By Erin Free
FilmInk salutes the work of creatives who have never truly received the credit that they deserve. In this installment: director Don Chaffey, who helmed Jason And The Argonauts, One Million Years BC, Pete’s Dragon, The Magic Of Lassie, The Fourth Wish and more.
The release of Christopher Nolan’s mythological epic The Odyssey got us thinking about the various similarly themed and like-styled flicks we enjoyed as a youngster: 1984’s Ulysses with Kirk Douglas, 1977’s Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger, 1979’s Arabian Adventure, and 1981’s much-debated Clash Of The Titans. Sure, these are all a little more swashbuckling and high-pop than Nolan’s po-faced epic appears to be, but, you know, same ballpark.
Also nestled in amongst that supremely colourful lot is 1963’s wonderfully entertaining Jason And The Argonauts, which is justifiably best known for its iconic stop-motion visual effects, which were created by master-of-the-medium Ray Harryhausen. A quick look at the resume of the film’s director, Don Chaffey, however, instantly announced the late filmmaker as an Unsung Auteur. Though the end of his career was dominated by television, Chaffey directed features across many genres, but he had a particular affinity for high fantasy and myth, along with stylish family films.
Donald Chaffey was born in Sussex, England in 1917, and began his film career as an art director and short filmmaker before making his debut as a feature director in 1953 with Skid Kids, a 65-minute mini-feature created for The Children’s Film Foundation, the famed UK organisation which made hour-long films for children’s matinee cinema screenings through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Chaffey continued to make short films, while also working prolifically in UK television, before taking on feature film directing in earnest with 1954’s crime drama Time Is My Enemy.
From there, Chaffey proved himself a solid, reliable filmmaker, churning out low-budget UK crime flicks (1956’s The Secret Tent, 1957’s The Flesh Is Weak and The Girl In The Picture), steamy dramas (1958’s A Question Of Adultery), broad comedies (1960’s Dentist In The Chair, 1961’s Nearly A Nasty Accident), and even a war movie (1959’s Danger Within). Chaffey also began what would become a fruitful relationship with Walt Disney Pictures with the charming 1961 family flick Greyfriars Bobby, featuring a singularly charming terrier, and a 1962 adaptation of Mark Twain’s The Prince And The Pauper.
In 1963, Chaffey directed one of his key films, the aforementioned Jason And The Argonauts. Loosely based on the 3rd century BC Greek epic poem The Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius, this is boisterous, 1960s boys’-own-adventure entertainment of the first order. Fast-paced, funny, imaginative and colourful, the film tracks the eponymous hero’s journey to find the legendary Golden Fleece, and comes jammed-tight with spirited action sequences, incredible monsters, and vivid mythological creatures crafted by stop-motion genius Ray Harryhausen, including the iconic skeleton warriors and the towering Hydra. Though Harryhausen gets the lion’s share of the credit for this one, Jason And The Argonauts is directed with cracking flair by Don Chaffey, and he deserves far more celebration for it.
The director reunited with Walt Disney Pictures for 1963’s The Three Lives Of Thomasina (a fantasy about a cat’s influence on a family) and helmed two little-known dramas (1964’s They All Died Laughing, 1965’s The Crooked Road) before forming another important creative relationship with an iconic film company. In 1965, Chaffey was tapped by famed British horror house Hammer Films to helm its 1966 prehistoric mini-epic One Million Years BC. This is the cheesy but wholly enjoyable tale of the “cavewoman” Loana (played by the primally sexy Raquel Welch in what would become a career defining performance) who finds romance with caveman Tumak (John Richardson) while avoiding attacks by pterodactyls, allosauruses and various other dinosaurs.
