a couple of Jaguars, and a bus, he hopes to bring Torino to a standstill, steal a fortune in gold and escape in the chaos.
The Lion in Winter
Director of Photography
Henry II and his estranged queen battle over the choice of an heir.
Boom!
Director of Photography
Explores the confrontation between the woman who has everything, including emptiness, and a penniless poet who has nothing but the ability to fill a wealthy woman's needs.
Fathom
Director of Photography
While touring abroad in Europe, beautiful American skydiver Fathom Harvill gets wrapped up in international intrigue when Scottish spy Douglas Campbell recruits her to help him on a secret mission. Before long, Fathom realizes that no one around her, including the mysterious Peter Merriweather, can easily be trusted, leading to various adventures that involve bull fighting, beaches and, of course, romance.
Robbery
Director of Photography
In this fictionalised account of the Great Train Robbery, career criminal Paul Clifton plans an audacious crime: the robbery of a mail train carrying millions in cash.
The Fearless Vampire Killers
Director of Photography
A noted professor and his dim-witted apprentice fall prey to their inquiring vampires, while on the trail of the ominous damsel in distress.
The Blue Max
Director of Photography
A young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambitiously to earn the medal offered for 20 kills.
Promise Her Anything
Director of Photography
A widowed mother decides to go after the child psychologist she works for because she thinks he'll be able to provide for her toddler, the catch is her employer doesn't know about her son and he doesn't particularly care for children despite his profession.
A High Wind in Jamaica
Director of Photography
In 1870, a Jamaican colonial family sends its children to Britain for proper schooling, but their ship is taken over by pirates, who become fond of the kids.
Guns at Batasi
Director of Photography
An anachronistic martinet RSM on a remote Colonial African army caught in a local coup d'etat must use his experience to defend those in his care.
The Third Secret
Director of Photography
A prominent London psychologist seems to have taken his own life, causing stunned disbelief amongst his colleagues and patients. His teenage daughter refuses to believe it was suicide as this would go against all of the principles her father stood for, therefore she is convinced it was murder. She enlists the help of a former patient to try to get to the truth. However, the truth turns out to be both surprising and disturbing.
The Servant
Director of Photography
Hugo Barrett is a servant in the Chelsea home of indolent aristocrat Tony. All seems to go well until the playboy’s girlfriend Susan takes a dislike to the efficient employee. Then Barrett persuades Tony to hire his sister Vera as a live-in maid, and matters take another turn for the worse…
Freud: The Secret Passion
Director of Photography
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 L-Shaped Room
Director of Photography
Jane is young, French, pregnant and unmarried. Bucking convention, she is uninterested in settling with her baby's father or getting an abortion. After renting a room in a dingy London boarding house, Jane befriends the odd group of inhabitants and starts an affair with one boarder, Toby. As Jane's pregnancy threatens her new relationship, and the reality of single motherhood approaches, she is forced to decide what to do about both her baby and her budding romance.
The Young Ones
Director of Photography
Nicky and his friends find that their youth club is in danger of being flattened to make way for a new office block unless they can come up with £1500 to pay the new owner, the ruthless property tycoon Hamilton Black. To help raise the cash, Nicky records a song and his friends broadcast it via a pirate radio station, touting him as "The Mystery Singer" - the plan works and interest in their up and coming show is heightened by this new but unknown heart-throb. But Nicky has an even bigger secret and one that he cannot share, even with his girlfriend Toni... Hamilton Black is his father.
The Mark
Director of Photography
A man who served prison time for intent to molest a child tries to build a new life with the help of a sympathetic psychiatrist.
Taste of Fear
Director of Photography
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.
The Boy Who Stole a Million
Director of Photography
A boy gets involved in a bank robbery
Circus of Horrors
Director of Photography
A plastic surgeon and his nurse join a bizarre circus to escape from the police. Here he befriends deformed women and transforms them for his "Temple of Beauty". However, when they threaten to leave, they meet with mysterious accidents.
Tread Softly Stranger
Director of Photography
Unable to pay his bookie, a man returns to his hometown where his embezzler brother and girlfriend plot a robbery that ends in tragedy.
Davy
Director of Photography
The Mad Morgans are a family song and dance act touring the British Music Halls. Young Davy is the star of the act but should he stay with his family or strike out on his own ? The last comedy to be produced at Ealing Studios.
The Man in the Sky
Cinematography
The efforts of test pilot John Mitchell to make a better life for his wife Mary and their two children seem doomed to failure and he blames himself. At the Conway Aero-Manufacturing Company of Wolverhampton, Mitchell is to take the company's new rocket-propulsion transport plane up for tests, fully loaded and carrying two important passengers - Ministry official Crabtree and buyer's representative Ashmore. Mitchell learns from his boss, Reg Conway, that if Ashmore does not recommend the plane, the company will be out of business and Mitchell out of a job, since the plane is not even insured as the firm's entire capital is tied up in the plane. Aloft, an engine catches fire and the passengers and other crew bail out, but Mitchell refuses to obey orders to jettison the plane in the Irish Sea.
Touch and Go
Director of Photography
When Jim Fletcher is told by his firm, that his new furniture designs, are not in keeping with the firms image. he threatens to resign, and decides to uproot his family, and emigrate to Australia. but his problems are only just beginning.
