Donald Herman Sharp (19 April 192114 December 2011) was an Australian film director.
His best known films were made for Hammer in the 1960s, and included Kiss of the Vampire (1963) and Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966). In 1965 he directed The Face of Fu Manchu, based on the character created by Sax Rohmer, and starring Christopher Lee. Sharp also directed the sequel The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966). In the 1980s he was also responsible for several hugely popular miniseries adapted from the novels of Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Early career Early life Sharp was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1921, according to official military records and his own account (some sources still give 1922 as his year of birth). He was the second of four children.
He attended St Virgil's College and began appearing regularly in theatre productions at the Playhouse Theatre in Hobart, where he trained under a young Stanley Burbury. He later said this was prompted "by a desire not to study to become an accountant, which is what my parents wanted for me."Midnight p 14 Among the plays Sharp appeared in were You Can't Take It With You and Our Town. He also directed a production of Stage Door.Anthony Hayward, Don Sharp: Film director who made his mark with 'Kiss of the Vampire' from The Independent dated 29 December 2011, accessed 30 December 2011 He studied accountancy in the evenings but this was interrupted by war service.
War service Sharp enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 7 April 1941 and was transferred to Singapore. In addition to his military duties he appeared in radio and on stage with a touring English company. Among his radio performances were Escape and The Barretts of Wimpole Street. "The acting bug had definitely gotten hold of me," says Sharp, "and I did a bit of it while I was in the RAAF as well, in the odd moment."
Sharp was invalided out before the city fell to the Japanese. He returned to Melbourne and recuperated at Heidelberg Hospital. Sharp spent the majority of his war service in Melbourne, appearing in amateur theatre productions of Quality Street and The Late Christopher Bean as well as recorded broadcasts and ABC plays.
In early 1943 Sharo moved to Hobart. He appeared in a theatre production of Interval by Sumner Locke Elliott, also serving as assistant director. Following this he appeared in a theatre revue, Khaki Kapers, notably in a sketch which figured a flag flown over the air force station in Singapore which Sharp had brought back with him.
Sharp was discharged from the air force on 17 March 1944 at the rank of corporal.
Acting career After the war Sharp did not want to return to Hobart. He auditioned for and won an understudy's position in J. C. Williamson Limited version of the Broadway comedy Kiss and Tell; when a bout of laryngitis incapacitated one of the leads two weeks later, Sharp stepped into the role. He toured in the production from 1944-1945 then went on to appear in such plays as Arsenic and Old Lace (1945) and The Dancing Years. He worked for Morris West's production company in radio and played a small role in Smithy (1946), one of the few feature films shot in Australia at this time.
Sharp also toured Japan performing for the occupying troops there. From Japan he went to London in 1948. "I could have gone on with a theatrical career in Australia," says Sharp, "but what I really wanted was movies. So I went to England."
Move to England Ha'Penny Breeze Arriving in England in 1948, Sharp got some stage work quickly "but I couldn't even get an appointment to see a casting director" for films.
He was sharing a flat with an assistant director and they decided to make their own film. He co-wrote Ha'penny Breeze (1950), with a fellow Australian, Frank Worth. Together with another man, Darcy Conyers, they formed a production company and raised finance to make the £8,000 film. Sharp also played a leading role, did the accounts and helped with the direction. The film was not a large hit but it was theatrically released.Sharp p 13
Sharp also got a small role in a British radio adaptation of Robbery Under Arms (1950).
Sharp said "Shortly after, a number of influential film people made contact with me, but none of them offered me a job as an actor — they all asked if I would write for them!"Midnight p 15 Sharp was unable to cash in on Ha'penny Breeze as he came down with a recurrence of tuberculosis and spent nearly two years in hospital, during which he had six ribs and one lung removed.Sharp p 13
Group 3 When Sharp recovered he got some acting roles in such films as The Planter's Wife (1952), Appointment in London (1953), The Cruel Sea (1953) and You Know What Sailors Are (1954). Several of these films were directed by Ken Annakin who Sharp says was particularly helpful giving him jobs when needed.