One Million Years BC is principally famous for the involvement of two people: stunning lead actress Raquel Welch (the film’s image of her clad in a fur bikini became one of the sixties’ most instantly iconic) and the aforementioned Ray Harryhausen, who was responsible for the film’s excellent stop-motion dinosaur creations. But again, Don Chaffey deserves credit for the wholly entertaining flick that One Million Years BC is. Did men (and, definitely in this case, women) and dinosaurs co-exist? Of course not, but it doesn’t stop One Million Years BC from being a loopy, almost deliriously kitsch joy. As Ray Harryhausen says on the film’s DVD: “The film’s made for entertainment, not for professors…”
Chaffey directed two more rollicking adventures for Hammer Films (1967’s The Viking Queen and 1971’s slightly loopy Creatures The World Forgot) and another for United Artists (1968’s A Twist Of Sand) before curiously detouring with a sexy thriller (1971’s Clinic Exclusive), an unusual western (1973’s Charley One-Eye with Richard Roundtree and Roy Thinnes), and a psychological horror shocker (the twisted Sheba with Lana Turner).
If Don Chaffey’s career wasn’t unusual and varied enough already, the British director then decamped to Australia for a series of productions in the mid-to-late 1970s. With bold assurance, the talented Chaffey expertly helmed the bushranger TV series Ben Hall, the 1975 down under Walt Disney family flick Ride A Wild Pony, the 1976 family drama The Fourth Wish, and 1978’s surfing drama Shimmering Light with Beau Bridges, one of six US-Australian telemovies produced by Transatlantic Enterprises and ABC-TV.
Highly prolific, Chaffey also delivered two more essential films during this time. Again with Walt Disney, 1977’s Pete’s Dragon is a winning, highly effective and truly groundbreaking mix of live action and animation, while 1978’s The Magic Of Lassie is charm personified. Though not quite as essential, Chaffey directed his final feature film with 1979’s C.H.O.M.P.S, a cute robot-dog time-killer featuring the ever-lovely Valerie Bertinelli.
After this, Chaffey turned exclusively to television, directing episodes of iconic series like Fantasy Island, Charlie’s Angels, T.J Hooker, Spenser: For Hire, Airwolf, Hunter, MacGyver, Hotel, Vega$ and many more. A career-long hard worker, Chaffey was still directing right up until his death from a heart attack at the age of 73 on a property he owned on Kawau Island, New Zealand. Though he ended his career on the small screen, Don Chaffey boasts a fascinating body of work as a feature director, including a clutch of wondrous adventures and heartfelt family films. He deserves far more attention for it…
If you liked this story, check out our features on other unsung auteurs Harley Cokeliss, Jeannot Szwarc, Craig Gillespie, David Greene, Ernest Pintoff, Paul Williams, Jo Heims, Lee H. Katzin, Christoper Cain, Ken Wiederhorn, Barbara Loden, David Mackenzie, Alan Rudolph, James Lee Barrett, Edwin “Bud” Shrake, Joan Tewkesbury, Jamaa Fanaka, Jack Starrett, Joseph Sargent, Jeffrey Schwarz, George Sidney, Philip Dunne, Zak Hilditch, Luke Sparke, Cyrus Nowrasteh, Morgan Matthews, Tom Laughlin, Diane Keaton, Ed Hunt, Nancy Savoca, Robert Vincent O’Neil, Marvin J. Chomsky, Sam Firstenberg, Jack Sholder, Richard Gray, Giuseppe Andrews, Gus Trikonis, Greydon Clark, Frances Doel, Gordon Douglas, Billy Fine, Craig R. Baxley, Harvey Bernhard, Bert I. Gordon, James Fargo, Jeremy Kagan, Robby