 Following a family tradition established by his bioscope showman father, Ralph Kemplen entered the industry in 1928 as assistant editor to Arthur Tavares at Gainsborough. He worked on Balaclava (d. Maurice Elvey, 1928) and later, under Ian Dalrymple's supervision, cut parts of The Ghost Train (d. Walter Forde, 1931) and Sunshine Susie (d. Victor Saville, 1931). In the latter part of the 1930s Kemplen worked with Jack Harris at Twickenham Studios and began to freelance. During the Second World War he edited some training films for the Ministry of Information. In the 1950s he worked on a fairly regular basis for the Woolf brothers' Romulus and Remus production companies. Beginning with The African Queen (1951), Kemplen forged a creative partnership with John Huston, which they revived in the 1960s. He continued working on major productions throughout the 1970s. Kemplen directed one film, The Spaniard's Curse (1958). Credits for Room at the Top (d. Jack Clayton, 1958) and A Man for All Seasons (d. Fred Zinnemann, 1966) consolidated Kemplen's reputation as a great dialogue editor. On the latter film Zinnemann invited Kemplen to contribute comments not only on the script but also on rehearsals. Other projects Kemplen had a considerable impact on included The Good Die Young (d. Lewis Gilbert, 1954). He recalled: "I did a reconstruction whereby the three or four stories which were originally separate were made to run concurrently". His various achievements include the dynamically yet classically edited opening sequence of Moulin Rouge (d. Huston, 1953), and two sequences in The Day of the Jackal (UK/France, d. Zinnemann, 1973) he was particularly proud of: "the sequence where the Jackal sets the sights on his gun, because of the economy of its cutting; the final section leading up to his death". Roy Perkins/Martin Stollery, British Film Editors: The Heart of the Movie (BFI Publishing, 2004)
|
FILM & TV CREDITS
