Douglas Slocombe: Master Cinematographer

Douglas Slocombe’s long and fruitful career can be divided into four stages.

Stage 1: The Master of Ealing

Dead of Night.

He was the cinematographer at Ealing Studios, where he worked with all five great Ealing directors on several classic movies and most of the Ealing comedies. One of his first was the still very frightening anthology horror “Dead of Night” (1945) and its climactic Alberto Cavalcanti-directed “Ventriloquist Dummy.”

The Lavender Hill Mob

Charles Crichton’s “Hue and Cry,” “The Titfield Thunderbolt,” and Ealing’s most successful film and only Oscar winner, “The Lavender Hill Mob” (for T. E. B. Clarke’s Original Screenplay).

Kind Hearts and Coronets

Robert Hamer’s most excellent film, “KH&C,” is Slocombe’s masterpiece from the Ealing era.

The Man in the White Suit

He also shot Alexander Mackendrick’s “The Man in the White Suit” and “Mandy” and Basil Dearden’s “The Captive Heart” and “Saraband for Dead Lovers.”

Stage 2: The Great British Cinematographer of the Sixties.

His stunning black and white cinematography on Bryan Forbes’ kitchen sink drama “The L-Shaped Room” with Leslie Caron and Joseph Losey’s “The Servant” with Dirk Bogart and James Fox, both from 1963, mark one of the high points of British cinema.

Stage 3: Cinematographer on the world stage.

He moved to the world stage after his first Oscar nomination at sixty for George Cukor’s “Travels with My Aunt” in 1972. During this period, his color cinematography on Jack Clayton’s underrated 1974 version of “The Great Gatsby” and Fred Zinnemann’s “Julia” (second Oscar nomination) are justly praised. Although the latter, which we now know was fabricated by its author, Lillian Hellman, has fallen out of favor, there is no denying the power of Slocombe’s autumnal and wintry mise-en-scene.

Stage 4: Indiana Jones

Finally, the Indiana Jones movies 1981, 1984, and 1989. His work on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (third Oscar nomination), Spielberg’s most fantastic film, is excellent and alone, and it would grant him a place in the hall of cinema’s great cinematographers.

TABLE SUMMARY: CINEMATOGRAPHY BY DOUGLAS SLOCOMBE

*Slocombe’s cinematography was singled out for special praise.

**An anthology horror film composed of individual segments: “The Hearse Driver” (Dearden), “The Christmas Party” (Cavalcanti), “The Haunted Mirror” (Hamer), “The Golfer’s Story” (Crichton), and the “Ventriloquist’s Dummy” (Cavalcanti). Dearden also directed the overarching story at the farmhouse.

***British Society of Cinematographers.

**** Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

https://thebrownees.net/1949-kind-hearts-and-coronets-30s-40s/

https://thebrownees.net/1963-the-l-shaped-room/

https://thebrownees.net/1963-the-servant/

https://thebrownees.net/1974-the-great-gatsby/