Robert Douglas(1909-1999)
- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Robert Douglas' real last name was Finlayson - a Scots name - and perhaps
it was that side of him that meant to do what he wanted to do. The
males of the family had followed the military for several
generations - his father and grandfather were commanders of the West
Sussex regiment - but he decided on another road for his career. He was
interested in acting and showed enough talent and potential to debut on
stage at 16 and enter theater training for two years at the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Arts in London the next year. Using his given
middle name as a professional surname, in 1930 he moved up to a feature
role with an all-star cast in the London revival of "A Bill of
Divorcement". Other choice roles followed quickly: "Kind Lady" with
Sybil Thorndike and the "Last Enemy"
with Laurence Olivier. Even then
Douglas was destined for a trans-Atlantic career. At the end of that
same year of 1930 he came to Broadway to do the American version of
"Last Enemy" with Jessica Tandy. Still he
was back in London in 1931 to open yet another page in his acting
career with the potential to be found in film work. With a rather
rugged, squared-off good looks and purposeful acting voice, he found
further work in the movies - comedies at first. But he had less than a
dozen roles through 1939, for he was pursuing yet another interest - and
that on the other side of the stage with producing and directing plays
in the West End beginning in 1932 at age 23.
The few film roles nevertheless kept ramping up in significance. By
1937 his first lead dramatic role in
Torpedoed (1937) tapped
him for a real adventure. Bergfilms or mountain films, being a heroic
if emotional epitomizing of Teutonic spirit against stark but beautiful
nature, had been popular in Germany through the later silent era
largely through the significant talents of German
geologist-turned-director Arnold Fanck. His
influenced on others included one of his leading men, a young Austrian
World War I veteran officer of mountain troops named
Luis Trenker. Trenker had already starred
in two Fanck mountain films and was the first leading man (1926) of the
controversial Leni Riefenstahl, Fanck's
muse - of sorts. Fanck did the screenplay of a dramatic interpretation
of the 1865 race between England, Switzerland, and Italy to first climb
the Matterhorn in Switzerland for a 1928 film directed by Italian
actor-director Mario Bonnard with Trenker
as the historical Italian competitor 'Jean-Antoine Carrel'. Trencker, a
gifted sort of Renaissance man of many talents, turned to being
director, writer, and producer as well in 1930. After several of his
own Bergfilms and other efforts he decided to once again visit the
Matterhorn subject in concert with British also actor-turned-director
Milton Rosmer and then expatriate
Hungarian writer Emeric Pressburger
to do a British version of his German rendition of the drama which he
called The Mountain Calls (1938). Trenker directed and co-starred as
Carrel-once again-in his version, while he co-directed as alpine action
supervisor and again played Carrel in the British version
The Challenge (1938).
Historically, the race was won by a little known young British
mountaineer, 'Edward Whymper', and Douglas with a striking theatrical
resemblance to Whymper got the part. Due to Trenker's expertise as a
mountaineer, the climbing sequences are very realistic and even the
somewhat over dramatic dialog is stirring. Of the two films fortunately
Douglas was perhaps the best remembered performer, although the German
version on a whole was the more even, largely due to Trenker's
considerable abilities as the go-to guy for just about anything needed
to put a film in the can.
For Douglas it was a busy 1939 with film work capped by his being one
of the first British actors to enlist as World War II loomed. He became
a Royal Navy pilot and would serve until 1946. He did one more British
film and also produced, directed, and starred in "Lighten Our Darkness"
on stage in London before heading over the Atlantic for good in 1947.
He had been back to Broadway in 1931-32 and 1935 for two plays, the
second, "Most of the Game", with his first
wife, British actress
Dorothy Hyson. And he had returned in 1942
for the musical "The Time, the Place, and the Girl". But now he had a
Warner Bros. contract in hand and was on his way to a future in
Hollywood. What followed was a few years of WB contract work that found
Douglas the noble villain - and with his iron lipped scowl and a
contrived harsh voice he could look any such part with a steady verve.
He was first cast opposite a fast dissipating
Errol Flynn, walking through the
rather lackluster
Adventures of Don Juan (1948).
