Background
Neame, Ronald was born on April 23, 1911 in Hendon, Middlesex, England. The son of photographer Elwin Neame and actress Ivy Close.
director producer screenwriter
Neame, Ronald was born on April 23, 1911 in Hendon, Middlesex, England. The son of photographer Elwin Neame and actress Ivy Close.
Educated at Hurstpierpoint College later he graduated from the University College School.
Neame entered British films as a camera assistant and went on to photograph Drake of England (35, Arthur Woods); The Ware Case (38, Robert Stevenson); Pygmalion (38, Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard); Come on, George (39, Anthony Kimmins); Major Barbara (41, Gabriel Pascal); In Which We Serve (42, Noel Coward and David Lean); and Blithe Spirit (45, David Lean). His association with Lean expanded when Neame became producer of Brief Encounter (45), Great Expectations (46), Oliver Twist (48), and The Passionate Friends (49). He also produced the Festival of Britain film, The Magic Box (51, John Boulting).
Neame’s work has fluctuated, but it remains above the dismal average of British cinema. The Seventh Sin is an intriguing guessing game, but Neame deserves some credit for its picture of feminine hysteria, if only because two other films show a special taste for romantic feverishness: I Could Go On Singing and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The Seventh Sin looks a good deal better than the two later films, but Neame did manage to draw on the same sort of nervous animation in Eleanor Parker, Judy Garland, and Maggie Smith. Something of that bursting shrillness could be seen in John Mills’s performance in Tunes of Glory and in The Chalk Garden's assembly of tremulous women. In addition, The Horse’s Mouth is a worthv attempt at Joyce Cary’s novel, with Alec Guinness exhilarating as the luminous scoundrel painter, Gulley Jimson. At the very least, Neame has a filmmaker’s eye and the ability to produce attractive entertainments. Too often, however, he has been caught up in tame adventure films. Scrooge is an ugly and turgid picture, while Mister Moses, Escape from Zahrain, and The Poseidon Adventure are far beyond his proper territory.
Hopscotch was an effective comedy pairing of Glenda Jackson and Walter Matthau—but in First Monday in October Matthau seemed tied down by judicial robes. Neame was also the executive producer on the engaging Bellman and True (87, Richard Loncraine).
Member Directors Guild American, American Film Institute, Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (governor 1977-1979), British Academy Film and television Arts (London and Los Angeles), Savile Club (London).
Painting, photography, stereo and hi-fi equipment.
Married Beryl Yolanda Heanly, October 15, 1933. 1 son, Christopher Elwyn. Married Dona Friedberg, September 12, 1993.