Biography

Early Career

Born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, Thomas studied law at Middlesex University College. He entered the film business as a clapper boy at Shepperton Studios in 1932 during his summer vacation while at college. Following graduation, instead of becoming a lawyer he decided to enter the film industry, and became an apprentice at Shepperton Studios, working as a clapper boy and then in the editing room, the sound department and art department. From 1932-34 Thomas worked predominantly on "quota quickies". He discovered he loved editing the most and worked predominantly as an editor for the next few years, including a stint working alongside David Lean. When his employer, Premiere Stafford, went broke he worked for a while as a journalist at the Bristol Evening Post for over a year. He returned to editing before joining the army in 1939.

War Service

During the Second World War, Thomas served with the 9th Lancers rising to the rank of Major and being awarded the Military Cross. He took part in the Battle of El Alamein.

Post War Career

Thomas left the army in 1945 and re-entered the industry, although he could only get work as an assistant editor. He assisted editing Odd Man Out then began making film trailers for the Rank Organisation. He worked his way up to becoming head of Rank's trailer department as well as writing films. Thomas later said making trailers was "enormously useful" because he "learned a lot of the technique of how the varying directors whose pictures I had worked on operated. Also, it teachers one a great deal of discipline about brevity in story telling."

Director

Sydney Box had enjoyed Thomas's trailer for Miranda and when a position of director came up due to an unexpected illness, Thomas made his directoral debut in Once Upon a Dream.

He went on to make a two more comedies for Sydney Box: Helter Skelter then Traveller's Joy. Thomas later recalled this time as:

Enormously exciting and invigorating. We knew that we were not always going very creative work, but that there was a chance to gain experience and that this wasn't going to last... You were quite likely to finish shooting on Friday, plan to go into the cutting rooms on Monday to look over your stuff and get your cut ready, then go for a drink, and you'd be given another script and be told, 'The sets are standing and you start on Monday - this is the cast!' It wasn't necessarily good and we didn't get a lot of money, but it was regular.

Betty E. Box

When working in trailers, Thomas had met Sydney Box's sister Betty, and the two of them struck up a rapport. In 1949 it was announced Betty Box, Muriel Box and Thomas had formed Feature Film Facilities, to make six or seven films, starting with an adaptation of several Guy de Maupassant stories. This never happened. However when Thomas left Sydney Box to go under contract with the Rank Organisation to make The Clouded Yellow, he brought Betty with her as a producer. They ended up making over twenty films together.

Box defined their relationship in a 1973 interview:

I'm a natural pessimist and he's a natural optimist. I'm always in the depths of despair and he is always full of joy. Good teams are often made of opposites... We (she and Ralph Thomas) do have awful, boring fights. Directing a film is not an easy job. For any man to stay sweet and gentle through eight weeks of purgatory is impossible.

Their second film together was Appointment with Venus, a war comedy with David Niven.

They made The Venetian Bird, short partly on location in Venice.

Doctor in the House

They had a massive box office hit with Doctor in the House (1954) made a star of Dirk Bogarde and led to a number of sequels, all of which would be directed by Thomas. Thomas later reflected, "In a way it doesn't really do you career any good to have such a big success early on... you can easily get thrown off course because you get offered all sorts of things which you don't really want to do and shouldn't do. You become easily flattered because you like this first taste of fame."

However the films gave Thomas and Box a great deal of control. Whenever they made a doctor film, Rank would finance another movie they wanted "as long as the thing we wanted to make had a reasonable budget and was not too idiotic."

Thomas made a war film, Above Us the Waves, before doing a second "Doctor", Doctor at Sea (1955). Both these movies would be among the most popular films at the British box office in 1955. He followed them with the less popular Checkpoint, a car racing thriller with location filming in Europe.

The success of Doctor in the House saw Thomas offered to direct the Cold War comedy, The Iron Petticoat with Bob Hope and Katherine Hepburn. The film was a financial success but production was an unhappy experience for Thomas, and it remains the only time he worked with big Hollywood stars.

He returned to "Doctor" films with Doctor at Large, the second most popular movie at the British box office in 1957. This success enabled Thomas and Box to obtain finance for a series of expensive adventure films starring Dirk Bogarde shot on location, aimed at the international market: Campbell's Kingdom, A Tale of Two Cities and The Wind Cannot Read. None of these achieved the sort of popularity obtained by the "Doctor" movies, although the last two in particular are regarded among Thomas' finest works.