But he and Flynn got along fine and became friends and teamed again for
Kim (1950), a much better film. A much more
substantial role came to Douglas in the next year's
The Fountainhead (1949), part
of individualist Ayn Rand's corpus of heavy-handed hedonistic
philosophy which amid the cast included vivacious-wholesome but
downright sexy-newcomer Patricia Neal.
With its dense and challenging dialog, Douglas considered it one of his
favorite efforts. And there were other substantial amid many good
efforts as Douglas moved into the 1950s and toward some freelance
studio hopping. But certainly he was much in demand if not something of
a fixture as the less than noble noble in such well known literary
yarns as Ivanhoe (1952) and
The Prisoner of Zenda (1952),
and the concocted
At Sword's Point (1952) all in
one year.
By the mid 1950s he was spending half his time exploring acting on the
small screen and like his now more modest movie parts as a more senior
character actor. But Douglas was not one to waste time. He was
noticeably absent from acting in 1956 for the very reason that he had
returned to Broadway - not as an actor but as a director (and producer
for one) of four original comedy plays through that year. Though he had
occasional roles into the late 1970s, Douglas launched into an
unusually prolific life as a TV director starting in 1960. As such he
supervised the shooting of nearly 40 episodic series - a full spectrum
of popular shows from his start with "Maverick" and the list of
heartthrob private eye series, to TV playhouse productions, many other
westerns, law and order fare, and varied dramas. In many cases he
returned to do multiple episodes, and in fact he became a directorial
regular (16 episodes) on the World War II drama "Twelve O'Clock High",
during its sagging second and third seasons, no doubt his own air
combat experience being a telling factor in his longevity. Douglas's
one directorship on the big screen was for the British well regarded if
economic spy thriller
Night Train to Paris (1964).
Still active as a TV director in 1982, Douglas thereafter retired but
continued to appear on TV, providing historical perspective of the
movie past, one in particular being his remembrances of an old friend
in the 1983 documentary "Errol Flynn: Portrait of a Swashbuckler". At
nearly 90 years old Robert Douglas passed away after as thoroughly an
engaging film life as could ever be imagined.
it was that side of him that meant to do what he wanted to do. The
males of the family had followed the military for several
generations - his father and grandfather were commanders of the West
Sussex regiment - but he decided on another road for his career. He was
interested in acting and showed enough talent and potential to debut on
stage at 16 and enter theater training for two years at the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Arts in London the next year. Using his given
middle name as a professional surname, in 1930 he moved up to a feature
role with an all-star cast in the London revival of "A Bill of
Divorcement". Other choice roles followed quickly: "Kind Lady" with
Sybil Thorndike and the "Last Enemy"
with Laurence Olivier. Even then
Douglas was destined for a trans-Atlantic career. At the end of that
same year of 1930 he came to Broadway to do the American version of
"Last Enemy" with Jessica Tandy. Still he
was back in London in 1931 to open yet another page in his acting
career with the potential to be found in film work. With a rather
rugged, squared-off good looks and purposeful acting voice, he found
further work in the movies - comedies at first. But he had less than a
dozen roles through 1939, for he was pursuing yet another interest - and
that on the other side of the stage with producing and directing plays
in the West End beginning in 1932 at age 23.
The few film roles nevertheless kept ramping up in significance. By
1937 his first lead dramatic role in
Torpedoed (1937) tapped
him for a real adventure. Bergfilms or mountain films, being a heroic
if emotional epitomizing of Teutonic spirit against stark but beautiful
nature, had been popular in Germany through the later silent era
largely through the significant talents of German
geologist-turned-director Arnold Fanck. His
influenced on others included one of his leading men, a young Austrian
World War I veteran officer of mountain troops named
Luis Trenker. Trenker had already starred
in two Fanck mountain films and was the first leading man (1926) of the
controversial Leni Riefenstahl, Fanck's
muse - of sorts. Fanck did the screenplay of a dramatic interpretation
of the 1865 race between England, Switzerland, and Italy to first climb
the Matterhorn in Switzerland for a 1928 film directed by Italian
actor-director Mario Bonnard with Trenker
as the historical Italian competitor 'Jean-Antoine Carrel'. Trencker, a
gifted sort of Renaissance man of many talents, turned to being
director, writer, and producer as well in 1930. After several of his
own Bergfilms and other efforts he decided to once again visit the
Matterhorn subject in concert with British also actor-turned-director
Milton Rosmer and then expatriate
Hungarian writer Emeric Pressburger
to do a British version of his German rendition of the drama which he
called The Mountain Calls (1938). Trenker directed and co-starred as
Carrel-once again-in his version, while he co-directed as alpine action
supervisor and again played Carrel in the British version
The Challenge (1938).
