Brian Desmond Hurst
Encyclopedia
Brian Desmond Hurst was a Belfast-born film director
. Responsible for over 30 movies as director, Hurst was Ireland's most prolific movie director during the 20th century.
Brian Desmond Hurst's father (Robert, senior) and brother (Robert, junior) were iron-workers in the Harland and Wolff shipyard. In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I
Hurst enlisted as a private in the British Army and changed his name from Hans to Brian soon afterwards. He saw service with the 6th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles at the battle of Chunuk Bair in Gallipoli
, the Balkans
and the Middle East. At the battle of Chunuk Bair his regiment were "battle virgins when they were thrown into the Turkish machine gun fire for the first time on 10th August 1915". "They had set out a few hours before for the Chunuk Bair with twenty officers and over 700 men. Several stragglers and those who had lost their way returned to base in the hours that lay ahead but by the evening of 10 August the Hampshires and the Rifles had been broken in what amounted to a cruel massacre".
Hurst was interviewed by Punch
magazine in 1969 and the article contained Hurst's quote "'I would fight for England against anybody except Ireland' he says, Why for England? 'Because an Englishman is worth twenty foreigners.' Why not against Ireland? 'Because an Irishman is worth fifty Englishmen.'" In the same article when commenting about his experiences of fighting at Gallipoli in a Battalion that was from a mixed religious background, as it had recruiting offices in Belfast and Dublin, the article comments "Catholic-Protestant antagonism vanished in this holocaust".
Returning from World War I Hurst found life in Belfast constraining and he took a government grant to emigrate to Canada sometime in 1920. He wanted to follow his artistic ambition and enrolled at the Toronto College of Art. After two years he left and went to France to study art at École des Beaux Arts in Paris
.
, sometimes claimed to have been Hurst's cousin, he learnt the new skills of set management. Hurst even made one screen appearance as an extra in Ford's Hangman's House
(1928) where he briefly appears alongside a college footballer gaining his first break - John Wayne
. Hurst's skills, however, were behind the camera where his artist training allowed him to capture faces and expressions with a unique flair. These skills were honed under Ford who remained a lifelong friend. Hurst was with Ford and helped advise Ford when Ford brought Hollywood to Ireland when making The Quiet Man
(1952).
By 1933 Hurst was ready to return to the UK and settled in Belgravia from the 1930s to his death in 1986 although often returning to Ulster to visit relatives for "a spiritual bath".
His early Irish work is attracting historic interest with Synge's Riders to the Sea
(1935) and the Irish War of Independence
love story Ourselves Alone
(1936) proving to be historically important. Hurst's Irish Hearts (1934) "is certainly one of the main contenders for the first Irish sound feature film".
Riders to the Sea was shot in Connemara where Hurst used the actors of the Abbey Theatre
in Dublin and "the film reflects the disparity between the two, with the actors delivering their lines in a highly technical manner whilst the camera revels in the bleak, natural beauty of the coastline and sky. Hurst's visuals are invariably compared with those of his mentor, John Ford, and the opening shots of Riders... are markedly Fordian in their elementary quality".
Ourselves Alone was banned in Northern Ireland at the time of its release in 1936 although it has now achieved the recognition it deserved and is shown in museums and other public access points in Northern Ireland. It appears to have been misunderstood. At the time Hurst pointed out the original story had been written by a British army officer and Hurst claimed that the film was 'pro-British'.
Hurst's earliest English films include The Tenth Man (1936) and Glamourous Night (1937).
In 1937 Hurst was retained by Alexander Korda on a resurrected project to direct "Lawrence of Arabia". In "Filming TE Lawrence Korda's Lost Epic" it was noted that "Hurst was a Northern Irishman who could speak Arabic... Hurst was about to leave on a trip to Jerusalem to scout locations when Korda cancelled the trip, saying that the Palestine government refused to permit large gatherings of Arabs and they could not make the film without crowds of Arab extras. The last version of Hurst's screenplay (co-written with Miles Malleson and Duncan Guthrie) dated 4 October 1938 is reprinted in "Filming TE Lawrence Korda's Lost Epic pages pages 33 to 127."
