Foreword

Summary

It is very satisfying that a reappraisal of the films of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph is now taking place, in my opinion (not surprisingly) one that is long overdue.

Alan Burton and Tim O'Sullivan have researched their subject with a great deal of care and a gratifying appreciation of their subject. What they are absolutely correct in establishing is the fact that the relationship was very much a partnership, every bit as much as, say, the partnership of Powell and Pressburger. Indeed, when my father was offered the job of directing the film of Khartoum relatively late in his career (1965), and despite the fact that there was already an American producer attached (Julian Blaustein), Michael Relph came on board as Production Supervisor, and one imagines that Michael's contribution was very much on a par with those cases when he was also the titular producer. Apart from relying on each other creatively, I think that they also offered each other a great deal of emotional support, something not to be underestimated during such a long and productive association. It is telling, I think, that I have a distinct memory of my father being extremely unhappy during the shooting of Khartoum, admittedly a very difficult production from the logistical point of view, but I am sure due also in no small part to being outside his ‘comfort zone’ in the sense that Michael was not at his side with the same authority as would have been the case when they were the producing partnership with no one else between them and the studio.