Val Guest
| Val Guest | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Valmond Maurice Guest 11 December 1911 Maida Vale, London, England |
| Died | 10 May 2006 (aged 94) Palm Springs, California, United States |
| Occupation | Film director, screenwriter |
| Spouse(s) | Violet Johnson (known as Pat Watson, 1935–c.1954) Yolande Donlan (1954–2006) |
| Awards |
Best British Screenplay 1961 The Day the Earth Caught Fire |
Valmond Maurice "Val" Guest (11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer (and later director) of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer, for whom he directed 14 films, and science fiction films. He enjoyed a long career in the film industry from the early 1930s until the early 1980s.
He was born Valmond Maurice Guest to parents John Simon Guest and Julia Ann Gladys Emanuel in Maida Vale, London. His father was a jute broker, and the family spent some of Guest's childhood in India before returning to England. His parents divorced when he was young, but this information was kept from him. Instead he was told that his mother had died. He was educated at Seaford College in Sussex, but left in 1927 and worked for a time as a bookkeeper.
Guest's initial career was as an actor, appearing in various productions in London theatres. He also appeared in a few early sound film roles, before he quit acting and began a writing career. For a time, around 1934, he was the London correspondent for the Hollywood Reporter trade paper at the time when the publication began an edition for the UK. before he began working on film screenplays for Gainsborough Pictures.
This came about because the director Marcel Varnel had been incensed by comments Guest had made in his regular column, "Rambling Around", about the director's latest film. Challenged to write a screenplay by Varnel, Guest co-wrote his first script, which became No Monkey Business (1935) directed by Varnel. This was to be the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership between the two men. Guest was placed under contract as a staff writer at Gainsborough's Islington Studios in Poole Street.
Guest wrote screenplays for the rest of the decade, working with George Marriott Edgar on eight films, including the scripts for Will Hay's comedies such as Oh, Mr Porter! (1937) and Ask a Policeman (1939), and The Crazy Gang.
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