"On the Night of the Fire
" is regarded as one of the early examples of British film noir. Released in December 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War and set in Newcastle it charts the slow moral destruction of a barber following his theft of some money. The film critic David Quinlan describes the film as "grim but gripping". Andrew Spicer, in his book European Film Noir, writes: "A riveting psychological study. With its sustained doom-laden atmosphere, Krampf’s expressive cinematography, its adroit mixture of location shooting and Gothic compositions and Richardson’s wonderful performance as a lower middle-class Everyman, On the Night of the Fire clearly shows that an achieved mastery of film noir existed in British cinema".
Hurst then had the distinction of being selected by Alexander Korda to help co-direct Korda's bit for the war effort The Lion Has Wings
(1939) featuring Ralph Richardson which was described by one critic as "Hurst's most celebrated film of the 1930s". The historic importance of the movie is understood when it is realised that Korda was a close friend of Winston Churchill and had made a promise to Churchill to get this movie out within a month of war being declared. The review on Imdb.com comments that "This first of its kind in propaganda films of World War II, shows the might of the English Empire and its eagerness to stand up to the oppressors of morality and free will. Crude but effective propaganda cinema that sets the tone for things to come. With its stiff upper lip attitude...".
(1941) was "his best known picture", "a big popular success" which "launched a cycle of pictures with concerti as their theme music" because of its successful utilisation of Richard Addinsell
's Warsaw Concerto
.
Hurst worked for the Ministry of Information during the Second World War for whom his films included A Call to Arms (1940), Miss Grant Goes to the Door
(1940) and his homeland movie A Letter From Ulster (1943) where Hurst and Terence Young (scriptwritter) and his fellow Ulsterman and Assistant Director William MacQuitty
created a film "promoting a sense of community" between the people of Northern Ireland and over one hundred thousand troops from the USA based in Northern Ireland at the time. Brian McIlroy explained that "Hurst was able to persuade one Catholic and one Protestant soldier to write letters home, explaining their impressions of their stay. From these letters, Terence Young, the scriptwritter, was able to construct a sequence of activities that revealed the different traditions of Ireland."
An interesting fact about Hurst's Hundred Pound Window (1944) was that it featured a young Richard Attenborough
obtaining his first credited role (playing Tommy Draper).
Hurst's Theirs is the Glory
(1946) was possibly the biggest grossing war movie for a decade where he took 200 members of the 1st Airborne back to Arnhem and Oosterbeek to direct and 'remake' their role in the Battle of Arnhem
. Every single person in that movie served with the 1st Airborne or was a civilian from Oosterbeek or Arnhem. You cannot help but wonder whether Hurst was thinking back to his colleagues that he left behind at Gallipoli especially when you watch the moving opening scene featuring 10 men in a Nissen hut preparing for battle and the closing scene featuring only 2 returning. What we do know is that Hurst said "The film is my favourite because of the wonderful experience of working with soldiers, and because it is a true documentary reconstruction of the event. I say without modesty it is one of the best war films ever made"".
The premier of Theirs is the Glory was on the second anniversary of the battle in September 1946 and was attended by the Prime Minister. King George VI
commanded a private screening at Balmoral. Theirs is the Glory and A Bridge Too Far were compared in the battlefields magazine Against All Odds and the comparison is stark and revealing "A Bridge Too Far is a slow moving epic, well worth a viewing with some authentic scenes, but is unconvincing in its portrayal of the battle of Oosterbeek...'Theirs is the Glory' is the only feature film currently released that accurately portrays the events at Oosterbeek in atmospheric and chronoligical terms, despite its jerky portrayal of events. This is a film to watch.".
Hurst's post-war career included producing and directing the definitive Christmas movie Scrooge
(1951) which is the "best of the many screen versions of Dickens's warm-as-mince-pies Christmas Carol, with Alastair Sim as Scrooge incarnate: his miserly humbuggery is a delight. So is Michael Hordern's ghastly Jacob Marley, and the snowy, atmospheric photography of CM Pennington-Richards".
Hurst produced Tom Brown's Schooldays
(1951) and directed the box office successes Malta Story
(1953) featuring Alec Guinness
as an RAF pilot helping to defend Malta. "The combination of an A list cast, the portrayal of the iron relilence of the Maltese people, the gallantry of the RAF pilots and a tragic love story were the four components of its success". Hurst went on to directSimba- Mark of the Mau Mau (1955) featuring Dirk Bogarde
and The Black Tent
(1956) featuring Donald Pleasence
, Anthony Steel and Donald Sinden
. In his late 60s Hurst returned to Synge and adapted the script, produced and directed Playboy of the Western World (1962), his last film.
