James Basevi

Production Designer

About

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Birth Place
Plymouth, England, GB
Born
September 21, 1890
Died
March 27, 1962

Biography

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In Hollywood from 1925 as an art director, Basevi spent over a decade (1926-38) as a special effects artist before returning to design. He was head of the art department at 20th Century-Fox from the early 1940s and worked with John Ford, William Wellman and Henry King, among others....

Filmography

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The Hurricane (1937)
Hurricane and Special Effects staged by
The Searchers (1956)
Art Director
East of Eden (1955)
Art Director
Battle Circus (1953)
Art Director
Island in the Sky (1953)
Art Director
My Man and I (1952)
Art Director

Photos & Videos

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0 Photos
East Of Eden - (Original Trailer)
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Jane Eyre (1944) -- (Movie Clip) You Could Amuse Me

Biography

In Hollywood from 1925 as an art director, Basevi spent over a decade (1926-38) as a special effects artist before returning to design. He was head of the art department at 20th Century-Fox from the early 1940s and worked with John Ford, William Wellman and Henry King, among others.

Filmography

 

Cinematography (Feature Film)

The Hurricane (1937)
Hurricane and Special Effects staged by

Art Director (Feature Film)

The Searchers (1956)
Art Director
East of Eden (1955)
Art Director
Battle Circus (1953)
Art Director
Island in the Sky (1953)
Art Director
My Man and I (1952)
Art Director
Just This Once (1952)
Art Director
Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
Art Director
The People Against O'Hara (1951)
Art Director
Night into Morning (1951)
Art Director
Wagon Master (1950)
Art Director
To Please a Lady (1950)
Art Director
3 Godfathers (1949)
Art Director
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Art Director
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Art Director
Captain from Castile (1948)
Art Director
Fort Apache (1948)
Art Director
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947)
Art Director
Duel in the Sun (1947)
Art Director
The Brasher Doubloon (1947)
Art Director
Bob, Son of Battle (1947)
Art Director
The Late George Apley (1947)
Art Director
Carnival in Costa Rica (1947)
Art Director
The Homestretch (1947)
Art Director
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now? (1947)
Art Director
13 Rue Madeleine (1947)
Art Director
Margie (1946)
Art Director
The Dark Corner (1946)
Art Director
Home Sweet Homicide (1946)
Art Director
If I'm Lucky (1946)
Art Director
It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog (1946)
Art Director
Strange Triangle (1946)
Art Director
Johnny Comes Flying Home (1946)
Art Director
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Art Director
Somewhere in the Night (1946)
Art Director
Claudia and David (1946)
Art Director
The Song of Bernadette (1945)
Art Director
Spellbound (1945)
Art Director
The Keys of the Kingdom (1945)
Art Director
Wilson (1945)
Supervisor art Director
The Lodger (1944)
Art Director
Tampico (1944)
Art Director
Bermuda Mystery (1944)
Art Director
Pin Up Girl (1944)
Art Director
Home in Indiana (1944)
Art Director
Lifeboat (1944)
Art Director
In the Meantime, Darling (1944)
Art Director
The Eve of St. Mark (1944)
Art Director
Greenwich Village (1944)
Art Director
Four Jills in a Jeep (1944)
Art Director
Buffalo Bill (1944)
Art Director
Roger Touhy, Gangster (1944)
Art Director
Ladies of Washington (1944)
Art Director
The Sullivans (1944)
Art Director
Jane Eyre (1944)
Art Director
I'll Be Seeing You (1944)
Production Design
The Purple Heart (1944)
Art Director
Stormy Weather (1943)
Art Director
Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943)
Art Director
They Came to Blow Up America (1943)
Art Director
Bomber's Moon (1943)
Art Director
Wintertime (1943)
Art Director
The Moon Is Down (1943)
Art Director
The Gang's All Here (1943)
Art Director
Happy Land (1943)
Art Director
Guadalcanal Diary (1943)
Art Director
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
Art Director
Paris After Dark (1943)
Art Director
The Dancing Masters (1943)
Art Director
Hello Frisco, Hello (1943)
Art Director
Jitterbugs (1943)
Art Director
Holy Matrimony (1943)
Art Director
Claudia (1943)
Art Director
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
Art Director
Immortal Sergeant (1943)
Art Director
Thunder Birds (1942)
Art Director
Son of Fury (1942)
Art Director
Moontide (1942)
Art Director
The Black Swan (1942)
Art Director
A Yank in the R.A.F. (1941)
Art Director
Tobacco Road (1941)
Art Director
The Westerner (1940)
Art Director
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
Art Director
Raffles (1939)
Art Director
They Shall Have Music (1939)
Art Director
The Real Glory (1939)
Art Director
Wuthering Heights (1939)
Art Director
The Cowboy and the Lady (1938)
Art Director Associate
Confessions of a Queen (1925)
Art Director
The Circle (1925)
Art Director
The Big Parade (1925)
Settings

Visual Effects (Feature Film)

