RIP Ronald Neame

Such a rich 20th century life in the movies, which he was born into and never left. He was there as Alfred Hitchcock and the British film industry entered the sound era, shot, did effects work for, and co-wrote some of David Lean's finest films, for which he received three Oscar nominations, then struck out on his own for a varied directing career. He made the best of the disaster films, 1972's The Poseidon Adventure, then unmade the genre with the disastrous Meteor seven years later. On a more human scale he directed Maggie Smith toward an Oscar in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, helmed the sprightly capers Gambit (1966) and Hopscotch (1980), made two of Alec Guinness' more notable credits, The Horse's Mouth (1958) and Tunes of Gloryy (1960), and gave Judy Garland a best as could be hoped for swan song in 1963's I Could Go on Singing. I have The Chalk Garden (1964) waiting to watch. Now's the time.