J. Lee Thompson

Published on the 50th anniversary of his directorial debut, this is an examination of the work of a man once hailed as the finest film-maker to emerge from the British studio system after World War II. J. Lee Thompson first came to notice as a talented teenage playwright before entering the film business as a scriptwriter.

In the unadventurous world of British film-making in the 1950s, he established himself as a controversial figure known for his innovative ideas and public clashes with the Censor. Before being recruited by Hollywood, he made a string of classic films including: Yield to the Night (1956), Ice Cold in Alex (1958), Tiger Bay (1959), North West Frontier (1959), and The Guns of Navarone (1961). He remains best known, however, for his first: the thriller Cape Fear (1962).

In his late 80s, Lee Thompson worked in the Hollywood industry for which he made nearly 30 films as a director and producer between 1960 and 1990. Drawing on extensive interview material, Steve Chibnall traces J. Lee Thompson's career in British cinema, offering an analysis of his films which reveals remarkable, and previously unacknowledged, continuities of style and theme.