Val Guest was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer, for whom he directed 14 films, and for his science fiction films. He enjoyed a long career in the film industry from the early 1930s until the early 1980s.
Yolande Donlan was an American-born British-based actress who worked extensively in the United Kingdom.
Miss Pilgrim's Progress is a 1949 black-and-white British comedy film by producer Nat Cohen and director Val Guest.
Just William's Luck is a 1947 British comedy film directed by Val Guest and starring William Graham, Garry Marsh and Jane Welsh. It was written by Richmal Crompton and Guest, based on Crompton's Just William series of books. Crompton was impressed with the film and wrote a novel Just William's Luck based on the events of the film. The following year a second film, William Comes to Town, was made.
Miss London Ltd. is a 1943 British black-and-white comedy musical directed by Val Guest and starring Arthur Askey and Evelyn Dall. It was written by Guest and Marriott Edgar and produced by Edward Black for Gainsborough Pictures. It was Guest's directorial debut.
It's a Wonderful World is a 1956 British musical film directed and written by Val Guest and starring Terence Morgan, George Cole, Mylène Demongeot and Kathleen Harrison. It also features Dennis Lotis, a popular singer at the time.
The Lady Craved Excitement is a 1950 British comedy second feature ('B') film directed by Francis Searle and starring Hy Hazell, Michael Medwin and Sid James. It was written by John Gilling based on the 1949 BBC radio serial The Lady Craved Excitement by Edward J. Mason. An early Hammer film, it is significant as one of five films shot at Oakley Court and the first to feature its famous exterior, located next door to Bray Studios.
Further Up the Creek is a 1958 British comedy film written and directed by Val Guest and starring David Tomlinson, Frankie Howerd, Shirley Eaton, Thora Hird and Lionel Jeffries. It served as a follow-up to Up the Creek (1958), with Peter Sellers not reprising his role because it clashed with the filming of The Mouse That Roared (1959). Frankie Howerd replaced him.
Jigsaw is a 1962 British black and white crime film directed by Val Guest and starring Jack Warner and Ronald Lewis. The screenplay was by Guest based on the 1959 police procedural novel Sleep Long, My Love by Hillary Waugh, with the setting changed from the fictional small town of Stockford, Connecticut, to Brighton, Sussex, while retaining the names and basic natures of its two police protagonists and most of the other characters.
Life is a Circus is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Val Guest and starring Bud Flanagan, Teddy Knox, Jimmy Nervo, Jimmy Gold and Charlie Naughton of the Crazy Gang. The screenplay concerns a down-on-its-luck circus that uses an Aladdin's Magic Lamp to try to save their business.
80,000 Suspects is a 1963 British drama film directed and written by Val Guest and starring Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Yolande Donlan and Cyril Cusack. It is based on the 1957 novel Pillars of Midnight by Elleston Trevor. An outbreak of smallpox in Bath, England leads to a race to contain the virus.
Penny Princess is a 1952 British Technicolor comedy film written and directed by Val Guest and starring Yolande Donlan, Dirk Bogarde and A. E. Matthews. It was made by Guest for his own production company, Conquest Productions. The film stars his future wife Donlan, who was Guest's production company partner, and features Reginald Beckwith, the other partner in Conquest Productions. It was released by General Film Distributors. It was distributed in America the following year by Universal Pictures.
Stolen Assignment is a 1955 British comedy 'B' film directed by Terence Fisher and starring John Bentley and Hy Hazell. It was produced by Francis Searle for Act Films Ltd and was a sequel to Fisher's Final Appointment (1954), featuring sleuthing journalists Mike Billings and Jenny Drew.
Mister Drake's Duck is a 1951 British science-fiction comedy film directed by Val Guest and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Yolande Donlan, Jon Pertwee, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Reginald Beckwith. The screenplay concerns a farmer who discovers that one of his ducks has started laying radioactive eggs.
Up in the World is a 1956 black and white comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Norman Wisdom, Maureen Swanson and Jerry Desmonde. It was written by Jack Davies, Henty Blyth and Peter Blackmore, and produced by Rank.
Life with the Lyons is a 1954 British comedy film directed by Val Guest and starring Bebe Daniels, Ben Lyon and Barbara Lyon. It was a spin-off from the radio series Life with the Lyons, and the screenplay, by Guest and Robert Dunbar, was based on previous episodes from the show. It was shot at Southall Studios in London with sets designed by the art director Wilfred Arnold.
They Can't Hang Me is a 1955 British drama film directed by Val Guest and starring Terence Morgan, Yolande Donlan and Anthony Oliver. It was based on a novel by Leonard Mosley. It was shot at Shepperton Studios near London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Joseph Bato.
Forces' Sweetheart is a 1953 British comedy film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Hy Hazell, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine. It was written by Rogers and Bentine. Two gormless soldiers become infatuated with a female entertainer.
What Every Woman Wants is a 1962 British second feature ('B') comedy film directed by Ernest Morris and starring James Fox, Hy Hazell and Dennis Lotis. The screenplay by Mark Grantham concerns a marriage guidance counsellor who struggles with his own domestic life.
Expresso Bongo is a 1959 British drama musical film directed by Val Guest, shot in uncredited black & white Dyaliscope and starring Laurence Harvey, Cliff Richard, and Yolande Donlan. It was written by Wolf Mankowitz adapted from the stage musical of the same name by Julian More, which was first produced at the Saville Theatre, London, on 23 April 1958.