In the same way that John Ford had mentored Hurst it seems that Hurst was able to mentor and help many leading lights in the movie business. Hurst spotted a young Roger Moore
in 1945 where he was an extra on the film set of Caesar and Cleopatra in London. He offered him the chance to audition for RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) with his parent's consent and paid his fees.
The first three scriptwriting roles of Terence Young were on the Hurst directed movies On the Night of the Fire (1939), Dangerous Moonlight (1941) and A Letter From Ulster (1942). They worked together again on Hungry Hill (1947).
unveiled a blue plaque at 23 Ribble Street, East Belfast to honour Northern Ireland's greatest film director. Brian had been born at the original 23 Ribble Street. Further information at http://www.ulsterhistory.co.uk/130411.html
On 13 April 2011 the Directors Guild of Great Britain unveiled a blue plaque at Queens Film Theatre in Belfast for Brian Desmond Hurst. At that date the three other film directors bestowed with this honour were Michael Powell, Alexander Mackendrick and David Lean. The plaque was unveiled by Redmond Morris.
THE HUMAN BLARNEY STONE: Life and Films of Brian Desmond Hurst. Released as a 40 minute feature with VCI DVD's 60th Anniversary 'Diamond' edition of A Christmas Carol the publicity explains "An all-new documentary chronicling the awe-inspiring life of Ireland's most prolific filmmaker". (40 mins)
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
. Responsible for over 30 movies as director, Hurst was Ireland's most prolific movie director during the 20th century.
Early life
Hurst was born Hans Hurst in Ribble Street, East Belfast"". into a working class family. Hurst attended the New Road School, a Public Elementary School, on the junction of the Newtownards Road and Hemp Street in East Belfast. The building still exists today and further information on this and the houses he lived in are detailed in the Belfast media legacy website "Black City" http://www.blackcity.co.uk/hurst.htm.Brian Desmond Hurst's father (Robert, senior) and brother (Robert, junior) were iron-workers in the Harland and Wolff shipyard. In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Hurst enlisted as a private in the British Army and changed his name from Hans to Brian soon afterwards. He saw service with the 6th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles at the battle of Chunuk Bair in Gallipoli
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace , the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" , meaning "Beautiful City"...
, the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and the Middle East. At the battle of Chunuk Bair his regiment were "battle virgins when they were thrown into the Turkish machine gun fire for the first time on 10th August 1915". "They had set out a few hours before for the Chunuk Bair with twenty officers and over 700 men. Several stragglers and those who had lost their way returned to base in the hours that lay ahead but by the evening of 10 August the Hampshires and the Rifles had been broken in what amounted to a cruel massacre".
Hurst was interviewed by Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
magazine in 1969 and the article contained Hurst's quote "'I would fight for England against anybody except Ireland' he says, Why for England? 'Because an Englishman is worth twenty foreigners.' Why not against Ireland? 'Because an Irishman is worth fifty Englishmen.'" In the same article when commenting about his experiences of fighting at Gallipoli in a Battalion that was from a mixed religious background, as it had recruiting offices in Belfast and Dublin, the article comments "Catholic-Protestant antagonism vanished in this holocaust".
Returning from World War I Hurst found life in Belfast constraining and he took a government grant to emigrate to Canada sometime in 1920. He wanted to follow his artistic ambition and enrolled at the Toronto College of Art. After two years he left and went to France to study art at École des Beaux Arts in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Early film career
Hurst then moved to Hollywood where he quickly rose from set artwork to movie production. Under the expert guidance of John FordJohn Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
, sometimes claimed to have been Hurst's cousin, he learnt the new skills of set management. Hurst even made one screen appearance as an extra in Ford's Hangman's House
Hangman's House
Hangman's House is a 1928 romantic drama genre silent film set in Co. Wicklow, Ireland, directed by John Ford with intertitles written by Malcolm Stuart Boylan. It is based on a novel by Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne. It was adapted by Philip Klein with scenarios by Marion Orth...
