Thompson was born in Bristol on 1 August 1914. His family had links to the theatre.[clarification needed] Thompson studied at Dover College then went to work in the theatre, joining the Nottingham Repertory Company as an actor and stagehand. He later went to work for a repertory company in Croydon, Surrey.[citation needed]
He wrote plays in his spare time, and had started when he was nine. One of them, Murder Happens? was performed at Croydon in 1934. His second staged play, Double Error, had a brief West End run at the Fortune Theatre in 1935. An article from this time about the play said he had written 40 plays already, including four in between his first two staged plays.[5][6] A company worth £10,000 was formed to exploit Thompson's writings over the next seven years but this appears to have not had a long life.[7]
Thompson later said he had written a part for himself to perform, but when management asked him if he wanted to do so he said "of course not," and "the die was cast. Later I decided if I didn't have the guts to admit I wanted to play the role I should never act again and I never did."[8]
Screenwriter
The film rights to Double Error were purchased for £100.[9] Thompson was hired to work in the scriptwriting department at British International Pictures at Elstree Studios. While there he made his one appearance as an actor in films, playing a small role in Midshipman Easy (1935).
Thompson served in World War II as a tailgunner and wireless operator in the RAF. In 1942 a revised version of Double Error, titled Murder Without Crime, opened at the Comedy Theatre in London. The play had a run on Broadway in 1943.[10]
Post War
After the war Thompson returned to his work as scriptwriter under contract at Associated British on such films as No Place for Jennifer (1949) and For Them That Trespass (1949), the latter starring Richard Todd in his debut.
Thompson was dialogue director on The Hasty Heart (1949), which turned Todd into a star. He later said he gave up dialogue directing because he found the job "impossible. My job was to take stars through their lines but I felt that I was also expected to be a spy for the front office. If a word was altered they wanted to know why. It was a way of keeping control."[11]
His first film as a director was Murder Without Crime (1950), made at ABPC, who put Thompson under contract. Thompson was offered £500 for the screen rights to the play and £500 to direct. He said "it was not so much that I wanted to direct movies it was to get the money so I could continue writing plays. But while directing it I got the feeling that I wanted to be a movie director."[9]
Thompson said "the fact is I found directing to be much easier than writing and I enjoyed it much more than writing as well. So I became a film director."[13]
The film was about a man who thinks he has committed murder. Thompson also wrote the screenplay, based on his own play Double Error. In the words of Thompson's Screenonline profile "this well structured film went largely unnoticed but contained many of the themes which were to characterise Lee Thompson's work: a good person's struggle with their conscience, an external force of evil, and an out-of-character moment of violence which has long-term consequences. Believing people can "commit crimes without being criminals", he sought to make his audiences condone or at least understand behaviour that they would normally condemn."[14]
Thompson's first film success was one he directed and co-wrote (with Anne Burnaby), The Yellow Balloon (1953), the story of a child who is blackmailed into helping a criminal after accidentally causing his friend's death.
He followed it with a comedy, For Better, For Worse (1954) starring Dirk Bogarde, which was even more popular though it is little remembered today.
Social Realist films
Thompson's fourth film as director The Weak and the Wicked (1954), portrays the lives of women in prison and is based on memoirs by Joan Henry, who became Thompson's second wife. Thompson wrote the script, again in collaboration with Anne Burnaby. It starred Glynis Johns and Diana Dors and was a hit at the box office.[15] The success of the film greatly added to Thompson's prestige and he began to be regarded as one of the leading directors in the country.[16]
Thompson later said the "pattern" of his ABPC films was "two pieces of tepid rubbish for one decent project - if I could persuade Robert Clark, who was head of production. He used to wring his hands when I insisted. 'Okay,' he'd finally say. 'Do it if you must. But it won't make money.' I admired him for that really. He did give you a bit of a chance."[11]
The Good Companions (1957) was lighter fare, based on a book by J. B. Priestley. According to one obituary Thompson "made excellent use of the CinemaScope screen, assembled a fine supporting cast and, with zestful choreography... came up with one of the few successes in a genre for which the British cinema was not noted."[13]
Thompson had a big success with Ice Cold in Alex (1958), the story of a British Army unit trekking across North Africa in the Second World War. It featured John Mills, Sylvia Syms, Anthony Quayle and Harry Andrews. It won three BAFTA Awards, including Best British Film. He followed it with North West Frontier (1959), an adventure film set in British India starring Kenneth More and Lauren Bacall. It was one of the most popular films in Britain in 1959.[17]
No Trees in the Street (1959) was a thriller written by Willis. Also in that genre was Tiger Bay (1959), starring John Mills. It introduced cinema audiences to Mills' daughter Hayley and German actor Horst Buchholz. Hayley Mills also earned a BAFTA for Most Promising Newcomer portraying a 12-year-old girl who refuses to betray a sailor accused of murder.
