 Until his untimely death, John Bryan (born in London in 1911) was perhaps Britain's most gifted production designer. Apprenticed to scenic artists at 16, he worked first in stage design. He joined London Film Productions in 1932, first as draughtsman, assisting Laurence Irving on Diamond Cut Diamond (d. Maurice Elvey/Fred Niblo, 1932), later as associate art director to Vincent Korda on Things to Come (d. William Cameron Menzies, 1936). During the war, he was involved with camouflage. That some of
the '40s Gainsborough melodramas look so sumptuous may be substantially attributed to his romantic and stylish designs: e.g., Fanny by Gaslight (d. Anthony Asquith, 1944) has little connection with realism but evokes superbly the essence of Victorian contrasts of low and high life. After working on Gabriel Pascal's two previous Shaw films, Pygmalion (d. Asquith, 1938) and Major Barbara (d. Pascal, 1941), he was sought for the ambitious calamity, Caesar and Cleopatra (d. Pascal, 1945), in which his towering evocations of palace and desert dominate proceedings. Postwar, he joined the distinguished Cineguild production team: he designed all but one of its output, winning an Oscar for Great Expectations (d. David Lean, 1946); and there are few better-looking British films than it or the rapturous melodrama, Blanche Fury (d. Marc Allégret, 1947), or Oliver Twist (d. Lean, 1948) or The Passionate Friends (d. Lean, 1948), all with cinematographer Guy Green. Though he also won an Oscar for Becket (d. Peter Glenville, 1964), arguably his greatest work is in monochrome.
In the '50s and '60s, he produced a dozen films, including After the Fox (US/Italy, d. Vittorio De Sica,1966) and four for ex-Cineguild colleague, Ronald Neame, including The Card (1952), The Million Pound Note (1953), Windom's Way (1957) and The Horse's Mouth (1958), but his greatness lies in his production design. Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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FILM & TV CREDITS