He began to turn increasingly to writing and directing. Sharp said his background as an actor was useful for his development as a director, in particular it developed his sense of timing: You’ve got to know, for example, a thing I was taught early in theatre – if there's a scene in a movie, in a play, that always gets good laughs, on a good night, when there's a good and laughing audience, you’ll get laughs in the build-up to it, in the five or ten minutes beforehand, because it's a good audience who's appreciative of what's going on. On a bad night, when the audience are not laughing, increase your pace, get them at the point. And this teaches you a control of speed and how to control an audience. . . . Working with good actors, you get a feeling of timing with them; although sometimes the timing between them can be good but their overall pace, which is quite different, can be wrong – its context in the film, because of the situation in the film, perhaps there should be that little more urgency, therefore pace, in the scene. When Sharp was ill he received "messages of encouragement" from Michael Balcon, John Grierson and James Lawrie. When he got out of hospital he contacted them and they invited him to write an original story for Group Three, a new government-backed film company which had a brief to support new talent.Sharp p13 Sharp sold them an original script called Child's Play (made 1952, released 1954). Group Three liked Sharp's work and assigned him to work on the script for Background; he was also given the job as assistant to the producer which he later called "the most wonderful education". He stayed with Group Three for two years, writing four films and working as a personal assistant to the producer on them, as well as (after three attempts) getting in the ACTT unnion. Sharp later said, "no doubt about it, Ha'penny Breeze paid off."Sharp p 13
Group Three bought a story of Sharp's, originally called The Norfolk Story. He turned this into a novel called Conflict of Wings (1954), the title under which it was filmed; Sharp also collaborated on the screenplay with John Pudney, and did some second unit directing.
Sharp and Pudney then wrote The Blue Peter (1955) for Group Three. Once again, Sharp also directed second unit, and he began to develop ambitions to direct. Sharp was offered a job at Ealing Studios as a production assistant but decided to turn it down.
Director Early films and documentaries Sharp left Group Three to direct some documentaries for Pathe. He worked on a proposed film at Ealing about the Skeleton Coast which was never made. Sharp's first feature as director was The Stolen Airliner (1955), made for the Children's Film Foundation, based on a script by Pudney.
Sharp then received an offer from the BBC to replace fellow Australian, Bruce Beeby, as an actor on the science fiction serial Journey into Space. The show was recorded on Sundays, enabling Sharp to appear in it while still continuiing with his writing and directing work. Sharp was hired by Ealing Studios to adapt the novel Robbery Under Arms into a feature film script. He says some of his work was included in the final script which was ultimately done by Bill Lipscomb.
Sharp made some television documentary shows for Pathe. During the making of one of them, Crossroads (1955), a film about why British soldiers left the army, he met actor Mary Steele who he later married. Sharp directed a "three reeler" for Warwick Films in Rome called Arrivederci Roma (1956). This was followed by a documentary for Martin Films, The Passing Years (1957), a dramatised documentary about the British motor industry.
Sharp's second feature film as director as another for the Children's Film Foundation, The Adventures of Hal 5. He received an offer to direct second unit on Carve Her Name with Pride (1958), directed by Lewis Gilbert; Sharp was responsible for various action sequences.
Sharp wrote and directed The Golden Disc (1959), starring his wife, Mary Steele. This was the first British rock 'n' roll movie – released a year before the Cliff Richard vehicle Expresso Bongo (1959) and a full two years ahead of Beat Girl (1960). Sharp was hired to do more second unit work, on Harry Black (1958), which involved shooting tiger footage in India. After this he made a documentary for American television at Expo 58, and one for the British army called Keeping the Peace (1959).
Independent Artists After an unsuccessful attempt to get up finance for a film with Lonnie Donegan Sharp made two films for Independent Artists. The first was a low-budget thriller, The Professionals (1960), which screened on US TV as part of the Kraft Mystery Theatre. The second was Linda (1960), a teen drama starring Carol White for Independent Artists, which went out as a support feature for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and is now considered a lost film. Sharp then made another army documentary.
He went into TV, becoming the resident director for the first season of Ghost Squad (1961–62). Sharp directed Two Guys Abroad (1962) with George Raft, which was intended as a pilot for a TV series or as a B movie, but ended up not being released at all. Sharp then directed second unit on The Fast Lady (1962) for Ken Annakin.
Hammer Films and Harry Alan Towers Sharp received an offer from Tony Hinds of Hammer Films who had seen The Professionals and was looking for a director for Hammer's vampire movie Kiss of the Vampire (1963). Sharp had never seen a horror movie before but agreed after watching several Hammer films.Koetting p 8-9 According to his obituary Sharp helped make an "atmospheric, suspenseful gothic horror and giving a depth to the characters that was sometimes missing in Hammer's other vampire productions." Kiss of the Vampire is now one of Hammer's most highly regarded horrors; Sharp's New York Times obituary says "Not a few Hammer fans contend that Kiss of the Vampire is one of the greatest Gothic horror movies ever made".
Kiss of the Vampire was shot in 1962. After making it, Sharp went back to television, directing episodes of The Human Jungle, then made another teen musical in the vein of The Golden Disc, It's All Happening (1963), with Tommy Steele.Koetting p 10
He returned to Hammer for a swashbuckler, The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964) which starred Christopher Lee, who would make several movies with Sharp.Koetting p 11 By now Kiss of the Vampire had been released, and Sharp started receiving offers to direct more horror films; he says Milton Subotsky offered him the choice of three scripts but Sharp liked none of them. Instead Sharp made Witchcraft (1964), for producer Robert L. Lippert. Sharp called it "a little four-week movie, very quickly done, but it received some lovely notices".