Thompson vaulted to international fame with The Guns of Navarone (1961) as a last-minute replacement for director Alexander Mackendrick. His take-charge attitude during its production earned him the nickname 'Mighty Mouse' from lead actor Gregory Peck. Co-star Anthony Quinn said Thompson:
Never read a scene until he had to shoot it and approached each shot on a whim. And yet the cumulative effect was astonishing. Lee Thompson made a marvelous picture but how? Perhaps his inventiveness lay in defying convention, in rejecting the accepted methods of motion picture making and establishing his own. Perhaps it was in his very formlessness that he found the one form he could sustain, and nurture, the one form that could, in turn, sustain and nurture him. Perhaps he was just a lucky Englishman who pulled a good picture out of his ass.[18]
The Guns of Navarone, a World War II epic filmed on location in Rhodes, Greece, was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Thompson for Best Director. In 1961 he said "primarily I am in the business to entertain. This does not mean that I never want to try artistic movies again. But I do not think you can sell art on the big movie circuits. Art belongs in the art houses."[9] Later he said "I liked the character bits best" about Navarone. "Anyone can make an explosion."[11]
The success of Navarone won him entry into Hollywood, where he directed Cape Fear (1962), a psychological thriller with Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen and Lori Martin; Peck and Mitchum co-producing the film. Based on a novel called The Executioners by John D. MacDonald, Cape Fear shows how a sex offender can manipulate the justice system and terrorise an entire family. Highly controversial for its time,[citation needed] the film was cut heavily in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Thompson directed Yul Brynner in the Cossack epic Taras Bulba (1962) for producer Harold Hecht. Thompson was going to follow it with Big Charlie starring Brynner but the movie was not made.[21] In 1962 the Mirisch Brothers signed the director to a four-picture contract.[22] The first film made under this contract was the Mayan Indian epic Kings of the Sun (1963), starring Brynner.
In September 1962 Thompson said he would make I Love Louisa with Elizabeth Taylor produced by Arthur Jacobs.[23] (This film became What a Way to Go!(1964) with Shirley MacLaine.) He would put actors under personal contract like Talitha Pol.[24]
In September 1963 Thompson announced he had formed a company, Bowhall Productions, to make around four films a year in the $120,000-$160,000 budget range. Thompson said it was "unlikely" the films would "make a profit" but they were movies he "deeply wanted to make". They included Chips with Everything, Rose without a Thorn by Clifford Bax, and a film in Spain. Following Return from the Ashes he would also make a $7 million movie in Africa Thunder of Giants.[25]
Instead he did another with MacLaine, John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1965).[26] Back in England Thompson made Return from the Ashes (1965) for the Mirisch Brothers.[27] In April 1965 Thompson announced he would make High Citadel based on a novel by Desmond Bagley for the Mirisch Brothers.[28] These plans were postponed when Thompson received an offer to replace Michael Anderson, who had fallen ill before he was to start directing a thriller about cults with David Niven, Eye of the Devil (1967) (originally titled 13). High Citadel was never filmed.[29] Another film announced but never filmed was The Case Against Colonel Sutton which he was going to do with producer Martin Poll.[30] Neither was a proposed musical remake of The Private Lives of Henry VIII.[31]
After a war film, Before Winter Comes (1968) Thompson was reunited with the star, producer and writer of Navarone in the WesternMackenna's Gold (1969) but it did poorly at the box office.[32] So too did the espionage tale The Chairman (1969) with Gregory Peck. He was meant to follow that with You?, about assassination from a script by Andrew Sinclair.[33] It was never filmed. "I freely admit I've done some pretty bad stuff," he said in 1968. "It's entirely my own fault. The trouble was I accepted some dismal scripts. I wasn't tough enough... Writing is the fundamental thing."[11] Some have argued that Thompson's creative decline coincided with the end of his relationship with Henry.[34]
Apes Movies
Back in the UK he directed Country Dance, also known as Brotherly Love (1970). Thompson's handling of a smaller scale film impressed producer Arthur Jacobs, with whom Thompson had made What a Way to Go; Thompson was the first director attached to the Jacobs production The Planet of the Apes and Thompson says he turned down the first two sequels. He was available to make the fourth and fifth movies in the series, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Writer Paul Dehn said Thompson had a reputation as someone with a drinking problem but that he had overcome it by the time of the Apes films.[35]