Thomas was reunited with Kenneth More on The 39 Steps (1959), a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic, then made a comedy, Upstairs and Downstairs.

He and Box wanted to make two riskier films, a political story No Love for Johnnie, and a story about nuns, Conspiracy of Hearts. Rank agreed to finance provided they made a fourth doctor film. Doctor in Love was the result; despite Dirk Bogarde refusing to take part, it was still a big hit. Conspiracy of Hearts was also highly successful. No Love for Johnnie was a flop, but was highly acclaimed critically - perhaps the most admired of all Thomas' movies.

1960s

Thomas spent the early 60s mostly making cheap comedies, including No My Darling Daughter (1961), A Pair of Briefs (1962), Carry On Cruising (1962) and The Wild and the Willing (1962).

He was reunited with Dirk Bogarde for three final films. First was Doctor in Distress (1963), Bogarde reprising his role as Simon Sparrow one more time. This encouraged Rank to finance two more expensive films: the James Bond spoof Hot Enough for June (1964) and a serious look at the Cyprus Emergency, The High Bright Sun (1964).

Neither of the latter two were particularly popular. Thomas returned to more sure fire material with a sixth "Doctor", Doctor in Clover (1966). He then made two Bulldog Drummond films, Deadlier Than the Male and Some Girls Do. In between he directed Rod Taylor in a poorly-received thriller, The High Commissioner (1968).

1970s

The 1970s saw Thomas make the last "doctor" film, Doctor in Trouble. He had a big hit in Percy which led to a sequel, Percy's Progress. However other films Thomas made around this time, Quest for Love (1971) and The Love Ban (1973), were less successful.

The downturn in production in the British film industry of the 1970s affected Thomas' ability to raise finance for his films and he began to work increasingly in television. He began to work for television. His last feature was A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1979).

Legacy

Thomas later described himself as:

A sort of journeyman picture maker and I was generally happy to make anything I felt to be halfway respectable. So my volume of work was enormous; I had a lot of energy and made all kinds of pictures. If you make all kinds, you score a hit sometimes. I made thrillers, comedies, love stories, war stories, one or two adventure things. Some filmmakers have a lot of talent and genius for it; others imply have a lot of energy and I'm afraid I belong in the latter category!

Filmography

• Second Bureau (1936) - editor
• Return of a Stranger (1937) - editor
• Once Upon a Dream (1949) - director
• Traveller's Joy (1949) - director
• Helter Skelter (1949) - director
• The Clouded Yellow (1951) - director
• Appointment with Venus (1951) - director
• Venetian Bird (1952) - director
• A Day to Remember (1953) - director
• The Dog and the Diamonds (1953) - director
• Mad About Men (1954) - director
• Doctor in the House (1954) - director
• Above Us the Waves (1955) - director
• Doctor at Sea (1955) - director
• Checkpoint (1956) - director
• The Iron Petticoat (1956) - director
• Doctor at Large (1957) - director
• Campbell's Kingdom (1957) - director
• A Tale of Two Cities (1958) - director
• The Wind Cannot Read (1958) - director
• The 39 Steps (1959) - director
• Upstairs and Downstairs (1959) - director
• Conspiracy of Hearts (1960) - director
• Doctor in Love (1960) - director
• No Love for Johnnie (1961) - director
• No My Darling Daughter (1961) - director
• A Pair of Briefs (1962) - director
• The Wild and the Willing (1962) - director
• Doctor in Distress (1963) - director
• Hot Enough for June (1964) - director
• The High Bright Sun (1964) (US: McGuire, Go Home) - director
• Doctor in Clover (1966) - director
• Deadlier Than the Male (1966) - director
• Nobody Runs Forever (1968) - director
• Some Girls Do (1969) - director
• Doctor in Trouble (1970) - director
• Percy (1971) - director
• Quest for Love (1971) - director
• The Love Ban (1973) - director
• Anyone for Sex? (1973) - producer, director
• Percy's Progress (1974) - director
• The Insurance Man from Ingersoll (1975) (TV movie) - producer
• A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1979) - director
• Doctor's Daughters (1981) (TV series) - writer
• Pop Pirates (1984) - producer

Unmade Films

• film about British policewomen, a female version of The Blue Lamp
• The Red Hot Ferrari
• The Undertakers Man
• The Reckless Years - story of Byron and Shelley (1974)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]