Leslie Arliss was an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

 and director

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:...

. He is best known for his work on the Gainsborough melodramas

Gainsborough melodramas

The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures during the 1940s which conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films which had similar themes and frequently recurring actors...

 directing films such as The Man in Grey

The Man in Grey

The Man in Grey is a 1943 British film melodrama made by Gainsborough Pictures, and is widely considered as the first of its "Gainsborough melodramas"...

and The Wicked Lady

The Wicked Lady

The Wicked Lady is a 1945 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman for the excitement...

. during the 1940s. He was not the son of George and Florence Arliss

George Arliss

George Arliss was an English actor, author and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award.-Life and career:...

 as has sometimes been reported erroneously.

Career

Arliss started his professional career as a journalist. Later he branched out into being a critic. During the 1920s he entered the film industry as a screenwriter, and author of short stories. In 1941 he became a director, initially for Associated British, but soon changing to the Gainsborough Pictures

Gainsborough Pictures

Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, London. Gainsborough Studios were active between 1924 and 1951. Built as a power station for the Great Northern & City Railway it...

. Later he worked for the Alexander Korda

Alexander Korda

Sir Alexander Korda was a Hungarian-born British producer and film director. He was a leading figure in the British film industry, the founder of London Films and the owner of British Lion Films, a film distributing company.-Life and career:The elder brother of filmmakers Zoltán Korda and Vincent...

-British Lion Film Corporation. He directed several series of television programmes.

Films for which he was a screenwriter

• Farmers Wife - 1928
• Road House - 1934
• Orders is Orders - 1934
• Heat Wave - 1935
• Jack Ahoy - 1935
• Windbag the Sailor - 1936
• Rhodes - 1936
• Good Morning, Boys - 1937
• Sez O'Reilly to MacNab - 1937
• Too Dangerous to Live - 1937
• The Second Mr Bush - 1940
• Pastor Hall - 1940
• The Foreman Went to France
  The Foreman Went to France
  The Foreman Went to France, also known as Somewhere in France, is a 1942 British World War II war film starring Clifford Evans, Tommy Trinder, Constance Cummings and Gordon Jackson...
  
  - 1942
• The Saint Meets the Tiger - 1943
• The Woman's Angle
  The Woman's Angle
  The Woman's Angle is 1952 British drama film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Edward Underdown, Cathy O'Donnell and Lois Maxwell. It is based on the novel Three Cups of Coffee by Ruth Feiner.-Cast:* Edward Underdown - Robert Mansell...
  
  - 1952
• Wicked Lady - 1983

Films for which he was both director and screenwriter

• The Farmer's Wife
  The Farmer's Wife (1941 film)
  The Farmer's Wife is a 1941 British drama film directed by Norman Lee and Leslie Arliss and starring Basil Sydney, Wilfrid Lawson and Nora Swinburne. It is based on the play The Farmer's Wife by Eden Phillpotts which had previously been adapted by Alfred Hitchcock for a 1929 film.-Cast:* Basil...
  
  - 1941
• The Night has Eyes
  The Night Has Eyes
  The Night Has Eyes is a 1942 British thriller film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring James Mason, Wilfrid Lawson and Mary Clare. Two young teachers travel to the Yorkshire Moors where their friend disappeared a year before...
  
  - 1942
• The Man in Grey
  The Man in Grey
  The Man in Grey is a 1943 British film melodrama made by Gainsborough Pictures, and is widely considered as the first of its "Gainsborough melodramas"...
  
  - 1943
• Love Story
  Love Story (1944 film)
  Love Story is a 1944 British romance film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. It is based on a short story by J.W. Drawbell.-Synopsis:...
  
  - 1944
• The Wicked Lady
  The Wicked Lady
  The Wicked Lady is a 1945 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman for the excitement...
  
  - 1945
• A Man About the House
  A Man About the House (1947 film)
  A Man About the House is a black-and-white British film directed by Leslie Arliss and released in 1947. The film is a melodrama, adapted for the screen by J.B. Williams from the 1942 novel of the same name by Francis Brett Young...
  
  - 1947
• Idol of Paris
  The Idol of Paris
  The Idol of Paris was a 1948 film based on the novel Paiva, Queen of Love by Alfred Schirokauer, about a mid-19th century French courtesan Theresa who sleeps her way from poverty to the top of Second Empire society.-Cast:*Beryl Baxter - Theresa...
  
  - 1948 (Director only)
• Saints and Sinners
  Saints and Sinners (1949 film)
  Saints and Sinners is a 1949 British comedy drama film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Kieron Moore, Christine Norden and Sheila Manahan...
  
  - 1949 (Also Producer)
• Miss Tulip stays the Night
  Miss Tulip Stays the Night
  Miss Tulip Stays the Night is a 1955 British comedy crime film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Diana Dors, Patrick Holt, Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge...
  
  - 1955
• See How They Run
  See How They Run (1955 film)
  See How They Run is a 1955 British comedy film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Ronald Shiner as Wally Winton.-Cast:* Ronald Shiner as Wally Winton* Greta Gynt as Penelope Toop* James Hayter as Bishop of Lax...
  
  - 1955

Television work

• The New Adventures of Charly Chan - 1952
• Sailor of Fortune - 1955-6
• Buccaneers - 1956-57
• The Invisible Man
  The Invisible Man
  The Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H.G. Wells published in 1897. Wells' novel was originally serialised in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, and published as a novel the same year...
  
  - 1959

External links