Erwin Hillier (1911 - 2005)
Dictionary of National Biography (OUP)
Hiller, Erwin [known as Erwin Hillier] (1911.2005), cinematographer,
was born on 2 September 1911 in Berlin, of mixed Anglo-German
parentage; his father was Robert Hiller, described by Erwin as 'of
independent means'. He grew up in Germany and as a result his English
retained a continental inflection for the rest of his life. After
attending art school, he made his first contacts with the German film
industry, working on a number of productions, including Fritz Lang's
first sound film, the classic M (1931), where he assisted the
principal cameraman, Fritz Arno Wagner. Although he often referred to
having known and worked with various luminaries of Weimar cinema, the
full extent of his cinematic apprenticeship in the German film
industry is difficult to assess, as nearly all his contributions were
uncredited. Nevertheless, his training in Germany had a marked effect
on the style of his later work in Britain, especially in its emphasis
on atmospheric lighting, visual fluidity, and unusual angles and
movements.
Following Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Hiller relocated to London,
briefly working as a press photographer, and joining Gaumont
British's camera department. On 27 May 1933, at Kensington register
office, he married Helen Yates, the twenty-year-old daughter of
Joseph Southgate; they had one daughter, Shirley. Meanwhile, at
Gaumont British's Shepherd's Bush studios Hiller became a camera
operator on productions including Alfred Hitchcock's Waltzes from
Vienna and The Man Who Knew Too Much (both 1934), assisting the
established cinematographers Glen MacWilliams and Curt Courant
respectively. He also worked on the Jessie Matthews musical Evergreen
(1934), directed by Victor Saville and once again with MacWilliams as
principal photographer, and on two Walter Forde films, Jack Ahoy!
(1934) and Brown on Resolution (1935), in both cases working under
Bernard Knowles. For most of these films Hiller received no screen
credits. In the mid-1930s he moved on from Gaumont to work on such
cheaply made 'quota quickies' as the Warner Brothers comedy The Girl
in the Crowd (1935), shot at Teddington Studios, which marked his
first film with the director Michael Powell. The two were reunited
working for Joe Rock Studios at Elstree on the mystery drama The Man
Behind the Mask (1936), and on Powell's first collaboration with the
Hungarian screenwriter Emeric Pressburger, the spy thriller The Spy
in Black (1939).
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Hiller (by now known
professionally as Erwin Hillier) became principal photographer on a
number of propaganda shorts commissioned by the Ministry of
Information; these included Men of Tomorrow (1942), produced by
Sydney Box, which showcased the contributions from boy scouts to the
war effort. The same year Hiller shot his first feature film as
principal cinematographer, the comedy The Lady from Lisbon (1942), a
British National production, followed by Rhythm Serenade (1943), a
patriotic musical starring Vera Lynn. The Silver Fleet (1943), a
drama about Dutch wartime resistance, marked the beginning of his
association with Powell and Pressburger's production company The
Archers. The richly allegorical A Canterbury Tale (1944) combined
Hiller's predilection for chiaroscuro compositions with a perceptive
way of photographing the English countryside.
In I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), for which he was credited by now
unusually as Erwin Hiller, not Hillier, he devised a sublimely
lyrical visual backdrop for the film's romantic drama set in
Scotland's Western Isles. By now acclaimed primarily as an expert in
black and white photography, he was replaced by Jack Cardiff in The
Archers' subsequent colour films, A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
and Black Narcissus (1947), while his own debut on a colour
production, the musical London Town (1946), proved a flop. Roy Ward
Baker's atmospheric black and white film noir The October Man (1947),
starring John Mills as an amnesiac accused of murder, played much
more to Hiller's strengths, as did Brian Desmond Hurst's Gothic
melodrama The Mark of Cain (1947), and Lawrence Huntington's Mr
Perrin and Mr Traill (1948), set in a gloomy boarding school.
The whimsical war comedy Private Angelo (1949), starring Peter
Ustinov as a cowardly Italian soldier, marked the beginning of
Hiller's long association with the director Michael Anderson. In the
1950s their collaborations encompassed comedies (Will Any Gentleman
...?, 1953), thrillers (The House of the Arrow, 1953; Chase a Crooked
Shadow, 1958), and the acclaimed Shake Hands with the Devil (1959),
set in Dublin in 1921, but their biggest success was the iconic war
drama The Dam Busters (1955), about the legendary 'bouncing bomb'
attacks on the Ruhr dams. The film was a success not least thanks to
Hiller's breathtaking and authentic aerial photography, once again
showcasing his mastery of black and white photography.
During the 1960s Anderson and Hiller collaborated on a series of
increasingly international productions, including the thrillers The
Naked Edge (1961), Operation Crossbow (1965), and The Quiller
Memorandum (1966), the latter scripted by Harold Pinter. Their last
collaboration was the papal drama The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968).
Hiller worked occasionally with other directors, and was nominated
for a BAFTA award for Sammy Going South (1963), directed by Alexander
Mackendrick. His last film was The Valley of Gwangwi (1969), directed
by Jim O'Connolly, which mixed cowboys with dinosaurs. He died of
ischaemic heart disease at his home, 7 Baronsmede, Ealing, London, on
10 January 2005, and was survived by his wife and daughter.
Tim Bergfelder
Sources M. Powell, A life in movies (1986); M. Powell, Million
dollar movie (1992); K. Macdonald, Emeric Pressburger (1994); D.
Petrie, The British cinematographer (1996); P. Cook, I know where
I'm going (2002); B. McFarlane, ed., The encyclopedia of British
film (2003); The Independent (3 Feb 2005); The Guardian (8 Feb
2005); The Times (18 March 2005); m. cert.; d. cert.
