Film director, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. His family emigrated to Scotland soon after he was born. He directed many successful comedy films for Ealing Studios in London, including Whisky Galore (1948), The Man in the White Suit (1951), and The Ladykillers (1955). Other films include Mandy (1952) and The Sweet Smell of Success (1956).
Alexander Mackendrick (September 8, 1912 - December 22, 1993) was a Scottish-American film director.
Alexander MacKendrick was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the only child of Francis Robert MacKendrick and Martha MacKendrick. When MacKendrick was six, his father fell victim to the influenza pandemic that swept the world just after World War I. In order to pursue that decision, it was necessary for Martha MacKendrick to hand her only son over to his grandfather, who took young MacKendrick back to Scotland when he was seven years old.
Young Alexander MacKendrick had a very sad and lonely childhood. In the early 1930’s, MacKendrick moved to London to work as an art director for the ad firm J. In 1937 MacKendrick wrote his first film script, Midnight Menace, with his cousin and close friend, Roger MacDougall.
At the start of the Second World War, MacKendrick was employed by the Minister of Information making British propaganda films. In 1943, he became the director of the film unit and approved the production of the classic Rossellini film, Rome, Open City.
After the war, MacKendrick and his cousin Roger MacDougall set up Merlin Productions, where they produced documentaries for the Ministry of Information. Merlin Productions soon proved to be a poor investment, so in 1946 MacKendrick joined Ealing Studios where he worked for 9 years.
MacKendrick began directing the Hecht-Hill-Lancaster (HHL) film Sweet Smell of Success in 1957. MacKendrick got along poorly with the producers of the film because they felt that he was too much of a perfectionist. After The Sweet Smell of Success, MacKendrick went back to England to make his second HHL film, The Devil’s Disciple in 1959, but he was fired only a month into production due to lingering tension from their first project together.
After his disappointment with HHL, MacKendrick directed several television commercials in Europe for Horlicks. He also made a handful of films during the early sixties including Sammy Going South (1963), A High Wind in Jamaica (1965), and Don’t Make Waves (1967).
In 1969, he finally returned to the United States, where he was made Dean of the film school of the California Institute of the Arts. "He found himself spending more energy on making deals than on making films". When Ealing studios was sold, Mackendrick was cut loose to pursue a career as a freelance director, something he was never prepared to do:
"At Ealing ...Due to severe emphysema, MacKendrick was unable to go home to Europe during much of his time at the college.
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