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Jack Lee (1913-2002)

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Birthplace:
Slad, Gloucestershire, England

Born:
January 27, 1913

Died:
October 15, 2002

Biography from TheMovieDB

Wilfred John Raymond Lee (27 January 1913 – 15 October 2002) was a British film director, screenwriter, editor, and producer, who directed a number of postwar films on location in Asia and Australia for The Rank Organisation.  Lee was born in the village of Slad near Stroud, Gloucestershire, the eldest brother of Laurie Lee, author of Cider with Rosie. In childhood, the two boys were close but fell out in later life. Natural rivals, Jack gained a place at the grammar school (Marling School in Stroud); Laurie failed to do so, attending Stroud Central School for Boys.  He directed and co-wrote the screenplay of the pioneering motorcycle speedway film Once a Jolly Swagman (1949) which starred Dirk Bogarde.  Among Jack Lee's other films are The Wooden Horse (1950), a popular Second World War POW escape film; Turn the Key Softly (1953), a realistic drama; A Town Like Alice (1956), starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch, based on Nevil Shute's novel; and Robbery Under Arms (1957), a Western-style adventure set in Australia, based on the 1888 bushranger novel by "Rolf Boldrewood".  During the Australian feature film renaissance ushered in with Picnic at Hanging Rock, he served as chairman (from 1976 to 1981) of the South Australian Film Corporation, which started the careers of Bruce Beresford and Peter Weir.

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Film Production

Assistant Director:
1940  London Can Take It!

Director:
1940  London Can Take It!
1941  Ordinary People
1941  The Pilot Is Safe
1947  Children on Trial
1947  The Woman in the Hall
1949  Once a Jolly Swagman
1950  The Wooden Horse
1953  South of Algiers
1953  Turn the Key Softly
1956  A Town Like Alice
1957  Robbery Under Arms
1959  The Captain's Table
1960  Circle of Deception

Editor:
1940  London Can Take It!
1941  Ordinary People
1941  The Pilot Is Safe
1947  Children on Trial
1947  The Woman in the Hall
1949  Once a Jolly Swagman
1950  The Wooden Horse
1953  South of Algiers
1953  Turn the Key Softly
1956  A Town Like Alice
1957  Robbery Under Arms
1959  The Captain's Table
1960  Circle of Deception

Screenplay:
1940  London Can Take It!
1941  Ordinary People
1941  The Pilot Is Safe
1947  Children on Trial
1947  The Woman in the Hall
1949  Once a Jolly Swagman
1950  The Wooden Horse
1953  South of Algiers
1953  Turn the Key Softly
1956  A Town Like Alice
1957  Robbery Under Arms
1959  The Captain's Table
1960  Circle of Deception

Writer:
1940  London Can Take It!
1941  Ordinary People
1941  The Pilot Is Safe
1947  Children on Trial
1947  The Woman in the Hall
1949  Once a Jolly Swagman
1950  The Wooden Horse
1953  South of Algiers
1953  Turn the Key Softly
1956  A Town Like Alice
1957  Robbery Under Arms
1959  The Captain's Table
1960  Circle of Deception

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While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:

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  • Regarding those polls wherein "franchise" movies were submitted as one project until BFI's policy changed to regard them separately, I treated them as ties and renumbered the affected lists accordingly (e.g. the Godfather films).

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