It is with overwhelming sadness that the The Flying Maciste Brothers report the death of director/cinematographer Jack Cardiff, OBE, B.S.C..
Not only was Cardiff an early pioneer of Technicolor cinematography in the UK --

--
not only was he responsible for the unfathomably ravishing photography on such films as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's hallucinatory triptych:

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946)
(aka STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN)

BLACK NARCISSUS (1947)
and

THE RED SHOES (1948)
-- Richard Fleischer's striking THE VIKINGS (1958) --

-- Arthur Lubin's other-worldly PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN --

-- and John Huston's very down-to-earth THE AFRICAN QUEEN (both 1951) --
-- not only did he direct such enjoyable and disparate entertainments such as:

MY GEISHA
and

THE LION (both 1962)
and

YOUNG CASSIDY
(taking over directing from John Ford in 1965)
-- the jazzy, fever-dream erotic masterpiece GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE (1968) --

(aka NAKED UNDER LEATHER)
-- and
the quintessential mad botanist sci-fi horror film, THE MUTATIONS (1973) --

(aka THE FREAKMAKER)
-- Jack Cardiff was also a man who was
never afraid to kill a dummy.
DESTRUCTIBLE MAN will be paying tribute to Jack Cardiff in the coming days with the in-depth examination of the dummy-deaths in
three of his most extraordinary films as director:
DARK OF THE SUN(aka THE MERCENARIES, 1968)
THE LIQUIDATOR (1966)
THE LONG SHIPS (1963)
R.I.P. Jack Cardiff
18 September 1914 - 22 April 2009
This death was of no dummy.post © Howard S. Berger & Kevin Marr