Wolf Rilla

Wolf Peter Rilla (16 March 1920 – 19 October 2005) was a film director and writer of German background, although he worked mainly in the United Kingdom. Rilla is known for directing Village of the Damned (1960). He wrote many books for students, such as The Writer and the Screen: On Writing for Film and Television and The A to Z of Movie Making. Early life and career Rilla was born in Berlin, where his father Walter Rilla was an actor and producer. In common with many others in entertainment and the arts, Walter’s family recognised the dangers when Hitler came to power, and moved to London in 1934 when Wolf was 14. He completed his schooling at the progressive co-educational Frensham Heights School, Surrey, and went on to St Catharine's College, Cambridge. In 1942, he joined the BBC External Service's German section, beginning as a script editor, but transferred to television in the late 1940s. Film and television career Rilla left the BBC staff in 1952 to pursue a career making films, but continued to take on television productions as a freelance. For television, he directed episodes of series such as The Adventures of Aggie, a sitcom, and The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel (both 1956), both produced for ITV, but also aimed at the American market. Later, he wrote episodes of the Paul Temple television series.