Arthur Crabtree
1900 - 1975Crabtree earliest credits as a cinematographer working on such films as the Will Hay comedies Oh, Mr. Porter! and Good Morning, Boys (both 1937) and Hey! Hey! USA! (1938), the Arthur Askey vehicle Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt (1940), and The Man in Grey (1943) and Fanny by Gaslight (1944) for Gainsborough Pictures.
Crabtree continued his association with Gainsborough as he started his directorial career, beginning with the melodramatic fantasies Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), starring Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger and Caravan (1946). His last two films were Fiend Without a Face (1958) and Horrors of the Black Museum (1959), a science fiction and horror, respectively, both of which have become cult favourites, although the former enjoys a better critical reputation. He also directed episodes of television series such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (both 1956).
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They Were Sisters
Arthur Crabtree
Phyllis Calvert, James Mason
The story of three sisters and the men they marry: one is happily married but childless, the second promiscuously escapes an unhappy, loveless marriage, and the third is tortured by the mental cruelties inflicted by a domineering husband.
They Were Sisters
Don't Ever Leave Me
Arthur Crabtree
Jimmy Hanley, Petula Clark
Elderly crook Harry Denton, when challenged to prove he is "not past it," decides to kidnap Sheila Farlane, the 16 year old daughter of a famous actor. When Harry loses his nerve, Sheila won't let him give up.
Don't Ever Leave Me
Caravan
Arthur Crabtree
Stewart Granger, Jean Kent
During the last half of the 19th century writer Richard Darrell saves Don Carlos from two robbers, and is entrusted by Don Carlos to take a valuable necklace to Spain. Richard leaves his fiancé, Oriana, and starts the trip. He meets Wycroft, a henchman for Sir Francis Castteldow, an aristocrat out to steal Oriana from Richard. The latter is assaulted, robbed and nearly killed and, as a result, loses his memory. He marries a gypsy girl, Rosal, while Oriana, thinking him dead marries the dastardly Sir Francis. Everybody will meet again. Complications will arise.
Caravan
Madonna of the Seven Moons
Arthur Crabtree
Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger
In the early part of this century, Maddelena a teenage Italian girl, is attacked whilst walking in the woods. The attack leaves her mentally scarred and our story flashes forward to the 1940s where Maddelena is still troubled. She disappears one day and her daughter vows to find her.
Madonna of the Seven Moons
Hindle Wakes
Arthur Crabtree
Leslie Dwyer, Lisa Daniely
During a holiday to the beach Jenny meets Alan and agrees to spend the week with him. Wanting to keep this a secret from her parents Jenny gets help from her friend Mary to pretend her whereabouts but disaster strikes during a boating accident. It is soon discovered Jenny was not with Mary. When the parents find out the truth they pressure the couple to get married, but Jenny thinks otherwise.
Hindle Wakes
Fiend Without a Face
Arthur Crabtree
Marshall Thompson, Kynaston Reeves
An American airbase in Canada provokes resentment from the nearby residents after fallout from nuclear experiments at the base are blamed for a recent spate of disappearances. A captain from the airbase is assigned to investigate, and begins to suspect that an elderly British scientist who lives near the base and conducts research in the field of mind over matter knows more than he is letting on..
Fiend Without a Face
Lilli Marlene
Arthur Crabtree
Lisa Daniely, Hugh McDermott
Lilli Marlene, a French girl working as a bar maid in her uncle's café in Benghazi, Libya, turns out to be the girl that the popular German wartime song Lili Marleen had been written for before the war, so both the British and the Germans try to use her for propaganda purposes - especially as it turns out that she can sing as well. When the Germans kidnap her in Cairo and she starts appearing in radio broadcasts from Berlin, her British soldier friends think that she's joined the enemy. They couldn't be more wrong, because after the war it turns out that her songs over the radio contained secret messages to London from British agents in Berlin.
Lilli Marlene
