Peter Maxwell obit

Prolific director Peter Maxwell a giant of the screen

 

He was not on the list.

The film producer David Hannay describes Peter Maxwell "an exemplar" among directors: ''He stood out. It was his acerbic sense of humour, his wit, his charm and his brilliance." However, Maxwell worked mostly in television, a medium that has rarely celebrated its directors.

The theatrical films that he made would always pale on his CV next to a television career that developed with 1950s British swashbucklers like The Buccaneers and The Adventures of Robin Hood, and ended in 1990 with the revered drama series A Country Practice.

This pioneer of British and Australian television drama was born in Vienna on January 23, 1921, the son of newspaper journalist Leo Margitai and his wife, Johanna. The family fled Austria in the 1930s because (according to family legend) Leo dared to criticise the Nazis in print. Interned in Britain, young Peter Margitai changed his surname to Maxwell to join the British Army, hoping that his German would be useful. To his surprise, he was sent to India, where he ended the war as an officer.

Returning to Britain, he worked at London Films, under the formidable producer Sir Alexander Korda, learning his craft as an assistant director on films including I Was a Male War Bride (1949) and The Belles of St Trinian's (1954).

According to Hannay, Maxwell's role in television has never been suitably acknowledged. He was one of Britain's first film-for-television directors, taking television drama out of the studio with pre-filmed videotape, to make series such as The Errol Flynn Theatre (1957), The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1957), William Tell (1958-59) and The Invisible Man (1959). In his spare time, he directed B-movies such as The Desperate Man (1959) and The Long Shadow (1961).

In 1960, Maxwell came to Australia for several episodes of Whiplash, an Australian western (co-produced by Britain's ITC and Australia's Artransa Park Studios), with rising American actor Peter Graves as the gun-toting owner of Cobb & Co coachlines. More polished than any previous Australian-produced series, it still lasted only one season.

Maxwell returned to Britain, directing Patrick McGoohan in the series Danger Man. Maxwell's fondness for Australia, however, meant that Artransa had an easy job luring him back in 1967 for the glossy action series Riptide.

This time he stayed, and he would direct several episodes of the series. He also directed Country Town (1971), a movie spin-off of the ABC drama Bellbird. The plot concerned a drought-stricken town. For drought scenes, filming was moved to Wentworth, which promptly provided endless rain (the Melbourne Herald still praised the "authentic" portrayal of a drought). Country Town was a hit in rural Australia, while being almost ignored by urban centres.

Apart from television films, Maxwell would not make another movie until 1980, when he and Hannay co-produced a heist comedy, Friday the Thirteenth, set on the Great Barrier Reef. Perhaps fittingly, the production was besieged with floods, bushfires and finally the release of a popular American horror film of the same name. Renamed Touch and Go, the film was dismissed by audiences and critics (although it is surprisingly entertaining when seen today).

Maxwell spent much of the next decade making children's telemovies. "He was like a father figure to the children, a Pied Piper. All the kids would gravitate to him," says Simone Buchanan, who starred as a plucky 12-year-old in Maxwell's Run, Rebecca, Run! (1981). They made two more telemovies together, including the enjoyable Mystery at Castle House (1982). "He was a wonderful director and an even more wonderful man."

Maxwell also directed some 80 episodes of A Country Practice, directing his final episode in 1990.

He and his wife Kathleen then retired to Queensland. They had married in 1943 and 70th anniversary celebrations were planned - they had already received congratulations from the Queen, the Prime Minister and the Premier of Queensland - when Maxwell died only three days too early.

Peter Maxwell is survived by Kathleen, their children Paul, Stephen and Karen, six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and a niece.

 

Director

A Country Practice (1981)

A Country Practice

6.7

TV Series

Director

1983–1990

104 episodes

 

Platypus Cove (1983)

Platypus Cove

5.8

Director

1983

 

Mystery at Castle House (1982)

Mystery at Castle House

6.9

Director

1982

 

Fluteman (1982)

Fluteman

6.0

Director

1982

 

The Highest Honor (1982)

The Highest Honor

6.4

TV Movie

Director

1982

 

Run Rebecca, Run (1981)

Run Rebecca, Run

5.2

Director

1981

 

Tim Elston and John Stanton in Bellamy (1981)

Bellamy

8.1

TV Mini Series

Director

1981

1 episode

 

Falcon Island

TV Series

Director

1981

1 episode

 

The Coast Town Kids

TV Series

Director

1980

 

Touch and Go (1980)

Touch and Go

5.4

Director

1980

 

Gordon Glenwright in King's Men (1975)

King's Men

TV Series

Director

1980

1 episode

 

Mark Lee and Hu Pryce in Bailey's Bird (1977)

Bailey's Bird

7.6

TV Series

Director

1979

11 episodes

 

Plunge Into Darkness (1978)

Plunge Into Darkness

4.6

TV Movie

Director

1978

 

Mama's Gone A-Hunting (1977)

Mama's Gone A-Hunting

6.6

TV Movie

Director

1977

 

Sascha Hehn and Andrew Keir in The Outsiders (1976)

The Outsiders

8.7

TV Series

Director

1977

2 episodes

 

The Lost Islands (1976)

The Lost Islands

7.9

TV Series

Director

1976

2 episodes

 

Is There Anybody There? (1976)

Is There Anybody There?