Ludwig II
Director of Photography
Life and death of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
Lease of Life
Director of Photography
The parson of a small rural community knows he is dying and this makes him reconsider his life so far and what he can still do to help the community.
The Love Lottery
Cinematography
Rex Allerton is a top Hollywood star and an idol of the female population. To get away from the pressure of the fans who won't leave him alone, he relocates to a remote Italian village where unanticipated trouble arises when unwittingly he becomes the prize for an international lottery.
The Titfield Thunderbolt
Director of Photography
When British Railways announce the closure of the Titfield to Mallingford branch line a group of local residents make a bid to run it themselves, backed by a monied member of the community who is attracted by the complete lack of licensing hours on trains. Unfortunately the local bus company starts to use methods that can hardly be seen as fair competition.
Mandy
Director of Photography
London, the early 1950s. Born deaf, Mandy is mute for most of her childhood. As she reaches school age her family itself is in danger of breaking up. Christine, Mandy's mother, has heard of a residential school for the oral education of the deaf.
His Excellency
Director of Photography
A trade union official becomes governor of a British island colony
The Man in the White Suit
Director of Photography
The unassuming, nebbishy inventor Sidney Stratton creates a miraculous fabric that will never be dirty or worn out. Clearly he can make a fortune selling clothes made of the material, but may cause a crisis in the process. After all, once someone buys one of his suits they won't ever have to fix them or buy another one, and the clothing industry will collapse overnight. Nevertheless, Sidney is determined to put his invention on the market, forcing the clothing factory bigwigs to resort to more desperate measures...
The Lavender Hill Mob
Director of Photography
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipments of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country.
Cage of Gold
Director of Photography
A young woman, Judith Moray, deserts her prospective fiance, the nice doctor Alan Kearn, for an old flame, the dashing but roguish former wing commander Bill Glennan. Glennan makes her pregnant and marries her, but leaves her on the morning after the wedding when he learns that her father can't offer him financial support. Two years later she - having been told that Glennan is dead - has married Kearn and borne him a son. But then Glennan suddenly reappears and begins to blackmail her.
Dance Hall
Director of Photography
Episodic tale of four factory girls and their various romances at the local dance hall in Chiswick, London. Unusual at the time, the film tells its story from a feminine perspective. Today, it is mainly recognised for its post-war London atmosphere, with bomb sites, trolleybuses and rationing.
A Run for Your Money
Director of Photography
Two Welsh coal-mining brothers win a trip to London to claim a monetary prize. They are supposed to meet a newspaper reporter who will be their escort. Instead, the brothers are launched into an adventure with some London riff-raff. It is up to the reporter to look out for the brothers, and what a job it turns out to be!
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Director of Photography
When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.
Another Shore
Director of Photography
A young Irishman comes up with an unusual plan to get the money to emigrate to Tahiti. One of the Ealing comedies.
Saraband for Dead Lovers
Director of Photography
Sophie Dorothea is a young woman forced into a loveless marriage with Prince George Louis of Hanover. George Louis is later crowned King George I of England. Despairing of ever experiencing true love, the depressed queen finds life at court no solace. Sophie then falls for a dashing Swedish soldier of fortune, Count Konigsmark.
It Always Rains on Sunday
Director of Photography
During a rainy Sunday afternoon, an escaped prisoner tries to hide out at the home of his ex-fiance.
The Loves of Joanna Godden
Director of Photography
Joanna Godden falls heir to a farm when her father dies.
Hue and Cry
Director of Photography
A gang of street boys foil a master crook who sends commands for robberies by cunningly altering a comic strip's wording each week, unknown to writer and printer. The first of the Ealing comedies.
The Captive Heart
Director of Photography
A series of stories about the lives and loves of nine men in a Prisoner of War Camp over five years. Location shooting in the British occupied part of Germany adds believability. The main story is of Hasek (Redgrave) a Czech soldier who needs to keep his identity a secret from the Nazis, to do this he poses as a dead English Officer and corresponds with the man's wife. Upon liberation they meet and decide to continue their lives together. The other inmates' stories are revealed episodically.
Dead of Night
Director of Photography
Architect Walter Craig, seeking the possibility of some work at a country farmhouse, soon finds himself once again stuck in his recurring nightmare. Dreading the end of the dream that he knows is coming, he must first listen to all the assembled guests' own bizarre tales.
Painted Boats
Director of Photography
In this modest drama, set during World War II, two rival boat families battle it out for supremacy.
Champagne Charlie
Camera Operator
A man from the countryside becomes London’s newest music hall sensation, and competes with a rival music hall performer for the audience’s attention.
For Those in Peril
Director of Photography
A WWII flyer fails to join the RAF so he joins the Air - Sea Rescue instead. His boat is out in all conditions picking up downed pilots and taking them to safety.
The Big Blockade
Director of Photography
Wartime propaganda piece reporting on the success of the economic blockade of Germany in the early years of the war.
Find, Fix and Strike
Camera Operator
Deals with the training of Fleet Air Arm pilots and crew during World War II.
Guests of Honour
Cinematography
Ealing Studios short war documentary