Brock Williams (screenwriter)
| Brock Williams | |
|---|---|
| Born |
8 July 1894 Truro, Cornwall, England |
| Died | 19 February 1964 (aged 69) Richmond, Surrey, England |
| Occupation | Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1930 – 1962 |
Brock Williams (8 July 1894 – 19 February 1964) was a prolific English screenwriter with over 100 films to his credit between 1930 and 1962. He also had a brief directorial career, and later also worked in television.
A native of Cornwall, in 1930 Williams joined Teddington Studios, the British arm of Warner Brothers, where he would spend the next 15 years. The 1930s was the golden age of the quota quickie, when Teddington was churning out quickly and cheaply shot films by the week, so work was plentiful. With few exceptions, these films were deemed of ephemeral value, with no worthwhile life after their first cinema run. The unfortunate result for modern film historians is that a good proportion are now classed as lost films, while those that have survived did so more by chance than intention. Films on which Williams worked included three early Michael Powell ventures Something Always Happens, The Girl in the Crowd and Someday, of which only the first is still extant. Between 1936 and 1939 he also formed part of a regular four-way working partnership with director Arthur B. Woods, producer Irving Asher and cinematographer Basil Emmott, most notably on Q Planes.
The quota quickie assembly line died with the outbreak of World War II, when Britain's major studios started to concentrate on making fewer pictures with higher production values and quality, often with an overtly patriotic and propagandistic tone. Williams remained contracted to Teddington until 1944, scripting such films as Contraband and Candlelight in Algeria. He then went freelance, starting with the Gainsborough ghost story A Place of One's Own in 1945.
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