(1928) where he briefly appears alongside a college footballer gaining his first break - John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
. Hurst's skills, however, were behind the camera where his artist training allowed him to capture faces and expressions with a unique flair. These skills were honed under Ford who remained a lifelong friend. Hurst was with Ford and helped advise Ford when Ford brought Hollywood to Ireland when making The Quiet Man
The Quiet Man
The Quiet Man is a 1952 American Technicolor romantic comedy-drama film. It was directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglen and Barry Fitzgerald. It was based on a 1933 Saturday Evening Post short story by Maurice Walsh...
(1952).
By 1933 Hurst was ready to return to the UK and settled in Belgravia from the 1930s to his death in 1986 although often returning to Ulster to visit relatives for "a spiritual bath".
His early Irish work is attracting historic interest with Synge's Riders to the Sea
Riders to the Sea
Riders to the Sea is a play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge. It was first performed on February 25, 1904 at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin by the Irish National Theater Society. A one-act tragedy, the play is set in the Aran Islands, and like all of Synge's plays it is noted for...
(1935) and the Irish War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
love story Ourselves Alone
Ourselves Alone
Ourselves Alone is a 1936 British film depicting a love story set against the backdrop of the 1921 Irish War of Independence. The title is a translation of the Irish Sinn Féin. It is directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and stars John Lodge, John Loder and Antoinette Cellier.-Synopsis:The film opens...
(1936) proving to be historically important. Hurst's Irish Hearts (1934) "is certainly one of the main contenders for the first Irish sound feature film".
Riders to the Sea was shot in Connemara where Hurst used the actors of the Abbey Theatre
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
in Dublin and "the film reflects the disparity between the two, with the actors delivering their lines in a highly technical manner whilst the camera revels in the bleak, natural beauty of the coastline and sky. Hurst's visuals are invariably compared with those of his mentor, John Ford, and the opening shots of Riders... are markedly Fordian in their elementary quality".
Ourselves Alone was banned in Northern Ireland at the time of its release in 1936 although it has now achieved the recognition it deserved and is shown in museums and other public access points in Northern Ireland. It appears to have been misunderstood. At the time Hurst pointed out the original story had been written by a British army officer and Hurst claimed that the film was 'pro-British'.
Hurst's earliest English films include The Tenth Man (1936) and Glamourous Night (1937).
In 1937 Hurst was retained by Alexander Korda on a resurrected project to direct "Lawrence of Arabia". In "Filming TE Lawrence Korda's Lost Epic" it was noted that "Hurst was a Northern Irishman who could speak Arabic... Hurst was about to leave on a trip to Jerusalem to scout locations when Korda cancelled the trip, saying that the Palestine government refused to permit large gatherings of Arabs and they could not make the film without crowds of Arab extras. The last version of Hurst's screenplay (co-written with Miles Malleson and Duncan Guthrie) dated 4 October 1938 is reprinted in "Filming TE Lawrence Korda's Lost Epic pages pages 33 to 127."
"On the Night of the Fire
On the Night of the Fire
On the Night of the Fire is a 1939 British thriller, directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Ralph Richardson and Diana Wynyard. The film is based on the novel of the same name by F. L. Green. It was shot on location in Newcastle upon Tyne and was released shortly after the outbreak of World...
" is regarded as one of the early examples of British film noir. Released in December 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War and set in Newcastle it charts the slow moral destruction of a barber following his theft of some money. The film critic David Quinlan describes the film as "grim but gripping". Andrew Spicer, in his book European Film Noir, writes: "A riveting psychological study. With its sustained doom-laden atmosphere, Krampf’s expressive cinematography, its adroit mixture of location shooting and Gothic compositions and Richardson’s wonderful performance as a lower middle-class Everyman, On the Night of the Fire clearly shows that an achieved mastery of film noir existed in British cinema".
Hurst then had the distinction of being selected by Alexander Korda to help co-direct Korda's bit for the war effort The Lion Has Wings
The Lion Has Wings
The Lion Has Wings is a 1939 British, black-and-white, documentary-style, propaganda, war film. The film was directed by Adrian Brunel, Brian Desmond Hurst, Alexander Korda and Michael Powell...
