Robert Hartford-Davis
Directing
Biography
Robert Hartford-Davis (born William Henry Davis, 23 July 1923 – 12 June 1977) was a British born producer, director and writer, who worked on film and television in both in the United Kingdom and United States. He is also sometimes credited as Michael Burrowes or Robert Hartford. Hartford-Davis was born in Ramsgate, Kent in 1923 as William Henry Davis; he changed his name on becoming a television director in 1955. His television career encompassed drama, comedy and entertainment shows. Bob, as he liked to be called, started his career as an electrician in a South London film studio, where he went on to develop his skills as a cameraman. During the fifties he made a number of short films. These were innovative with the choice of cast and script content. In the late fifties he became an agent and worked for Roy Rogers, amongst others (in England). His talents included co-writing many scripts for 'exploitation' movies and he used media events and people to forward his career. The Yellow Teddy Bears is a prime example of his vivid imagination, using an article in a national newspaper as fodder. Robert dealt with the downturn of the film industry in the UK by investing his own money in two movies, The Fiend and Nobody Ordered Love.
Known For
The lives of the middle-class Lawrence family in Pasadena, California.
Family
Police Surgeon was a television series made by the Associated British Corporation and starring Ian Hendry as Dr Geoffrey Brent. Its twelve half-hour episodes were broadcast on ITV at 7pm on Saturday nights from 10 September to 3 December 1960.
Police Surgeon
A successful and popular nightclub owner who believes financial independence is the path to equality and success, must act as a go-between for militant-minded brother and the white gang syndicate his brother has attacked and robbed. Their involvements lead to a breathless race course chase, the destruction of a dopepusher and a violent waterfront climax.
Black Gunn
A group of friends search for a young English Oxford student who has disappeared whilst researching in Greece. They are shocked to find that, wherever he has been, certain unsolved murders have taken place. Not believing that their friend could be the perpetrator of such acts, they press on with their search, finding him under the spell of a beautiful Vampire, whose blood-sucking methods include the use of sado-masochism. Believing they have killed her, the group return home, unaware that their friend is now a Vampire.
Blood Suckers
A surgeon discovers that he can restore the beauty to his girlfriend's scarred face by murdering other women and extracting fluids from their pituitary gland. However, the effects only last for a short time, so he has to kill more and more women. It is ultimately a killing spree which ends with considerable death and disaster.
Corruption
A man with a sandwich-board (advert) wanders around London meeting many strange characters.
The Sandwich Man
A lord returns to his manor with his new wife, to hear rumours that he had already secretly returned and had committed several murders. Has he lost his mind, or is something dark afoot ?
The Black Torment
A traumatized and troubled teenager is sent to an all-girls detention home where she strikes up an unlikely friendship with a fellow inmate.
The Smashing Bird I Used to Know
Norman is quite happy selling newspapers outside Westminster station but his Grandfather (the Prime Minister) wants to get him "a more responsible job". A few favours are called in and Norman becomes the newest reporter at the seaside town of Tinmouth. After causing chaos at a local council meeting and causing the demolition of a new house he tries to organise a beauty pageant. A slapstick tale of corruption in high and low places
Press for Time
Led by a sinister minister, a controlling religious sect called the Brethren has taken control of widow Birdy Wemys, sending her unstable son, Kenny, into a spiraling descent into madness and murder. No woman is safe when Kenny's religious mania overpowers him and leads to a rampage of carnage and chaos!
The Fiend
Five seamen and a passenger are intent on making the most of the 14 hours they will spend in London.
Saturday Night Out
A policeman in New Mexico takes payoff money but still manages to go after a racketeer.
The Take
A clique of girls in an English school wear a small yellow teddy bear on their uniform to signify that they have lost their virginity. Linda, the girls' leader, fears she may be pregnant from her window cleaner boyfriend, "Kinky", an aspiring pop singer. Desperate, and unable to confide in her parents, she must wrestle with her conscience and decide what course of action to take. Meanwhile, a concerned teacher learns the significance of the yellow teddy bears, and in trying to help the girls in question, puts her own career in jeopardy.
The Yellow Teddy Bears
During the height of the Vietnam war, a hippie and a draft dodger get together and hatch a plan to flee to Canada. They steal a car and head towards Vancouver, but the trip doesn't go as smoothly as they planned, and before long they're being chased by the police, accused of murdering several police officers.
Explosion
In this thriller, two gangs of jewel thieves battle it out in a deserted cottage. Murder ensues when the owners of the cabin show up.
Crosstrap
That Kind of Girl is a British cult film and the directorial debut of Gerry O'Hara. Produced by Robert Hartford-Davis with a script by Jan Read, it was released in 1963. The film's subject is premarital sexual relationships and sexually transmitted diseases in an English 1960s millieu.
That Kind of Girl
During the shooting of a First World War film entitled The Somme a tragic series of events unfolds for the cast and crew. The film was withdrawn from distribution shortly after it's release and is considered to be lost and may have been destroyed after the director died.
Nobody Ordered Love
Bizarre sixties fable resembling Romeo and Juliet, but instead of Montagues and Capulets, there are two musical communities, one who like rock and roll and one who like ballads, who become reunited through the love between a couple who love across their grouping. It features little furry puppets called Gonks.
Gonks Go Beat
A man wakes on a clifftop with no memory of who he is or how he got there and has to piece toigether what happened to him.
Man on the Cliff
Aspects of a London day, including prostitutes on street corners, a striptease show and the 2i's Coffee Bar.