A High Wind in Jamaica

Alexander Mackendrick was a Scottish American director and teacher. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and later moved to Scotland. He began making television commercials before moving into post-production editing and directing films, most notably for Ealing Studios where his films include... Whisky Galore! , The Man in the White Suit , and The Ladykillers . His films made a gradual decline after Ealing Studios closed and he returned to America to become a teacher of filmmaking. He was the cousin of the Scottish writer Roger MacDougall. He was born on 22 December 1912 and was the only child of Francis and Martha Mackendrick, who had emigrated to the United States from Glasgow in 1911. His father was a ship builder and a civil engineer. When Mackendrick was six, his father died of influenza as a result of an pandemic that swept the world just after World War I. His mother, in desperate need of work, decided to be a dress designer. In order to pursue that decision, it was necessary for Martha MacKendrick to hand her only son over to his grandfather, who took young MacKendrick back to Scotland when he was seven years old.
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