A former salesman and journalist, Ken Annakin got into the film
industry making documentary shorts. His feature debut,
Viel Vergnügen (1947), was a comedy
about a Cockney family on vacation. It was made for the Rank
Organization and was a modest success, spawning three sequels, all of
which he directed. He worked steadily thereafter, mainly in light
comedies. One of his more atypical films was the dark thriller
Brücke der Vergeltung (1957), based
on a Graham Greene story about a
wealthy businessman who embezzles a million dollars from his company,
kills a man who resembles him and steals his identity so he can escape
to Mexico. It boasted an acclaimed performance by
Rod Steiger as the villain and a distinct
"noir" feel to it, unlike anything Annakin had done before (or, for
that matter, since).
In the 1960s he was one of several British directors--e.g.,
Guy Green,
John Guillermin--who specialized in
turning out all-star, splashy, big-budget European/American
co-productions, shot on the Continent. He was one of the directors of
the epic World War II spectacle
Der längste Tag (1962) and went
solo on
Die letzte Schlacht (1965),
both of which were financial--if not exactly critical--successes. He
also directed
Die tollkühnen Männer in ihren fliegenden Kisten (1965),
which was less successful. His final film was
Genghis Khan: The Story of a Lifetime (1992),
a film that was started in 1992 under Annakin's direction but never
completed. In 2009 it was restarted again and Annakin was hired to
assemble the existing footage for release, but died before completing
the job. Italian director
Antonio Margheriti finished up and
the film was released in 2010.
