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 John Howell.
(Click thumbnail images to enlarge)
Fame Is The Spur was Honor Blackman’s first screen appearance.
John Howells started his long cinematic career in the 1930’s. After the second world war he practised as an Art Director up until the early 1970’s. when he switched to sound engineering and dubbing until the early 1990’s.1
Footnotes for this post:____________________________________JOHN HOWELL went to Gainsborough Studios on leaving school in 1932 and got a job as a junior draughtsman and then went through the various stages of set dresser and buyer and at last became assistant to Vetchinsky.
He graduated to his present position with the Boulting Brothers, for whom he has designed the backgrounds to ‘Fame is the Spur’ and ‘Brighton Rock’.
He met the Boulting Brothers at Pinewood during the war when the Army Film Unit and the R.A.F. Film Unit were stationed there, Howell being in charge of art direction for the R.A.F. when they made ‘Journey Together’.Howell is particularly adept in the use of such special effects as model and trick shots; during the war he had ample opportunity for experimenting and, was afterwards Special Effects Director for Two Cities on ‘School for Secrets’.
He has recently been engaged on the designs for another Boulting Brothers film, ‘The Guinea Pig’.
- See the first comment below. [↩]
Other posts in this series
- Art & Design in The British Film # 1: W.C.Andrews
- Art & Design in The British Film # 2: Andre Andrejew
- Art & Design in The British Film # 3: Norman Arnold
- Art & Design in The British Film # 4: Wilfred Arnold
- Art & Design in The British Film # 5: Ferdinand Bellan
- Art & Design in The British Film # 6: Ralph Brinton
- Art & Design in The British Film # 7: John Bryan
- Art & Design in The British Film # 8 Edward Carrick
- Art & Design in The British Film # 9 Maurice Carter
- Art & Design in The British Film # 10: Douglas Daniels
- Art & Design in The British Film # 11: Cedric Dawe
- Art & Design in The British Film # 12: Roger Furse
- Art & Design in The British Film # 13: Hein Heckroth
- Art & Design in The British Film # 14: John Howell (This post)
- Art & Design in The British Film # 15: Laurence Irving
- Art & Design in The British Film # 16: Alfred Junge
- Art & Design in The British Film # 17 Vincent Korda
- Art & Design in The British Film # 18 Oliver Messel
- Art & Design in The British Film #19 Tom Morahan
- Art & Design in The British Film #20 C.P.Norman
- Art & Design in The British Film #21 Peter Proud
- Art & Design in The British Film #22 George Provis
- Art & Design in The British Film #23 Fred Pusey
- Art & Design in The British Film #24 David Rawnsley
- Art & Design in The British Film #25 - Michael Relph
- Art & Design in The British Film #26 - Paul Sherriff
- Art & Design in The British Film #27 - Wilfrid Shingleton
- Art & Design in The British Film #28 - Duncan Sutherland
- Art & Design in The British Film #29 – Alex Vetchinsky
2 Comments
“when he switched to sound engineering and dubbing until the early 1990’s”. This is not true. John Howell was an art director and production designer who died in 1993. He did not at any time work as a sound engineer.
imdb.comimdb.com @Julian Howell: Thank you for the correction. I guess from your surname that you speak with first hand authority.
I obtained the (faulty) information from the Internet Movie Database here:- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0397995/
The post has now been edited.