Articles & Texticles

Continuing a series about Art Directors in the British film industry up to 1948, when the book containing these articles was published.

This chapter deals with Cedric Dawe (1906 – 1996)

Temptation Harbour 1947
(Cliccare sulle immagini per ingrandirle)

Streets Paved With Water

Easy Money
One of child star Petula Clark’s early screen appearances.

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Dawe is one of the few art directors in this country who learnt the job in America, for in 1925 he went out there as an assistant art director at Warner Bros.

He had studied at the Canadian College of Art and was a member of the Union of Architects (U.S.A) and came to England as one of the younger generation of art directors under Clarance Elder at Elstree, where, between 1930 and 1947, he was Art Director on the following pictures:

‘Temptation Harbour‘ (Director, Lance Comfort);
‘No Escape‘ (Hurst and Summers);
‘The Limping Man‘ (Brian Hurst);
‘You’re Lucky to Me’ (Bentley); ‘Poison Pen’ (Paul Stein);
‘Just William‘ (Paul Stein);
‘The Gang’s All Here’ (Graham Cutts);
‘The Outsider’ (Stein);
‘Yes, Madame’ (Bentley);
‘Black Limelight’ (Stein);
‘Jane Steps Out’ (Stein);
‘Housemaster’ (Herbert Brenon);
‘The Terror‘ (Richard Bird);
‘Over She Goes’ (Bentley);
‘Let’s Make a Night of It’ (Graham Cutts);
‘Glamorous Night’ (Brian Hurst);
‘Please, Teacher‘ (Stafford Dickens);
‘The Dominant Sex‘ (Stein);
‘The Tenth Man‘ (Hurst);
‘Ourselves Alone’ (Hurst and Summers);
‘Someone at the Door‘ (Bentley);
‘Living Dangerously‘ (Brenon);
‘Once in a Million‘ (Arthur Woods);
‘Music Hath Charms‘ (Henry Hall);
‘Heart’s Desire’ (Stein);
‘Student’s Romance‘ (Otto Manturack).

The work at Elstree was very hard, but it was a magnificent training ground if you could stand the test. During the making of ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ Dawe says he was ‘building on seven stages and on the “lot”, shooting an average of five sets a day, and drawing in colour perspective sketches of every set, also working drawings, and dressing, without draughtsmen, assistants or set dressers , and working day and night continuously for two weeks’

He is a great believer in the power of the film as an aid to international understanding.

He is a landscape painter and has exhibited his work at many galleries in England, Canada and America.

The finish of Dawe’s film designs is reminiscent of Auton Grots the famous American art director, full of intriguing detail and carefully studied lighting.

His most recent film was ‘Easy Money’, directed by Bernard Knowles at Gainsborough Studios.