"They were cutting back on the budgets the whole time after the first one", said Thompson later. "It was a bad policy."[36]
He returned to playwriting with Getting Away with Murder (1976).[37]
Charles Bronson
In 1976, Thompson began a long collaboration with actor Charles Bronson on the Warner Bros. crime story St. Ives .[38] John Crowther, who worked with both men, later said "Thompson was the total antithesis of Charlie and they got along famously. They really worked well together.”[39]
In 1977, Bronson and Thompson teamed again on an unconventional western film called The White Buffalo.[40]
Thompson directed two films starring Anthony Quinn, The Greek Tycoon and The Passage.[41] Reviewing the latter The Guardian called Thompson a director who "should know better but often doesn't".[42]The Globe and Mail argued Thompson was "possibly the worst experienced director working in the world today."[43]
In 1981 Thompson and Bronson made the film Caboblanco, which opened in Los Angeles on 24 April.[44] Also that year he directed an episode of the TV show Code Red, which he followed with another Bronson movie, 10 to Midnight.[45]
Thompson worked with Bronson again on, The Evil That Men Do (1984), which was shot in Mexico. Thompson was hired to replace original director Fielder Cook, who was fired shortly before filming began. Producer Pancho Okhenr said Thompson "knew exactly what shots he needed to put together the film... [Bronson] had a lot of respect for Lee. The whole crew appreciated when the director did not make them work over and over to get the same shot from different angles... He was just a terrific filmmaker.”[39]
On 22 November 1985, King Solomon's Mines premiered.[46] Thompson made this film as an Indiana Jones-style pastiche. It was shot in Zimbabwe and starred Richard Chamberlain. The film was reasonably successful at the box office.
On 18 April 1986, Murphy's Law, the Thompson and Bronson collaboration of that year, started its theatrical run. It is a neo-noirthriller film.[47] Acting in the film are Kathleen Wilhoite, Carrie Snodgress, Robert F. Lyons, and Richard Romanus.[48] Thompson tried another Indiana Jones-type tale with Firewalker, which premiered on 21 November.[49] The film paired the actors Chuck Norris with Louis Gossett Jr. as its leads. The action adventure co-stars Will Sampson and Melody Anderson.[50] Norris and Gossett play Max Donigan and Leo Porter, two soldiers of fortune, whose adventures rarely result in any notable gain. They are befriended by an inscrutable woman of mystery Patricia (Anderson). Patricia's map leads them on a quest for treasure in Central America. The name of the movie comes from the powerful guardian of the treasure.
Now working exclusively for Cannon, Thompson made two more Charles Bronson thrillers. On 6 November 1987 Death Wish 4: The Crackdown was released and 16 September 1988 saw the opening of Messenger of Death.[51][52] He later reflected, "I realized these films were not going to enhance my reputation. I had to live with that. You're not going to be offered the great films at a certain age."[53]
In 1992 Thompson said he was trying to finance a remake of Tiger Bay with Anna Chumsky and Alec Baldwin. The director said "I have certain regrets now. I would rather have stuck to making films like Yield to the Night which had some integrity and importance. But the British film industry caved in. I shouldn't denigrate myself too much because I have enjoyed making my films but I suppose I sort of sold out."[55]
Personal life
Thompson was married three times. His first wife was Florence Bailey, whom he married in 1935 when he was 20. They had a son, Peter (1938–1997), who became a film editor on several of his father's films and predeceased him, and a daughter, Lesley, who survived him.[56] They divorced in 1957.
His second wife was prisoner and author Joan Henry, whom he married in 1958. They collaborated on Weak and the Wicked and Yield to the Night. He left her for actress Susan Hampshire. In March 1962 Hedda Hopper reported that Thompson was "sweating it out" in Los Angeles while Henry and Hampshire were "awaiting his decision in London."[57] Thompson confirmed this in an interview, and Hampshire and Henry were less forthcoming to the press.[58]
In September, Hopper reported that it was over between Thompson and Hampshire.[23] Henry and Thompson were divorced in the late 1960s.[59]
In November 1962, Thompson said he had proposed to Shirley Ann Field who he said accepted then changed her mind.[60]
His third wife was Penny, who was his widow.