Blockade (1938)
Special Effects
The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)
Special Effects
The Good Earth (1937)
Special Effects for locust seq
Dead End (1937)
Special Effects
San Francisco (1936)
Earthquake seq

Art Department (Feature Film)

Dance Madness (1926)
Settings
Love's Blindness (1926)
Settings
The Temptress (1926)
Settings
The Tower of Lies (1925)
Settings
Soul Mates (1925)
Settings

Film Production - Main (Feature Film)

History Is Made at Night (1937)
Special tech Effects
The Mysterious Island (1929)
Tech Effects

Post Production (Feature Film)

Fine Clothes (1925)
Col cons

Life Events

1925

Worked as co-art director on eight films; the first, "Soul Mates"

1939

First film as art director, "Raffles"

Videos

Movie Clip

Jane Eyre (1944) -- (Movie Clip) You Could Amuse Me Blustery Rochester (Orson Welles) separates the new governess Jane (Joan Fontaine) from his ward Adele (Margaret O'Brien) in an attempt to address his boredom, in Jane Eyre, 1944, directed by Robert Stevenson from the Charlotte Bronte novel.
Jane Eyre (1944) -- (Movie Clip) I've Never Seen Him New governess Jane (Joan Fontaine) with pupil Adele (Margaret O'Brien) speculates about the master she's never met, followed by his gaudy first appearance (Orson Welles, as "Rochester") on the Yorkshire moors, in the 1944 20th Century Fox Jane Eyre.
Duel In The Sun (1947) -- (Movie Clip) Right On About Your Business The famous and now much-derided seduction scene, as Lewt (Gregory Peck) returns to the ranch to find only Vashti (Butterfly McQueen) between himself and the fiery semi-servant Pearl (Jennifer Jones), producer David O. Selznick's hand much in evidence, in Duel In The Sun, 1947.
Temptress, The (1926) -- (Movie Clip) Till We Meet In Hell Technical flash, naughty and operatic content, as French Fontenoy (Marc MacDermott) hosts what we learn is his last bash, blaming all on wanton mistress Elena (Greta Garbo), who's become more interested in new flame Robledo (Antonio Moreno), in MGM's The Temptress, 1926.
Heaven Can Wait (1943) -- (Movie Clip) The Music Down Here Both director Ernst Lubitsch and Laird Cregar as the head guy in hell seem very comfortable, Don Ameche barely recognizable as the aged quasi-protagonist Van Cleve, opening the original Heaven Can Wait, 1943, also starring Gene Tierney.
Hurricane, The (1937) -- (Movie Clip) Opening, South Seas Thomas Mitchell (as Dr. Kersaint) does some exposition for a fellow traveler (Inez Courtney) following the title sequence from Samuel Goldwyn's The Hurricane, 1937, directed by John Ford.
Hurricane, The (1937) -- (Movie Clip) Let Me Save You! Terangi (Jon Hall) offers rescue to Father Paul (C. Aubrey Smith) and Mme. DeLaage (Mary Astor), having already tied his wife (Dorothy Lamour) and daughter to a tree in the storm sequence from John Ford's The Hurricane, 1937.

Trailer

East Of Eden - (Original Trailer) James Dean had his first starring role in Elia Kazan's movie version of John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden (1955).
Westerner, The (1940) -- (Original Trailer) A drifter (Gary Cooper) accused of horse stealing faces off against the notorious Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan).
Dark Corner, The - (Original Trailer) Secretary Lucille Ball helps her private eye boss when he's framed for murder in The Dark Corner (1946).
Searchers, The - (Original Trailer) An Indian-hating Civil War veteran tracks down the tribe that slaughtered his family and kidnapped his niece in director John Ford's masterpiece, The Searchers, starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter and Natalie Wood.
Black Swan, The - (Original Trailer) When he's named governor of Jamaica, a former pirate sets out to clean up the Caribbean in The Black Swan, 1942, starring Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara.
13 Rue Madeleine - (Original Trailer) Tragedy occurs when a spy chief finds out one of his agents-in-training is actually a Nazi double agent in 13 Rue Madeleine (1947).
Fort Apache - (Re-issue Trailer) An experienced cavalry officer (John Wayne) tries to keep his new, by-the-books commander from triggering an Indian war in John Ford's Fort Apache (1948).
San Francisco - (Re-issue Trailer) A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the big earthquake in San Francisco (1936), starring Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy.
Across The Wide Missouri - (Original Trailer) Clark Gable plays a fur trapper forced to marry a woman from the Blackfoot Indian tribe in Across the Wide Missouri (1951).
Island in the Sky -- (Original Trailer) it's a saga of survival as a WWII transport plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness in William Wellman's Island in the Sky (1953).
Captain from Castile - (Black & White Trailer) The invasion of Mexico by Cortez, as seen by a young Spanish officer fleeing the Inquisition in Captain from Castile (1948).
Holy Matrimony - (Original Trailer) An artist returning from years abroad takes the identity of his dead valet to escape the attentions of the press in Holy Matrimony (1943).

Bibliography

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