News on Screen

Maurice Ford was born in London and entered the film industry in 1927 as camera assistant with British Instructional Pictures. In 1930 Ford became a cameraman with Kinemas Ltd, but he left them in 1932 to work as ‘director and cameraman for various companies.' In February 1936 Ford was credited with filming a car being hauled out of a ditch for ‘ENGLAND GOES ARCTIC’ in British Paramount News No.519, and he seems to have worked regularly for the company after this. In December 1936 he provided the main shots of ‘CRYSTAL PALACE GUTTED’ in British Paramount News No.602, whilst Jack Harding [qv] filmed from the air, and in June 1937 he filmed ‘FOUR KILLED, MANY INJURED IN KENT TRAIN SMASH’ for No.662. After the outbreak of war in 1939 Ford became one of the Paramount war correspondents, and was featured in ‘THE ‘EYES AND EARS’ GO TO THE FRONT: World-renowned cameraman Maurice Ford joins band of wartime correspondents as leading newsreel reporter,' in British Paramount News No.899 of October 1939. Ford worked with the RAF, and his first surviving credit is for an unused story on the RAF police in France, from November 1939.

Ford also filmed the Blitz, filming in Westminster for ''MILITARY OBJECTIVES’' in British Paramount News No.1004 of October 1940. In company with Jim Gemmell [qv], Ford was also featured in No.1027 of January 1941 for ‘GREAT FIRE OF LONDON 1940: Paramount cameramen Gemmell and Ford risked life at height of inferno to obtain exclusive night-picture.' Ford noted on his dopesheet that he filmed around the City, where ‘owing to serious lack of water the fires spread...and soon whole blocks of warehouses and offices were left to burn.' By July 1941 Ford had been posted to South Africa, where he filmed numerous stories of munitions production, noting at the end of the month that ‘it is my ambition to cover as many angles of different stories and rush them over to you without losing time’: ‘You must therefore excuse the hurried coverage.' Ford’s material was first used in ‘UNION IN ARMS: Exclusive photo report by Maurice Ford,' in British Paramount News No.1107 of October 1941, and in ‘SOUTH AFRICA LOOKS TO HER DEFENCES’ in No.1126 of December 1941.

In May 1942 Ford supplied both film and story for ‘BURMA: A war correspondent’s despatch,' which took up the whole of British Paramount News No.1173 and was credited as the ‘longest newsreel ever issued by British Paramount.' By October 1942 he was being described as ‘Paramount’s ace war correspondent,' when he supplied ‘INDIA QUIETENS DOWN, GETS ON WITH WAR’ for British Paramount News No.1216. In October 1943 Ford was listed among the eight cameramen and two sound engineers on Paramount’s London staff. After D-Day Ford acted as a Paramount war correspondent, and by September 1944 was working in France alongside sound engineer Ronnie Read [qv], and silent cameraman Lovat Cave-Chinn [qv], on ‘ALLIED FORCES HONOUR PARIS’ in No.1414. Later that month Ford and Read filmed the surrender of General Elster and his troops, which ran as ‘TWENTY-THOUSAND SURRENDER TO TWENTY-FOUR’ in British Paramount News No.1416. Read described this as ‘the most fantastic story,' but Ford typed an impassioned seven-page dopesheet headed ‘20,000 rats surrender,' in which he referred to the bombing of London and the invasion of France and wrote that ‘YOU WOULDN’T REALLY UNDERSTAND!!...you wouldn’t understand that I would like to see every god damned German in this bunch shot!' After the war Ford formed a production company called Moore-British, which released a number of short pictures. Ford later worked for Movietone, his first surviving credit being for ‘LEEDS WIN FANTASTIC FINAL’ in British Movietone News No.2032A of May 1968. Ford was a regular cameraman on domestic stories until his final credit, which was for ‘LEAGUE CUP’ in No.2076A in March 1969.

Sources

BUFVC, British Paramount News files, NR 9128 (20/11/1939), NR 9202 (December 1939), and Issues Number 1107 (Ford’s July/August 1941 shipment notes), Number 1027 (2/1/1941), Number 1563 (Paramount ‘Daily Assignment Sheet,' 12/10/1943), Number 1416 (Ford’s dopesheet, 18/9/1944): P. Noble (ed) ‘British Film and Television Year Book 1956/57’ (London, 1956), p.119.