Compton Bennett

Herbert William Compton Bennett (15 January 1900 – 11 August 1974), better known as Compton Bennett, was an English film director, writer and producer. He is perhaps best known for directing the 1945 film The Seventh Veil and the 1950 version of the film King Solomon's Mines, an adaptation of an Allan Quatermain story.

Bennett was born in Tunbridge Wells, England. At the beginning of his career, he worked as a band leader and a commercial artist before trying his hand at amateur filmmaking. One of these early films helped him land a job at Alexander Korda's London Films in 1932. There, he became a film editor; later he would help make instructional and propaganda films for the British armed forces during World War II.

Bennett's films tended to be sombre, but were very popular with the moviegoing public. In 1946, Bennett accepted an invitation to go to Hollywood for Universal.