 Cinematographer turned director Arthur Crabtree (1900-1975) started out at British International Pictures, where he shot five minor features including a now-lost Michael Powell-directed 'quota quickie', The Love Test (1935). He moved to Gainsborough in 1936, and stayed on the studio payroll until just before its demise in 1950.
Although his more experienced colleague Jack Cox (1890-1960) would usually handle the higher-profile Gainsborough titles (he photographed most British Hitchcock films, for instance), Crabtree quickly gained a reputation for fast, efficient shooting, especially in comedy, where his output included vehicles for Will Hay (Good Morning, Boys! (1937), Oh, Mr Porter! (1937), Old Bones of the River (1938)) and Arthur Askey (Band Waggon (1939), Charley's Big-Hearted Aunt (1940) and I Thank You (1941)), most of which were directed by Marcel Varnel.
His big break as a cinematographer, though, came with the first Gainsborough costume melodrama, The Man in Grey (d. Leslie Arliss, 1943), which allowed Crabtree to make a major contribution to the overall "look" of the cycle, blending high-contrast Expressionism with a studio policy that dictated maximum visibility for the stars (and their costumes!). Crabtree also photographed Fanny By Gaslight (1944) for Anthony Asquith, a rather more visually inventive production.
The same year he made his directorial debut with Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944), and would go on to direct They Were Sisters (1945), Caravan (1946) and Dear Murderer (1947) for Gainsborough. As a director, he was considered competent but - unsurprisingly - much stronger on the visual than the dramatic side of things. His frequent leading lady Phyllis Calvert admitted many years later that the lead actors largely directed themselves in Crabtree's films, though his photographic background ensured that they always looked good.
After Gainsborough's demise, Crabtree's directorial career continued for another decade, his best-known 1950s films probably being the much-loved flying killer brain film Fiend Without A Face (1958) and Horrors of the Black Museum (1959).
Michael Brooke
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FILM & TV CREDITS
