Deep diving into the obscure career of Alexander Mackendrick

Alexander Mackendrick is as obscure as it gets in cinema. He has directed some great movies in his career, but he often gets overshadowed. Many cinephiles seem to overlook him only to mainly cover more popular filmmakers. He was able to work with so many legends in the industry but somehow, he remains forgotten among filmmakers. However, other cinephiles, who enjoy studying forgotten filmmakers, see him as someone who deserves to be discovered. After all, some of his movies are considered to be some of the best in their genres. Mackendrick's reputation has grown over time as his movies remain cult favorites.

Mackendrick was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 8, 1912. He was the only child of Francis and Martha Mackendrick. His father Francis died of Influenza due to the Influenza pandemic after World War I. His mother Martha become a dress designer only to send Mackendrick to his grandfather thus never seeing her son again. His grandfather took him to Scotland when Mackendrick was six. Mackendrick's childhood was tragic. He went to Hillhead High School in Scotland. In addition, before he was a film director, he went to London to work as an art director. He worked for the advertising firm J Walter Thompson. Mackendrick scripted five advertising commercials in the mid-late 1930s. He went on to write a script with his cousin Roger MacDougall and due to revisions, it will later be released as 1937's Midnight Menace. Mackendrick was making documentary films along with leaflets and radio news for the Allied Commando effort. He became the director of the film unit in Rome and approved Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945). Mackendrick would sign a contract with a British film studio that will change his career forever.

In 1946, Mackendrick signed with the British film studio known as Ealing Studios. Mackendrick began as a screenwriter and as a production designer at Ealing. He transitioned at the studio to film directing in the process. He made his directorial debut with the comedy Whisky Galore (1949) with Basil Radford and Joan Greenwood. The movie was well-received on release and successfully launched Mackendrick's career. 1949 was one of Ealing's peak years considering that films like Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets were successful too. After the success of Whisky Galore, Mackendrick continued to be successful as a director. He went to direct more films including The Man in the White Suit (1951), Mandy (1952), The Ladykillers (1955) among others. However, Ealing sold its base in 1955 thus allowing Mackendrick to work in Hollywood. Mackendrick ended up working in Hollywood as a freelance director. His first directorial effort in Hollywood is the film noir Sweet Smell of Success (1957). He ended up working for the company that produced the film, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster. Sweet Smell of Success (1957) starred Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. HHL was one of the most successful star-owned companies. Sweet Smell of Success was critically successful but not commercially successful. 

After the commercial failure of Sweet Smell of Success, Mackendrick had a hard time working with Hecht-Hill-Lancaster. He was originally supposed to direct the film the Devil's Disciple for the company. The Devil's Disciple starred Burt Lancaster again and Kirk Douglas. Due to the failure of Sweet Smell, Mackendrick was replaced by future James Bond director Guy Hamilton. After Hamilton took over directorial duties for the Devil's Disciple, Mackendrick got fired from HHL. Mackendrick went to on direct a few more films. The films were Sammy Going South (1963), A High Wind in Jamaica (1965) and Don't Make Waves (1967) with Tony Curtis again and Claudia Cardinale. Don't Make Waves was his last film that he directed only to retire from filmmaking. Afterwards, he started his new career at the Disney owned CalArts. He began as the founding dean of the film school and later became a film teacher. He usually used other filmmaker's films to teach his students the art of filmmaking. He never used his own films as examples in his classes. Interestingly enough, one of his students was James Mangold. Mangold would be later successful as a director. He directed films like Ford v Ferrari (2019), Logan (2017), 3:10 to Yuma (2007) among others. Mackendrick would continue his job as a film schoolteacher until his death of pneumonia in 1993 at age 81. He was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.

Exploring Alexander Mackendrick enhanced my pallet. I did it as a way to continue to give lesser-known filmmakers a chance. In addition, I want other cinephiles to overcome popular bias by covering filmmakers that are obscure. I say that because we live in a time where people have a hard time getting knowledge of cult filmmakers. They do it as a way to keep on placating to the masses to where it leads to a lot of clicks and subscribers. Do not get it twisted, we can still study popular stuff, but we also need to study the lesser-known stuff too. It allows us to expand and diversify for the sake of maturing as cinephiles in the process. Cinephiles, give Alexander Mackendrick a chance so that you can explore his obscure but still impressive career. God bless.