Benson, Robert Hiltzik, John Carl Buechler, Rick Carter, Paul Dehn, Bob Kelljan, Kevin Connor, Ralph Nelson, William A. Graham, Judith Rascoe, Michael Pressman, Peter Carter, Leo V. Gordon, Dalene Young, Gary Nelson, Fred Walton, James Frawley, Pete Docter, Max Baer Jr., James Clavell, Ronald F. Maxwell, Frank D. Gilroy, John Hough, Dick Richards, William Girdler, Rayland Jensen, Richard T. Heffron, Christopher Jones, Earl Owensby, James Bridges, Jeff Kanew, Robert Butler, Leigh Chapman, Joe Camp, John Patrick Shanley, William Peter Blatty, Peter Clifton, Peter R. Hunt, Shaun Grant, James B. Harris, Gerald Wilson, Patricia Birch, Buzz Kulik, Kris Kristofferson, Rick Rosenthal, Kirsten Smith & Karen McCullah, Jerrold Freeman, William Dear, Anthony Harvey, Douglas Hickox, Karen Arthur, Larry Peerce, Tony Goldwyn, Brian G. Hutton, Shelley Duvall, Robert Towne, David Giler, William D. Wittliff, Tom DeSimone, Ulu Grosbard, Denis Sanders, Daryl Duke, Jack McCoy, James William Guercio, James Goldstone, Daniel Nettheim, Goran Stolevski, Jared & Jerusha Hess, William Richert, Michael Jenkins, Robert M. Young, Robert Thom, Graeme Clifford, Frank Howson, Oliver Hermanus, Jennings Lang, Matthew Saville, Sophie Hyde, John Curran, Jesse Peretz, Anthony Hayes, Stuart Blumberg, Stewart Copeland, Harriet Frank Jr & Irving Ravetch, Angelo Pizzo, John & Joyce Corrington, Robert Dillon, Irene Kamp, Albert Maltz, Nancy Dowd, Barry Michael Cooper, Gladys Hill, Walon Green, Eleanor Bergstein, William W. Norton, Helen Childress, Bill Lancaster, Lucinda Coxon, Ernest Tidyman, Shauna Cross, Troy Kennedy Martin, Kelly Marcel, Alan Sharp, Leslie Dixon, Jeremy Podeswa, Ferd & Beverly Sebastian, Anthony Page, Julie Gavras, Ted Post, Sarah Jacobson, Anton Corbijn, Gillian Robespierre, Brandon Cronenberg, Laszlo Nemes, Ayelat Menahemi, Ivan Tors, Amanda King & Fabio Cavadini, Cathy Henkel, Colin Higgins, Paul McGuigan, Rose Bosch, Dan Gilroy, Tanya Wexler, Clio Barnard, Robert Aldrich, Maya Forbes, Steven Kastrissios, Talya Lavie, Michael Rowe, Rebecca Cremona, Stephen Hopkins, Tony Bill, Sarah Gavron, Martin Davidson, Fran Rubel Kuzui, Elliot Silverstein, Liz Garbus, Victor Fleming, Barbara Peeters, Robert Benton, Lynn Shelton, Tom Gries, Randa Haines, Leslie H. Martinson, Nancy Kelly, Paul Newman, Brett Haley, Lynne Ramsay, Vernon Zimmerman, Lisa Cholodenko, Robert Greenwald, Phyllida Lloyd, Milton Katselas, Karyn Kusama, Seijun Suzuki, Albert Pyun, Cherie Nowlan, Steve Binder, Jack Cardiff, Anne Fletcher ,Bobcat Goldthwait, Donna Deitch, Frank Pierson, Ann Turner, Jerry Schatzberg, Antonia Bird, Jack Smight, Marielle Heller, James Glickenhaus, Euzhan Palcy, Bill L. Norton, Larysa Kondracki, Mel Stuart, Nanette Burstein, George Armitage, Mary Lambert, James Foley, Lewis John Carlino, Debra Granik, Taylor Sheridan, Laurie Collyer, Jay Roach, Barbara Kopple, John D. Hancock, Sara Colangelo, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Joyce Chopra, Mike Newell, Gina Prince-Bythewood, John Lee Hancock, Allison Anders, Daniel Petrie Sr., Katt Shea, Frank Perry, Amy Holden Jones, Stuart Rosenberg, Penelope Spheeris, Charles B. Pierce, Tamra Davis, Norman Taurog, Jennifer Lee, Paul Wendkos, Marisa Silver, John Mackenzie, Ida Lupino, John V. Soto, Martha Coolidge, Peter Hyams, Tim Hunter, Stephanie Rothman, Betty Thomas, John Flynn, Lizzie Borden, Lionel Jeffries, Lexi Alexander, Alkinos Tsilimidos, Stewart Raffill, Lamont Johnson, Maggie Greenwald and Tamara Jenkins.