7.7

TV Movie

Director

1976

 

Three Workshop Films

5.9

Short

Director

1975

 

Class of '74 (1974)

Class of '74

7.1

TV Series

Director

1974–1975

276 episodes

 

Polly Me Love

7.3

TV Movie

Director

1975

 

Ben Hall (1975)

Ben Hall

8.2

TV Mini Series

Director

1975

1 episode

 

The Unisexers

TV Series

Director

1975

1 episode

 

Catch Kandy (1973)

Catch Kandy

8.2

TV Series

Director

1973

 

Boney (1972)

Boney

8.3

TV Series

Director

1972–1973

11 episodes

 

Barrier Reef (1970)

Barrier Reef

8.3

TV Series

Director

1970–1971

30 episodes

 

Country Town (1971)

Country Town

4.6

Director

1971

 

Skippy (1968)

Skippy

6.4

TV Series

Director

1969–1970

8 episodes

 

Ty Hardin in Riptide (1969)

Riptide

7.8

TV Series

Director

1969

14 episodes

 

Bradford Dillman and Peter Graves in Court Martial (1965)

Court Martial

7.2

TV Series

Director

1965–1966

4 episodes

 

Patrick McGoohan in Secret Agent (1964)

Secret Agent

8.2

TV Series

Director

1964–1965

3 episodes

 

Zena Marshall in The Switch (1963)

The Switch

6.0

Director

1963

 

Linda Marlowe, George Pastell, and Conrad Phillips in Impact (1963)

Impact

5.3

Director

1963

 

Nigel Patrick in Zero One (1962)

Zero One

8.4

TV Series

Director

1963

1 episode

 

Dilemma (1962)

Dilemma

6.4

Director

1962

 

Honor Blackman and Patrick Holt in Serena (1962)

Serena

6.4

Director

1962

 

Jean Kent and Terence Morgan in Sir Francis Drake (1961)

Sir Francis Drake

7.1

TV Series

Director

1961

1 episode

 

Kraft Mystery Theater (1961)

Kraft Mystery Theater

7.8

TV Series

Director

1961

1 episode

 

Whiplash (1960)

Whiplash

7.9

TV Series

Director

1960–1961

18 episodes

 

The Long Shadow (1961)

The Long Shadow

6.8

Director

1961

 

Conrad Phillips in The Desperate Man (1959)

The Desperate Man

5.2

Director

1959

 

Tim Turner in The Invisible Man (1958)

The Invisible Man

7.0

TV Series

Director

1959

9 episodes

 

William Tell (1958)

William Tell

7.2

TV Series

Director

1958–1959

17 episodes

 

Robert MacKenzie in Blind Spot (1958)

Blind Spot

5.2

Director

1958

 

White Hunter (1957)

White Hunter

6.5

TV Series

Director

1957–1958

3 episodes

 

William Gargan in The New Adventures of Martin Kane (1957)

The New Adventures of Martin Kane

5.8

TV Series

Director

1957–1958

6 episodes

 

Richard Greene in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955)

The Adventures of Robin Hood

7.6

TV Series

Director

1958

4 episodes

 

O.S.S.

7.4

TV Series

Director

1957–1958

3 episodes

 

Terence Cooper in The Fox (1957)

The Fox

TV Mini Series

Director

1957

 

Sword of Freedom (1957)

Sword of Freedom

7.5

TV Series

Director

1957

9 episodes

 

The Buccaneers (1956)

The Buccaneers

7.2

TV Series

Director

1957

6 episodes

 

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956)

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot

6.9

TV Series

Director

1957

3 episodes

 

The Errol Flynn Theatre (1956)

The Errol Flynn Theatre

7.2

TV Series

Director

1957

3 episodes

 

Sixpenny Corner

TV Series

Director

1955–1956

161 episodes

 

Martin Kane (1949)

Martin Kane

6.9

TV Series

Director

1949–1954

 

Second Unit or Assistant Director

Storm Over the Nile (1955)

Storm Over the Nile

6.2

assistant director

1955

 

Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons in Footsteps in the Fog (1955)

Footsteps in the Fog

7.0

second assistant director (uncredited)

1955

 

Orson Welles, Alan Badel, Eddie Byrne, John Gregson, Emrys Jones, Leueen MacGrath, and Elizabeth Sellars in Three Cases of Murder (1954)

Three Cases of Murder

6.5

second assistant director (uncredited)

1954

 

The Teckman Mystery (1954)

The Teckman Mystery

6.2

second assistant director

1954

 

George Cole, Joyce Grenfell, and Alastair Sim in The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954)

The Belles of St. Trinian's

6.7

assistant director

1954

 

The Man Between (1953)

The Man Between

7.0

second assistant director (uncredited)

1953

 

Gilbert and Sullivan (1953)

Gilbert and Sullivan

6.9

second assistant director: B unit (uncredited)

1953

 

The Passionate Sentry (1952)

The Passionate Sentry

5.5

second assistant director (uncredited)

1952

 

The Cure for Love (1949)

The Cure for Love

7.6

third assistant director (uncredited)

1949

 

Cary Grant, Marion Marshall, Bill Neff, Ann Sheridan, and Randy Stuart in I Was a Male War Bride (1949)

I Was a Male War Bride

7.0

second assistant director: Europe (uncredited)

1949

 

Producer

Touch and Go (1980)

Touch and Go

5.4

executive producer

1980

 

Class of '74 (1974)

Class of '74

7.1

TV Series

producer

1974

2 episodes