Don Chaffey was a practical director of fantasy, family films and television. We rate the skill behind his unusual entertainments, while The Prisoner shows how much the right central performer can help.
Fi1m perspective
In The Prisoner (1967), familiar surroundings in the Village become a reason to feel unsafe, while Patrick McGoohan gives the mystery a stubborn centre. Chaffey directed four early episodes, helping to establish a programme whose unease matters as much as its puzzles. We felt unsettled by the Village because the ordinary surroundings offered none of the reassurance we expected from them. It is a useful place to start with Chaffey: we value the practical skill that lets an unusual premise work on screen.
McGoohan's performance is central to our enthusiasm, and the gripping mystery needs that stubbornness. Without a convincing person to hold our attention, there would be a limit to how long strange surroundings could sustain it. The solemnity can become wearing, too, and we sometimes want the programme to ease its insistence that everything matters. Chaffey earns a share of the credit for making this work, rather than ownership of everything that makes it distinctive.
His feature work moved between family stories and fantasy: Greyfriars Bobby (1961) for Disney, then Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and One Million Years B.C. (1966). With special-effects collaborator Ray Harryhausen, the director's task included making elaborate stop-motion sequences function as part of an adventure. Chaffey's efficient handling of those sequences in Jason and the Argonauts is a substantial virtue. We should be wary of treating competent direction as something that happens by itself.
Family filmmaking continued with Pete's Dragon (1977), Disney's live-action and animated musical. From the mid-1970s, Australian and American television increasingly occupied him, following extensive British series work that included Danger Man and The Avengers. These different assignments suit our view of Chaffey as a director worth valuing for his adaptability and dependability. Begin with The Prisoner, with some patience for its solemnity.
Biography
Don Chaffey (5 August 1917 – 13 November 1990) was a British film and television director, writer, producer and art director. He began his career in the art department at Gainsborough Pictures in the mid-1940s before moving into directing short films and features from the early 1950s.
Chaffey directed episodes of several notable British television series, including four episodes of The Prisoner (1967), multiple instalments of Danger Man and The Avengers. He also helmed fantasy features such as Jason and the Argonauts (1963), One Million Years B.C. (1966) and Pete's Dragon (1977). From the 1980s he worked primarily on American television series and made-for-TV films, including episodes of MacGyver, Charlie's Angels and Mission: Impossible.
