Crypto-European man of letters who, when he wasn’t helping Powell and Pressburger with dialogue, divided his time between upper crust British types and Germanic military figures. Pathos abounds: his sad old schoolmaster shown up by his thrusting young rival in Mr Perrin and Mr Traill, or his Ava Gardner-coveting Italian millionaire in The Barefoot Contessa. His later career dotage of ‘Nazi for hire’ runs was ameliorated by his excellent fascist reptile expert in The Old Men at the Zoo, about which we shall not shut up, even if it is strictly telly.
FINEST HOUR: Moira Shearer’s love interest – and so much more – in The Red Shoes.