(1939) featuring Ralph Richardson which was described by one critic as "Hurst's most celebrated film of the 1930s". The historic importance of the movie is understood when it is realised that Korda was a close friend of Winston Churchill and had made a promise to Churchill to get this movie out within a month of war being declared. The review on Imdb.com comments that "This first of its kind in propaganda films of World War II, shows the might of the English Empire and its eagerness to stand up to the oppressors of morality and free will. Crude but effective propaganda cinema that sets the tone for things to come. With its stiff upper lip attitude...".
Later years
The Times, in its obituary of Hurst in 1986, commented that Dangerous MoonlightDangerous Moonlight
Dangerous Moonlight is a 1941 British film, starring Anton Walbrook, best known for its score written by Richard Addinsell with orchestrations by Roy Douglas, which includes the Warsaw Concerto...
(1941) was "his best known picture", "a big popular success" which "launched a cycle of pictures with concerti as their theme music" because of its successful utilisation of Richard Addinsell
Richard Addinsell
Richard Stewart Addinsell was a British composer, best known for film music, primarily his Warsaw Concerto, composed for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight .-Life:...
's Warsaw Concerto
Warsaw Concerto
The Warsaw Concerto is a single-movement piano concerto written for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight . It was written by British composer Richard Addinsell...
.
Hurst worked for the Ministry of Information during the Second World War for whom his films included A Call to Arms (1940), Miss Grant Goes to the Door
Miss Grant Goes to the Door
Miss Grant Goes to the Door was a short propaganda film made for the British Ministry of Information in 1940. It was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starred Mary Clare and Martita Hunt as two sisters, Caroline and Edith Grant, who have to deal with two invading Germans who arrive at their cottage...
(1940) and his homeland movie A Letter From Ulster (1943) where Hurst and Terence Young (scriptwritter) and his fellow Ulsterman and Assistant Director William MacQuitty
William MacQuitty
William MacQuitty was a British film producer and also a writer and photographer. He is most noted for his production of the 1958 Rank Organisation / Pinewood Studios film, A Night to Remember, which recreates the story of the sinking of RMS Titanic, based on the book of the same name by Walter...
created a film "promoting a sense of community" between the people of Northern Ireland and over one hundred thousand troops from the USA based in Northern Ireland at the time. Brian McIlroy explained that "Hurst was able to persuade one Catholic and one Protestant soldier to write letters home, explaining their impressions of their stay. From these letters, Terence Young, the scriptwritter, was able to construct a sequence of activities that revealed the different traditions of Ireland."
An interesting fact about Hurst's Hundred Pound Window (1944) was that it featured a young Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
obtaining his first credited role (playing Tommy Draper).
Hurst's Theirs is the Glory
Theirs is the Glory
Theirs Is the Glory , a Rank production, is a 1946 British film about the British Airborne element of the World War II Operation Market Garden, and specifically the Battle of Arnhem. It was the first film to be made about this battle, and the biggest grossing war movie for nearly a decade...
(1946) was possibly the biggest grossing war movie for a decade where he took 200 members of the 1st Airborne back to Arnhem and Oosterbeek to direct and 'remake' their role in the Battle of Arnhem
Battle of Arnhem
The Battle of Arnhem was a famous Second World War military engagement fought in and around the Dutch towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Wolfheze, Driel and the surrounding countryside from 17–26 September 1944....
. Every single person in that movie served with the 1st Airborne or was a civilian from Oosterbeek or Arnhem. You cannot help but wonder whether Hurst was thinking back to his colleagues that he left behind at Gallipoli especially when you watch the moving opening scene featuring 10 men in a Nissen hut preparing for battle and the closing scene featuring only 2 returning. What we do know is that Hurst said "The film is my favourite because of the wonderful experience of working with soldiers, and because it is a true documentary reconstruction of the event. I say without modesty it is one of the best war films ever made"".
The premier of Theirs is the Glory was on the second anniversary of the battle in September 1946 and was attended by the Prime Minister. King George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
commanded a private screening at Balmoral. Theirs is the Glory and A Bridge Too Far were compared in the battlefields magazine Against All Odds and the comparison is stark and revealing "A Bridge Too Far is a slow moving epic, well worth a viewing with some authentic scenes, but is unconvincing in its portrayal of the battle of Oosterbeek...'Theirs is the Glory' is the only feature film currently released that accurately portrays the events at Oosterbeek in atmospheric and chronoligical terms, despite its jerky portrayal of events. This is a film to watch.".