Death
Thompson died of congestive heart failure on 30 August 2002, at his holiday home in Sooke, British Columbia, aged 88.
Critical appraisal
The Guardian obituary called him "a compelling craftsman".[61]The Washington Post said "he directed adventure films noted for their punchy pacing, rich atmosphere and nuanced characterization."[62]Variety said he was "Known as a craftsman who had a clear sense of how each film should play, scene by scene".[63]
The Independent said "he lent his acute sense of atmosphere and vivid visual style to a wide range of material. His intimate kitchen-sink melodramas... were unflinching portraits of social realism unusually stark for their time. His thrillers were tautly edited exercises in suspense, and he also made some engaging comedies and a bracing musical...Though his later films can most kindly be labelled potboilers, his body of work in the Fifties and early Sixties was an impressive one."[13]
In 2000 he stated that he made so many American films "because of my insecurity and effort to stay here. If I was given a script and it had something good in it I'd say, 'Good, I've got my next picture!' That is not the way to make good films, so some of them were good and some not so good.... What an idiot! 'You should have stayed at what you really wanted to make.' If I have anything to say to young directors today it's don't make a film for the sake of making it. Make it only if you really believe in it. Then success will eventually come to you."[53]
↑ "Picture Gallery". Daily Mail. 22 May 1935. p.19.
↑ C. H. (21 May 1935). "Author of 40 Plays at 19". Daily Mail. p.6.
↑ "Literary Notes". The Australasian. Vol.CXXXIX, no.4, 526. Victoria, Australia. 5 October 1935. p.6. Retrieved 22 August 2020– via National Library of Australia.
1 2 Hopper, Hedda (11 November 1962). "Film Director's Velvet Glove Hides Tough, Firm Hand". Los Angeles Times. p.A4.
1 2 3 4 Schumach, Murray (25 July 1961). "J. Lee Thompson Discusses Career: 'Guns of Navarone' Director Took Devious Path to Films". The New York Times. p.18.
↑ "The Theatre: Mayhem in Mayfair". The Wall Street Journal. 20 August 1943. p.10.
1 2 3 4 Malcolm, Derek (3 February 1969). "Anyone can make an explosion". The Guardian. p.8.
↑ Findlater, Richard (18 February 1949). "Antigone, by Jean Anouilh: New. The Human Touch, by J. Lee-Thompson and Dudley Leslie: Savoy". Blackpool Tribune. No.632. p.22.
1 2 3 Vallance, Tom (4 September 2002). "Obituary: J. Lee Thompson; Versatile director of 'The Guns of Navarone'". The Independent (Foreigned.). London. p.16.
↑ "U.S. Money Behind 30% of British Films: Problems for the Board of Trade". The Manchester Guardian. 4 May 1956. p.7.
↑ Williams, Melanie (March 2002). "Women in Prison and Women in Dressing Gowns: Rediscovering the 1950s films of J. Lee Thompson". Journal of Gender Studies. Abingdon. 11 (1): 5–15. doi:10.1080/09589230120115121.
↑ "Four British Films in 'Top 6': Boulting Comedy Heads Box Office List". The Guardian. 11 December 1959. p.4.
↑ Quinn, Anthony (1995). One Man Tango. Harper Collins. p.293.
↑ Thompson, Howard (23 July 1961). "View From A Local Vantage Point". The New York Times. p.X5.
↑ Scheuer, Philip K. (19 November 1962). "Thompson to Back Arnold Wesker Film: Liz Taylor Probable 'VIP'; Allied Artists Comes to Life". Los Angeles Times. p.C15.
↑ Hopper, Hedda (18 August 1961). "Thompson Directs Elephant Drama: Brynner Stars in India Film; Danova to Receive Knighthood". Los Angeles Times. p.C10.
↑ Hopper, Hedda (27 August 1962). "'Navarone' Director Signs for 4 Films". Chicago Daily Tribune. p.B9.
1 2 Hopper, Hedda (19 September 1962). "J. Lee Thompson Books Liz for Film Next Year". Chicago Daily Tribune. p.B2.
↑ "Signing on for Stardom". Daily Mail. 7 January 1964. p.10.
↑ Weiler, A.H. (29 September 1963). "Film Plans Seen From A Local Vantage Point: Producer: In Prospect". The New York Times. p.121.
↑ Watts, Stephen (9 May 1965). "Miss Thulin's 'Return'". The New York Times. p.X9.
