Where to begin with Basil Dearden

Despite being the most prolific director at England’s beloved Ealing Studios, Basil Dearden is largely absent from history books – that is, when he’s not being damned with faint praise or outright savaged. Take this, for example, from David Thomson’s The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: “[Dearden’s] proficiency was at the expense of inventiveness or artistic personality… His films are decent, empty, and plodding.” Ouch.

Recently things have started to shift, as a critical reappraisal slowly grinds into gear, and the reasons for earlier condemnations now seem puzzling. Could it be Dearden’s tendency towards large casts, which forgoes easy identification with a single protagonist? Or is it the films’ bleak and downbeat natures? Indeed, as early as his first solo directing credit, The Bells Go Down (1943), Dearden displayed a penchant for killing off major characters….