Hurst's post-war career included producing and directing the definitive Christmas movie Scrooge
Scrooge (1951 film)
Scrooge, released as A Christmas Carol in the United States, is a 1951 film adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. It starred Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge and was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley.The film also features Kathleen Harrison in an...
(1951) which is the "best of the many screen versions of Dickens's warm-as-mince-pies Christmas Carol, with Alastair Sim as Scrooge incarnate: his miserly humbuggery is a delight. So is Michael Hordern's ghastly Jacob Marley, and the snowy, atmospheric photography of CM Pennington-Richards".
Hurst produced Tom Brown's Schooldays
Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951 film)
Tom Brown's Schooldays is a 1951 British drama film directed by Gordon Parry and starring John Howard Davies, Robert Newton and James Hayter. It is based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Hughes. The screenplay was written by Noel Langley....
(1951) and directed the box office successes Malta Story
Malta Story
Malta Story is a 1953 British war film based on the heroic defence of Malta, the island itself, its people and the RAF aviators who fought to defend it...
(1953) featuring Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
as an RAF pilot helping to defend Malta. "The combination of an A list cast, the portrayal of the iron relilence of the Maltese people, the gallantry of the RAF pilots and a tragic love story were the four components of its success". Hurst went on to directSimba- Mark of the Mau Mau (1955) featuring Dirk Bogarde
Dirk Bogarde
Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol in such films as Doctor in the House and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice...
and The Black Tent
The Black Tent
The Black Tent is a 1956 British war film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Donald Sinden, Anthony Steel, Anna Maria Sandri, André Morell and Donald Pleasence. It is set in North Africa, during the Second World War and was filmed on location in Libya.-Plot:During the British retreat...
(1956) featuring Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
, Anthony Steel and Donald Sinden
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE is an English actor of theatre, film and television.-Personal life:Sinden was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 9 October 1923. The son of Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes , he grew up in the Sussex village of Ditchling, where their home doubled as the...
. In his late 60s Hurst returned to Synge and adapted the script, produced and directed Playboy of the Western World (1962), his last film.
In the same way that John Ford had mentored Hurst it seems that Hurst was able to mentor and help many leading lights in the movie business. Hurst spotted a young Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
in 1945 where he was an extra on the film set of Caesar and Cleopatra in London. He offered him the chance to audition for RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) with his parent's consent and paid his fees.
The first three scriptwriting roles of Terence Young were on the Hurst directed movies On the Night of the Fire (1939), Dangerous Moonlight (1941) and A Letter From Ulster (1942). They worked together again on Hungry Hill (1947).
Writings
The official legacy website on Brian Desmond Hurst is at http://www.briandesmondhurst.org and a link to this is also included below at the links section. He was the subject of an acclaimed memoir, The Empress of Ireland, written by Christopher Robbins, in 2004.Selected filmography
- Hangman's HouseHangman's HouseHangman's House is a 1928 romantic drama genre silent film set in Co. Wicklow, Ireland, directed by John Ford with intertitles written by Malcolm Stuart Boylan. It is based on a novel by Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne. It was adapted by Philip Klein with scenarios by Marion Orth...
(1928) - Riders to the SeaRiders to the SeaRiders to the Sea is a play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge. It was first performed on February 25, 1904 at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin by the Irish National Theater Society. A one-act tragedy, the play is set in the Aran Islands, and like all of Synge's plays it is noted for...
(1935) - Ourselves AloneOurselves AloneOurselves Alone is a 1936 British film depicting a love story set against the backdrop of the 1921 Irish War of Independence. The title is a translation of the Irish Sinn Féin. It is directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and stars John Lodge, John Loder and Antoinette Cellier.-Synopsis:The film opens...
(1936) - Glamorous NightGlamorous Night (film)Glamorous Night is a 1937 British drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Mary Ellis, Otto Kruger and Victor Jory. It is an adaptation of the play Glamorous Night by Ivor Novello.-Cast:* Mary Ellis ... Melitza Hjos...
(1937) - SensationSensation (film)Sensation is a 1936 British crime film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring John Lodge, Diana Churchill, Francis Lister and Felix Aylmer...
