An employee of London Films in his teens, Jack Clayton became third
assistant director, assistant director and editor just prior to World
War II. In the RAF, Clayton rose to the rank of commanding officer in
the film division. After the war, he went to work as a production manager
and associate producer for both Alexander Korda
and John Huston. His directorial debut was The
Bespoke Overcoat (1955), an Oscar-winning short. His first feature-length
film was adaptation of the John Braine novel Room
at the Top (1958), starring Laurence
Harvey as a Northern-born opportunist seeking success within the
confines of a small-minded factory town. With the success of Room at
the Top, Clayton established himself as a prime mover of the 'angry
young man' category of 'kitchen sink' filmmaking. Not wishing to be
typecast, Clayton turned down Saturday
Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and The
L-Shaped Room (1962).
His next project was the muted psychological ghost story The
Innocents (1961), based on Henry James' Turn of the Screw, starring
Deborah Kerr as the sexually
repressed governess of two precocious children. The
Pumpkin Eater (1964), was based on the novel by Penelope Mortimer,
a searing marital drama with Anne Bancroft and Peter
Finch. After the Gothic thriller Our
Mother's House (1967), based on Julian Gloag's novel, Clayton
took a seven-year sabbatical from films. He returned for the expensive
remake of The Great Gatsby (1974), starring Robert Redford as F Scott
Fitzgerald's doomed hero. This much-awaited film disappointed critics
and viewers alike; many found the casting flawed and the film overlong.
After almost a decade, Clayton returned with Something Wicked This
Way Comes (1983), an adaptation of the Ray Bradbury's novel. After
a four-year absence from film, Clayton returned to direct his last
feature film, the critically acclaimed yet heartbreakingly sombre,
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987). Clayton wrote and directed
one more film for television before his death in 1995.
