Michael Relph


Michael Leighton George Relph was an English film producer, art director, writer and film director. He was the son of actor George Relph.

Films

Relph began his film career in 1933 as an assistant art director under Alfred Junge at Gaumont British then headed by Michael Balcon. In 1942 Relph began work at Ealing as chief art director, where his designs included the influential 1945 supernatural anthology Dead of Night.
He worked mainly on Basil Dearden's films, and in 1949 was nominated for an Academy Award for art direction for his work on the Stewart Granger vehicle Saraband for Dead Lovers.

Theatre

Michael Relph also designed for the theatre, particularly the West End in the 1940s, from The Doctor's Dilemma and A Month in the Country, to Nap Hand and The Man Who Came to Dinner.

Producer

Relph is largely known as a film producer. He served as associate producer on the Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets ; and had a significant 20-year partnership with Basil Dearden beginning in 1949 and ending with Dearden's death in 1971. Their work included a series of social problem films examining issues such as racism, juvenile delinquency, homosexuality, and religious intolerance. Relph believed that because film was "genuinely a mass medium," it therefore had "social and educative responsibilities as well as artistic ones." In their review of Life For Ruth, The New York Times wrote, "in avoiding blatant bias, mawkish sentimentality and theatrical flamboyance, it makes a statement that is dramatic, powerful and provocative."
From 1972 to 1979, Relph was chairman of the British Film Institute's Production Board.

Family

His son, Simon Relph, was also a film producer and former chairman of BAFTA. His daughter, Emma Relph, had several parts on television and in the films as an actress during the 1980s. His stepson Mark Law is a former Fleet Street journalist and author of The Pyjama Game, A Journey Into Judo.

Selected filmography