(1936) - The Lion Has WingsThe Lion Has WingsThe Lion Has Wings is a 1939 British, black-and-white, documentary-style, propaganda, war film. The film was directed by Adrian Brunel, Brian Desmond Hurst, Alexander Korda and Michael Powell...
(1939) - On the Night of the FireOn the Night of the FireOn the Night of the Fire is a 1939 British thriller, directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Ralph Richardson and Diana Wynyard. The film is based on the novel of the same name by F. L. Green. It was shot on location in Newcastle upon Tyne and was released shortly after the outbreak of World...
(1939) - Dangerous MoonlightDangerous MoonlightDangerous Moonlight is a 1941 British film, starring Anton Walbrook, best known for its score written by Richard Addinsell with orchestrations by Roy Douglas, which includes the Warsaw Concerto...
(1941) - A Letter From UlsterA Letter From UlsterUlster-born movie director Brian Desmond Hurst's homeland movie A Letter From Ulster saw Hurst and lifelong friends Terence Young and his fellow Ulsterman and Assistant Director William MacQuitty creating a film promoting a sense of community between the people of Northern Ireland and over one...
(1942) - AlibiAlibi (1942 film)Alibi is a 1942 British mystery film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Margaret Lockwood, James Mason and Hugh Sinclair. Police hunt for the killer of a nightclub hostess. It was based on the novel L'Alibi by Marcel Achard.-Cast:...
(1942) - Theirs is the GloryTheirs is the GloryTheirs Is the Glory , a Rank production, is a 1946 British film about the British Airborne element of the World War II Operation Market Garden, and specifically the Battle of Arnhem. It was the first film to be made about this battle, and the biggest grossing war movie for nearly a decade...
(1946) - ScroogeScrooge (1951 film)Scrooge, released as A Christmas Carol in the United States, is a 1951 film adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. It starred Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge and was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley.The film also features Kathleen Harrison in an...
(1951) - Tom Brown's SchooldaysTom Brown's SchooldaysTom Brown's Schooldays is a novel by Thomas Hughes. The story is set at Rugby School, a public school for boys, in the 1830s; Hughes attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842...
(1951) - Malta StoryMalta StoryMalta Story is a 1953 British war film based on the heroic defence of Malta, the island itself, its people and the RAF aviators who fought to defend it...
(1953) - SimbaSimba (film)Simba is a 1955 British drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Dirk Bogarde, Donald Sinden, Virginia McKenna and Basil Sydney...
(1955) - The Black TentThe Black TentThe Black Tent is a 1956 British war film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Donald Sinden, Anthony Steel, Anna Maria Sandri, André Morell and Donald Pleasence. It is set in North Africa, during the Second World War and was filmed on location in Libya.-Plot:During the British retreat...
(1956) - Playboy of the Western World (1962)
Honours
On 13 April 2011 the Ulster History CircleUlster History Circle
The Ulster History Circle is one of a number of heritage organisations that administers Blue Plaques in Northern Ireland. It is a voluntary, not for profit organisation, placing commemorative plaques in public places in honour of people and locations that have contributed to all genres of history...
unveiled a blue plaque at 23 Ribble Street, East Belfast to honour Northern Ireland's greatest film director. Brian had been born at the original 23 Ribble Street. Further information at http://www.ulsterhistory.co.uk/130411.html
On 13 April 2011 the Directors Guild of Great Britain unveiled a blue plaque at Queens Film Theatre in Belfast for Brian Desmond Hurst. At that date the three other film directors bestowed with this honour were Michael Powell, Alexander Mackendrick and David Lean. The plaque was unveiled by Redmond Morris.
Documentaries on Hurst
On 6 August 2011 RTE Radio One's Documentary on One series broadcast An Irishman Chained to the Truth a 40 minute documentary about Brian Desmond Hurst. RTE explain "Brian Desmond Hurst was the most prolific Irish film director of the 20th century" and the documentary can be heard again on http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/radio-documentary-irishman-chained-to-the-truth-brian-desmond-hurst.htmlTHE HUMAN BLARNEY STONE: Life and Films of Brian Desmond Hurst. Released as a 40 minute feature with VCI DVD's 60th Anniversary 'Diamond' edition of A Christmas Carol the publicity explains "An all-new documentary chronicling the awe-inspiring life of Ireland's most prolific filmmaker". (40 mins)