Direction: Basil Dearden

The best movies, series, and documentaries directed by Basil Dearden. Explore exceptional titles that showcase a unique filmmaking vision.


Life for Ruth

1962 · Movie · 93 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Michael Craig · Patrick McGoohan · Janet Munro · Paul Rogers

Synopsis When John Harris's daughter is badly injured in an boating accident, the hospital tells him that she will need an urgent blood transfusion. Due to his religious beliefs Harris refuses permission, and the child dies. When the inquest clears Harris...

7.2

103 votes

7.2

103 votes

Victim

1961 · Movie · 95 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Dirk Bogarde · Sylvia Syms · Dennis Price · Anthony Nicholls

Synopsis Dirk Bogarde plays Melville Farr, a married lawyer who learns of a blackmail scheme when one of its victims, an old friend, commits suicide rather than tell the police. As Farr conducts an investigation, he must confront his own past.

Max

7.2

553 votes

7.2

553 votes

Dead of Night

1945 · Movie · 103 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Alberto Cavalcanti · Basil Dearden · Charles Crichton · Robert Hamer

Cast Michael Redgrave · Googie Withers · Mervyn Johns · Roland Culver

Synopsis Visiting a country house, architect Walter Craig realises that it and his fellow guests are familiar from a recurring nightmare. As the guests share their own tales of the supernatural, Craig is filled with a growing dread.

7.1

1K votes

7.1

1K votes

Pool of London

1951 · Movie · 85 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Bonar Colleano · Earl Cameron · Susan Shaw · Renée Asherson

Synopsis Two sailors, on shore leave, are caught up in a diamond smuggling racket. More complications ensue for black sailor Johnny who finds love and heartache in London docklands.

7.1

31 votes

7.1

31 votes

Nowhere to Go

1958 · Movie · 89 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Seth Holt · Basil Dearden

Cast George Nader · Maggie Smith · Bernard Lee · Geoffrey Keen

Synopsis Paul Gregory steals a collection of antique coins from a wealthy American visitor to London, and puts the money he receives for them into a safety deposit before his arrest. He is sentenced to ten years rather than the five...

7.0

92 votes

7.0

92 votes

Frieda

1947 · Movie · 98 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast David Farrar · Glynis Johns · Mai Zetterling · Flora Robson

Synopsis An RAF pilot who was shot down during WWII returns home to his English village with his new bride. The trouble is that she is the German lady who helped him escape. Then her brother arrives.

6.9

22 votes

6.9

22 votes

The Secret Partner

1961 · Movie · 87 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Stewart Granger · Haya Harareet · Bernard Lee · Hugh Burden

Synopsis John Brent (Granger) has just learned that his wife Nicole (Harareet) has left him. She picked a bad time too because they're supposed to be hosting a company party in their home very soon. Brent's boss Charles Standish (Hugh Burden)...

6.7

163 votes

6.7

163 votes

Sapphire

1959 · Movie · 92 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Nigel Patrick · Michael Craig · Yvonne Mitchell · Paul Massie

Synopsis In 1950s London racial hostility to Commonweath immigrants is openly paraded. A pregnant girl, initially assumed to be white, is murdered. As two detectives start to investigate, and discover her racial origins were much more mixed, public prejudices and those...

6.6

241 votes

6.6

241 votes

Woman of Straw

1964 · Movie · 117 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Gina Lollobrigida · Sean Connery · Ralph Richardson · Johnny Sekka

Synopsis Maria, an Italian private nurse, is hired by Anthony Richmond to care for his uncle Charles, a ruthless and malicious crippled millionaire. Anthony is convinced that Charles drove his father to suicide, then married Anthony's mother, and, following her death,...

6.6

755 votes

6.6

755 votes

Khartoum

1966 · Movie · 122 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden · Eliot Elisofon

Cast Charlton Heston · Laurence Olivier · Richard Johnson · Ralph Richardson

Synopsis After an Egyptian army, commanded by British officers, is destroyed in a battle in the Sudan in the 1880's, the British government is in a quandary. It does not want to commit a British military force to a foreign war...

6.6

1K votes

6.6

1K votes

The Captive Heart

1946 · Movie · 104 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Michael Redgrave · Rachel Kempson · Frederick Leister · Mervyn Johns

Synopsis In the summer of 1940, Captain Karel Hasek (Michael Redgrave), a Czech soldier, escapes from Dachau concentration camp and assumes the identity of a dead British officer, Captain Geoffrey Mitchell. When he is caught, he joins thousands of British prisoners...

6.5

41 votes

6.5

41 votes

The Persuaders! (TV Series)

1971 · Series · 60 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Leslie Norman · Roy Ward Baker · Basil Dearden · David Greene

Cast Tony Curtis · Roger Moore · Laurence Naismith · Juliet Harmer

Synopsis English Lord Brett Sinclair and American Danny Wilde are both wealthy playboys, they are teamed together by Judge Fullton to investigate crimes which the police can't solve. These two men are complete opposites, but become great friends through their adventures...

6.5

228 votes

6.5

228 votes

The Smallest Show on Earth

1957 · Movie · 80 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Virginia McKenna · Bill Travers · Peter Sellers · Margaret Rutherford

Synopsis Jean and Bill are a struggling married couple with Bill trying to scrape a living as a writer. Out of the blue they receive a telegram informing them that Bill's long-lost uncle has died and left them his business -...

6.5

25 votes

6.5

25 votes

All Night Long

1962 · Movie · 91 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Patrick McGoohan · Keith Michell · Betsy Blair · Paul Harris

Synopsis The film, based on Othello, is neatly positioned as a vehicle to showcase some of the best Jazz musicians of the period - including Dave Brubeck and Charlie Mingus.

6.2

68 votes

6.2

68 votes

Saraband for Dead Lovers

1948 · Movie · 96 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Stewart Granger · Joan Greenwood · Flora Robson · Françoise Rosay

Synopsis A young woman marries Prince George but it's far from a love match. Then she falls for a Swedish Count.

6.2

53 votes

6.2

53 votes

Cage of Gold

1950 · Movie · 83 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Jean Simmons · David Farrar · James Donald · Herbert Lom

Synopsis A young bride believes her husband has been killed. After a suitable period of mourning, she re-marries. But then her "dead" husband comes back and tries to extort money from her.

6.2

38 votes

6.2

38 votes

Violent Playground

1958 · Movie · 108 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Stanley Baker · Anne Heywood · David McCallum · Peter Cushing

Synopsis Struggle between a Liverpool Juvenile Liaison officer and a young and dangerous pyromaniac.

6.1

64 votes

6.1

64 votes

The Blue Lamp

1950 · Movie · 80 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Jack Warner · Jimmy Hanley · Dirk Bogarde · Robert Flemyng

Synopsis A pair of London hoodlums, rejected by the established criminal set, execute a spate of robberies which finally results in the death of a policeman.

6.1

128 votes

6.1

128 votes

The Man Who Haunted Himself

1970 · Movie · 89 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Basil Dearden

Cast Roger Moore · Hildegarde Neil · Alastair Mackenzie · Hugh Mackenzie

Synopsis Harold Pelham encounters a duplicate of himself in the aftermath of a car crash. After that moment his life was upsetted.

5.9

314 votes

5.9

314 votes