Know the Name of Neame

There is a poetic resonance in the fact that Ronald Neame, CBE (1911-2010) was born onSt. George’s Day, the Feast Day for England’s Patron Saint, for there is something quintessentially English about this man of the cinema and his body of work. Furthermore, his family proves to have been in the movie business for four generations, stretching back to the silent days. I grew interested in him because he directed one of my favorite moviesThe Poseidon Adventure (1972), which I treated of at some length here. I little suspected that there would be all sorts of connections to our more usual themes of silent film, and even some to performers of the music hall stage.

The saga begins when Neame’s mother Ivy Close (1890-1968) beat out 15,000 other contestants for the title of Most Beautiful Woman in the World in the Daily Mirror‘s first such competition in 1908. One of the numerous photographers who came to take her picture was young Elwin Neame (1885-1923). The pair married in 1910; Neame began starring her in films two years later. Close appeared in nearly 50 films through Neame’s death in 1923, including Pygmalion and Galatea (1912), The Sleeping Beauty (1912), Adam Bede (1918), Nelson (1918) and Expiation (1922).

Ronald Neame broke into the business just as his mother’s career was winding down. Inheriting his father’s knack for lenses and exposure times, he broke into the business as a camera man. In so doing, he essentially apprenticed with several notable directors, and shot some great stars of the era. Among other films, he worked on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929); Lupino Lane’sThe Maid of the Mountains (1932); Monty Banks’ For the Love of Mike (1932); the musical Happy (1933) with Stanley Lupino,Laddie Cliff, and Will Fyffe; A Southern Maid (1933) with Bebe Daniels; and Radio Parade of 1935 with Will Hay. The Old Curiosity Shop (1934) was the first of several Dickens’ adaptations he was to be associated with.

By the mid ’30s, Neame had graduated to cinematographer, his principal job in films for the next decade. Some films of this period include several George Formby comedies, several Walter Forde pictures, and Carol Reed’s Penny Paradise (1938). He worked with David Lean, then still an editor, on the screen adaptation of Shaw’sMajor Barbara (1941) and Powell-Pressburger’sOne of Our Aircraft is Missing (1941) and this leads to the next phase of Neame’s career. When Lean began directing, Neame was his first cinematographer. Then Neame used the relationship to move up to screenwriter and producer. Neame was a key part of Lean’s creative team throughout the ’40s, through both the Noel Coward and Dickens phases, including In Which We Serve (1942), This Happy Breed (1944), Blithe Spirit (1945), Brief Encounter (1945), Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948).

And then Neame moved on to directing. He helmed just over a couple of dozen films from 1950 through 1986, most of them not hugely memorable, but some are worth noting. Having worked with Alec Guinness during the Lean period, he directed him in The Card (1952), The Horse’s Mouth (1958), and Tunes of Glory (1960). He directed Judy Garland’s last starring vehicle I Could Go On Singing (1963) and Maggie Smith’s Oscar winning turn in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). He built on his experience in shooting previous Dickens’ adaptations to direct his own contribution to the subgenre,the semi-musical Scrooge (1970) with Albert Finney.

The Poseidon Adventure (1972) was an enormous smash, and I am convinced that one of the reasons it worked so well is that it balanced all of the special effects and spectacle with top of the line performances. Neame had tons of experience wrangling major stars as a director. Previous to this (in addition to the above-named) he had worked with Gregory Peck (The Million Pound Note, 1953); Clifton Webb and Gloria Grahame (The Man Who Never Was, 1956); Eleanor Parker and George Sanders (The Seventh Sin, 1957); Peter Finch (Windom’s Way, 1957); Yul Brynner (Escapefrom Zahrain, 1962); Deborah Kerr and Hayley Mills (The Chalk Garden, 1964); Robert Mitchum and Carol Baker (Mister Moses, 1965); James Garner (A Man Could Get Killed, 1966); and Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine (Gambit, 1966). Even if you’ve never heard of these movies, you’ve heard of the stars.

After Poseidon, Neame’s next three movies are all fairly well remembered — better known than most of his earlier ones, anyway. They include the action thriller The Odessa Files (1974) with Jon Voight; Meteor (1979), Neame’s second disaster movie, starring Sean Connery and Natalie Wood; and the entertaining spy romp Hopscotch (1980) with Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, and Sam Waterston. Matthau must have enjoyed working with Neame, for he also starred in his next picture, the tepidly reviewed First Monday in October (1981), based on the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee play about a conservative woman (Jill Clayburgh) who is appointed to the Supreme Court. His last, rather ill-advised sounding feature, was a 1986 comedy called Foreign Body which stars Indian actor VictorBanerjee as a guy who escapes Calcutta, masquerades as a doctor, and seduces his female English pateients. Nonetheless there are some impressive names in the ensemble, such as Geraldine McEwan,Anna Massey, and Trevor Howard.

Neame died at the remarkable age of 99 years old, and only then because he had to go under the knife for a broken leg. By his own account, he was still boozing it up daily, right until the end. His autobiography, Straight from the Horse’s Mouth, came out in 2003.

His son, Christopher Elwin Neame (1942-2011) died only a year after him, at the age of 68. Christopher was a writer and producer for television, perhaps most distinguished for working with Graham Greene on his 1985 screen adaptation of Monsieur Quixote, which starred Alec Guinness and Leo McKern.

Christopher’s son is Gareth Neame, OBE (b. 1967) most notable as the executive producer of Downtown Abbey, and reportedly the originator for the concept of the show. He is CEO of Carnival Films, which has also been responsible for such shows as Poirot, Wooster and Jeeves, Whitechapel, Jamestown, and The Gilded Age, et al.

And to think — all this started because of a pretty face! This is a talented family, no doubt, but also a lucky one. Never ever downplay THAT aspect of show business, or life, for that matter.

Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, and learn about English music hall in No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,