Historically, the race was won by a little known young British
mountaineer, 'Edward Whymper', and Douglas with a striking theatrical
resemblance to Whymper got the part. Due to Trenker's expertise as a
mountaineer, the climbing sequences are very realistic and even the
somewhat over dramatic dialog is stirring. Of the two films fortunately
Douglas was perhaps the best remembered performer, although the German
version on a whole was the more even, largely due to Trenker's
considerable abilities as the go-to guy for just about anything needed
to put a film in the can.
For Douglas it was a busy 1939 with film work capped by his being one
of the first British actors to enlist as World War II loomed. He became
a Royal Navy pilot and would serve until 1946. He did one more British
film and also produced, directed, and starred in "Lighten Our Darkness"
on stage in London before heading over the Atlantic for good in 1947.
He had been back to Broadway in 1931-32 and 1935 for two plays, the
second, "Most of the Game", with his first
wife, British actress
Dorothy Hyson. And he had returned in 1942
for the musical "The Time, the Place, and the Girl". But now he had a
Warner Bros. contract in hand and was on his way to a future in
Hollywood. What followed was a few years of WB contract work that found
Douglas the noble villain - and with his iron lipped scowl and a
contrived harsh voice he could look any such part with a steady verve.
He was first cast opposite a fast dissipating
Errol Flynn, walking through the
rather lackluster
Adventures of Don Juan (1948).
But he and Flynn got along fine and became friends and teamed again for
Kim (1950), a much better film. A much more
substantial role came to Douglas in the next year's
The Fountainhead (1949), part
of individualist Ayn Rand's corpus of heavy-handed hedonistic
philosophy which amid the cast included vivacious-wholesome but
downright sexy-newcomer Patricia Neal.
With its dense and challenging dialog, Douglas considered it one of his
favorite efforts. And there were other substantial amid many good
efforts as Douglas moved into the 1950s and toward some freelance
studio hopping. But certainly he was much in demand if not something of
a fixture as the less than noble noble in such well known literary
yarns as Ivanhoe (1952) and
The Prisoner of Zenda (1952),
and the concocted
At Sword's Point (1952) all in
one year.
By the mid 1950s he was spending half his time exploring acting on the
small screen and like his now more modest movie parts as a more senior
character actor. But Douglas was not one to waste time. He was
noticeably absent from acting in 1956 for the very reason that he had
returned to Broadway - not as an actor but as a director (and producer
for one) of four original comedy plays through that year. Though he had
occasional roles into the late 1970s, Douglas launched into an
unusually prolific life as a TV director starting in 1960. As such he
supervised the shooting of nearly 40 episodic series - a full spectrum
of popular shows from his start with "Maverick" and the list of
heartthrob private eye series, to TV playhouse productions, many other
westerns, law and order fare, and varied dramas. In many cases he
returned to do multiple episodes, and in fact he became a directorial
regular (16 episodes) on the World War II drama "Twelve O'Clock High",
during its sagging second and third seasons, no doubt his own air
combat experience being a telling factor in his longevity. Douglas's
one directorship on the big screen was for the British well regarded if
economic spy thriller
Night Train to Paris (1964).
Still active as a TV director in 1982, Douglas thereafter retired but
continued to appear on TV, providing historical perspective of the
movie past, one in particular being his remembrances of an old friend
in the 1983 documentary "Errol Flynn: Portrait of a Swashbuckler". At
nearly 90 years old Robert Douglas passed away after as thoroughly an
engaging film life as could ever be imagined.