↑ "Filmland Events: Lee Thompson to Do 'Return From Ashes'". Los Angeles Times. 19 June 1963. p.E13.
↑ Martin, Betty (17 April 1965). "Movie Call Sheet: Revolution to Be Filmed by Thompson". Los Angeles Times. p.B9.
↑ Martin, Betty (26 August 1965). "Movie Call Sheet: Thompson Will Direct '13'". Los Angeles Times. p.D12.
↑ Scheuer, Philip K. (1 March 1965). "Poll, Thompson Put Colonel on Trial: More L.A. Stage Firsts; Lyons' Escapism Pays Off". Los Angeles Times. p.C19.
↑ Martin, Betty (8 March 1966). "Thompson to Make Musical". Los Angeles Times. p.C12.
↑ Martin, Betty (30 January 1967). "'Gold' Will Be in Cinerama". Los Angeles Times. p.D21.
↑ Thomas, Kevin (6 February 1969). "'Chairman' Shot in Crossfire". Los Angeles Times. p.H13.
↑ Russo, Joe; Landsman, Larry & Gross, Edward (2001). Planet of the Apes Revisited: The behind-the-scenes story of the classic science fiction saga. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Griffin. pp.178–182.
↑ Reid, Michael D. (27 July 2001). "Talking apes? Get out of here!': For Sooke filmmaker J. Lee Thompson, Planet of the Apes was the one that got away". Times–Colonist (Finaled.). Victoria, B.C. p.C1.
↑ Barber, John (22 July 1976). "Puzzling plot that breeds indifference". The Daily Telegraph. p.13.
↑ "St. Ives". AFI Catalog. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
↑ Silver, Alain & Ward, Elizabeth, eds. (1992). Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rded.). Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. ISBN0-87951-479-5.
↑ Turner, Adrian (27 February 1992). "When Fear is remade as a family affair: Adrian Turner reckons that Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear isn't a patch on J Lee Thompson's. He talks to the British director of the original movie". The Guardian. p.26.
↑ Turner, Adrian (4 September 2002). "Obituary: J Lee Thompson: Director of Ice Cold In Alex, Cape Fear and The Guns of Navarone". The Guardian. p.1.20.
↑ Hopper, Hedda (7 March 1962). "Looking at Hollywood: It Was Hope's Night and He Earned It All". Chicago Daily Tribune. p.A7.
↑ Ruddy, Jonan (2 March 1962). "For love of two women". Daily Mail. p.3.
↑ "Obituary of Joan Henry: Debutante who went to jail for fraud but made a new life after writing a sensational bestseller about her experiences in prison". The Daily Telegraph. London. 1 January 2001. p.23.
↑ Morfett, Keith (28 November 1962). "I'll wed Shirley Ann Says Director, but She Says No". Daily Mail. p.1.
↑ "J Lee Thompson". The Guardian. London. 4 September 2002. p.20.
↑ "J. Lee Thompson Film Director ...". The Washington Post (Finaled.). 8 September 2002. p.C09.
↑ "Obituaries: J. Lee Thompson". Variety. Vol.388, no.4. 9 September 2002. p.63.
Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born British actor and film director. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish parents and emigrated to South Africa at an early age, before later settling in the United Kingdom after World War II. In a career that spanned a quarter of a century, Harvey appeared in stage, film and television productions primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Stuart Maxwell Whitman was an American actor, known for his lengthy career in film and television. Whitman was born in San Francisco and raised in New York until the age of 12, when his family relocated to Los Angeles. In 1948, Whitman was discharged from the Corps of Engineers in the U.S. Army and started to study acting and appear in plays. From 1951 to 1957, Whitman had a streak working in mostly bit parts in films, including When Worlds Collide (1951), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Barbed Wire (1952) and The Man from the Alamo (1952). On television, Whitman guest-starred in series such as Dr. Christian, The Roy Rogers Show, and Death Valley Days, and also had a recurring role on Highway Patrol. Whitman's first lead role was in John H. Auer's Johnny Trouble (1957).
Cape Fear is a 1962 American noir psychological thriller film starring Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, and Polly Bergen. It was adapted by James R. Webb from the 1957 novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald. The picture was directed by J. Lee Thompson from storyboards devised by original director Alfred Hitchcock and released on April 12, 1962. The film concerns an attorney whose family is stalked by a criminal he helped to send to jail. The supporting cast features Martin Balsam, Telly Savalas and Barrie Chase.
