Arthur B. Woods
Arthur B. Woods | |
---|---|
Born | Liverpool, England | 17 August 1904
Died | 8 February 1944 Emsworth, Hampshire, England | (aged 39)
Occupation | Film director |
Years active | 1933–1940 |
Arthur Bickerstaffe Woods (17 August 1904 – 8 February 1944) was an English film director with 27 credits between 1933 and 1940. Woods' films were mainly
Early life
Born into a wealthy shipping family in
Directing career
In 1933, Woods joined
In 1938 Woods returned to the thriller genre with They Drive by Night. This was still a quota quickie, but exceptionally dark and bleak in tone and execution. They Drive by Night has survived, and later assessments rate it very highly. Paul Moody of the British Film Institute summarises the film as: "(London) is presented as the site of all that is wrong with society – a place where a convict is the closest one can get to a hero, where a young girl can be murdered in her own home, and where a pillar of the community is actually a murderer."[3] Time Out reviewer Robert Murphy wrote: "The fusion of quirky British realism and slick Hollywood melodramatics produced a real gem. Woods...takes the workmanlike story of a petty criminal...and invests it with an atmosphere of unrelenting wind, rain and gloom which makes the average American film noir look bright and breezy by comparison."[4]
Woods' reputation was further enhanced by the 1939 spy drama Q Planes (co-directed with Tim Whelan) and his final film Busman's Honeymoon, a Dorothy L. Sayers adaptation.[1]
World War II
Woods, already a skilled pilot, joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1939 as a Navigator. He was involved in the Battle of Britain later that year, and in 1942 was awarded the Air Force Cross. On 8 February 1944, Flight Lieutenant Woods was killed in a mid-air collision over the Hampshire coast, aged 39. Woods and his pilot Norwegian Jan Otto Bugge were flying a de Havilland Mosquito night fighter when it collided with a Vickers Wellington and crashed at Emsworth, killing them both.[5]
Filmography (director)
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♦ These films are confirmed by the British Film Institute as currently missing and believed lost.[6]
References
- ^ a b "Liverpool on Film" Archived 5 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine Parkinson, David. Film in Focus, 11 November 2009. Retrieved 14 August 2010
- ^ Royal Aero Club index card for Aviators Certificate 10735
- ^ They Drive by Night Moody, Paul. BFI Screen Online Retrieved 14 August 2010
- ISBN 0-14-012700-3
- Aviation Safety Network
- ^ Missing Believed Lost Article Archive
External links
- Arthur B. Woods at IMDb