Thomas Bentley managed the best part of thirty years as one of Britain's premiere directors, and yet he's virtually a forgotten figure these days. Partly that's because his best work was in the silent era, and partly because his output was aimed at the "respectable" audience that preferred literary adaptations to racier fare. Indeed, he's so forgotten it's hard to establish his date of death since the best sources have a range from 1950 to 1966.
Bentley was a Londoner who trained as an engineer. He preferred a life on the stage and went on the Halls as a Charles Dickens impersonator. Dickens would be a constant throughout his career and his first entry into film was acting for the Hepworth company in Leaves from the Books of Charles Dickens (1912). After that it was directing all the way, and he began with a run of Dickens adaptations.
Bentley left Hepworth to join the British Actors Film Company. When his film The Lackey and the Lady was rejected by a distributor on the grounds that it was not of "sufficiently high standard", Bentley sued for slander and won. Throughout the 20s, Bentley continued to work productively for a variety of companies, despite the poor state of the British industry. He sailed through the upheavals surrounding the introduction of the talkies even though Young Woodley was withdrawn due to its controversial subject matter.
As the 30s wore on, he slotted into the better-budgeted end of quota production, and even had one last go at a Dickens adaptation with The Old Curiosity Shop. His last film was the defiantly low-budget Old Mother Riley's Circus and then he retired.
As a director he was perhaps unambitious with few stylistic quirks, but that was probably what the audience his films were aimed at required. His films are competent and enjoyable, and if they never reached the heights of classics, they never plumbed the depths of turkeys either.
| 1912 | Oliver Twist |
| 1913 | David Copperfield |
| 1913 | The Old Curiosity Shop |
| 1914 | The Chimes |
| 1915 | Barnaby Rudge |
| 1915 | Hard Times |
| 1915 | A Soul for Sale |
| 1916 | Beau Brocade |
| 1916 | Milestones |
| 1917 | The Labour Leader |
| 1917 | Daddy |
| 1917 | Les Cloches de Corneville |
| 1918 | Once Upon a Time |
| 1918 | The Divine Gift |
| 1919 | The Lackey and the Lady |
| 1920 | General Post |
| 1920 | Beyoned the Dreams of Avarice |
| 1921 | The Old Curiosity Shop |
| 1921 | The Adventures of Mr Pickwick |
| 1922 | A Master of Craft |
| 1923 | Through Fire and Water |
| 1923 | Shadow of Death |
| 1923 | The Battle of Love |
| 1923 | The Courage of Despair |
| 1923 | The Velvet Woman |
| 1923 | Seret Mission |
| 1924 | Old Bill through the Ages |
| 1924 | Love and Hate |
| 1924 | Wanted, A Boy |
| 1924 | After Dark |
| 1924 | The Cavern Spider |
| 1924 | Chappy: That's All |
| 1925 | Money Isn't Everything |
| 1925 | A Romance of Mayfair |
| 1926 | The Man in the Street |
| 1927 | White Heat |
| 1927 | The Antidote |
| 1927 | The Silver Lining |
| 1928 | Not Quite a Lady |
| 1929 | Acci-dental Treatment |
| 1929 | The American Prisoner |
| 1930 | Harmony Heaven |
| 1930 | Young Woodley |
| 1930 | Compromising Daphne |
| 1931 | Keepers of Youth |
| 1931 | Hobson's Choice |
| 1932 | After Office Hours |
| 1932 | The Last Coupon |
| 1932 | Sleepless Nights |
| 1933 | Hawley's of High Street |
| 1933 | The Love Nest |
| 1934 | The Scotland Yard Mystery |
| 1934 | Those Were the Days |
| 1934 | The Great Defender |
| 1934 | The Old Curiosity Shop |
| 1935 | Royal Cavalcade |
| 1936 | Music Hath Charms |
| 1936 | She Knew What She Wanted |
| 1937 | The Angelus |
| 1937 | Silver Blaze |
| 1937 | The Last Chance |
| 1938 | Night Alone |
| 1938 | Marigold |
| 1939 | Me and My Pal |
| 1939 | Lucky to Me |
| 1940 | Dead Man's Shoes |
| 1940 | The Middle Watch |
| 1940 | Three Silent Men |
| 1940 | Cavalcade of Variety |
| 1941 | Old Mother Riley's Circus |