Charles Bronson was an American actor. Known for his "granite features and brawny physique," and action films, Bronson was born into extreme poverty, in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania. His father, a miner, died when Bronson was young. Bronson himself worked in the mines as well until joining the United States Army Air Forces in 1943 to fight in World War II. After his service, he joined a theatrical troupe and studied acting. During the 1950s, he played various supporting roles in motion pictures and television, including anthology drama TV series in which he would appear as the main character. Near the end of the decade, he had his first cinematic leading role in Machine-Gun Kelly (1958).
Force 10 from Navarone is a 1978 war film loosely based on Alistair MacLean's 1968 novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone. The parts of Mallory and Miller are played by Robert Shaw, and Edward Fox, succeeding in the roles originally portrayed by Gregory Peck and David Niven. It was directed by Guy Hamilton and also stars Harrison Ford, Carl Weathers, Barbara Bach, Franco Nero, and Richard Kiel.
What a Way to Go! is a 1964 American black comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Bob Cummings and Dick Van Dyke.
Carl Foreman, CBE was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the award-winning films The Bridge on the River Kwai and High Noon, among others. He was one of the screenwriters who were blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s because of their suspected communist sympathy or membership in the Communist Party.
Taras Bulba is a 1962 American Color by Deluxe in Eastmancolor adventure film loosely based on Nikolai Gogol's novel Taras Bulba, starring Tony Curtis and Yul Brynner. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson. The story line of the film is considerably different from that of Gogol's novel, although it is closer to his expanded 1842 edition than his original (pro-Ukrainian) version of 1835.
Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects is a 1989 American action thriller film starring Charles Bronson and directed by J. Lee Thompson. As Thompson's final film, it was the last project he and Bronson did together—a long and famed Hollywood collaboration. The word "kinjite" (禁じて) translates to English as "forbidden move", hinting at the subject matter.
The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 action adventure war film directed by J. Lee Thompson from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, based on Alistair MacLean's 1957 novel of the same name. Foreman also produced the film. The film stars Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn, along with Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, Irene Papas, Gia Scala, Richard Harris and James Darren. The book and the film share a plot: the efforts of an Allied commando unit to destroy a seemingly impregnable German fortress that threatens Allied naval ships in the Aegean Sea.
Kings of the Sun is a 1963 DeLuxe Color film directed by J. Lee Thompson for Mirisch Productions set in Mesoamerica at the time of the conquest of Chichen Itza by Hunac Ceel. Location scenes filmed in Mazatlán and Chichen Itza. The film marks the second project Thompson completed with Yul Brynner within a year — the other being Taras Bulba.
Lawman is a 1971 American revisionist Western film produced and directed by Michael Winner and starring Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J. Cobb and Robert Duvall.
The Chairman is a 1969 spy film starring Gregory Peck. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson. The screenplay was by Ben Maddow based on a novel by Jay Richard Kennedy.
Bon Voyage! is a 1962 American comedy film directed by James Neilson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. It stars Fred MacMurray, Jane Wyman, Deborah Walley, Tommy Kirk, and Kevin Corcoran as the Willard family on a European holiday.
The Passage is a 1979 British action-war film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Anthony Quinn, James Mason, Malcolm McDowell and Patricia Neal. The film is based upon the 1976 novel Perilous Passage by Bruce Nicolaysen, who also wrote the screenplay for the film.
Messenger of Death is a 1988 American crime-action thriller film starring Charles Bronson about an attempt by a water company to start a family feud among fundamentalist Mormons to take the family's land for the company.
Murder Without Crime is a 1950 British crime film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Dennis Price, Derek Farr and Patricia Plunkett. J. Lee Thompson also wrote the screenplay adapted from Double Error, his own successful West End play.
Return from the Ashes is a 1965 British thriller film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Ingrid Thulin, Maximilian Schell, Samantha Eggar and Herbert Lom. It is based on a novel by French crime writer Hubert Monteilhet, adapted for film by prolific screenwriter Julius J. Epstein. The novel would also serve as the source material for the 2014 German film Phoenix, directed by Christian Petzold, though the latter film makes multiple changes to the book's elements and concerns itself solely with the plot to reclaim an inheritance.
St. Ives is a 1976 American crime thriller film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Charles Bronson, John Houseman, Jacqueline Bisset, and Maximilian Schell.
Waltz of the Toreadors is a 1962 film directed by John Guillermin and starring Peter Sellers and Dany Robin. It was based on the play of the same name by Jean Anouilh with the location changed from France to England. It was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay, in 1963.
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