Cyril Montague Pennington-Richards, a renowned filmmaker, was born in London, marking the beginning of his illustrious career in the film industry.
He started by producing religious films for J. Arthur Rank's Religious Film Society, before transitioning to the "mainstream" film industry as a cinematographer with Ireland's Border Line (1938),a low-budget vehicle for the talented Irish comic actor Jimmy O'Dea.
During World War II, Richards was attached to the prestigious documentary unit The Crown Film Unit and worked as the cinematographer on Humphrey Jennings' iconic film Fires Were Started (1943).
After the war, he continued his career as a cinematographer, collaborating with his former colleagues in the CFU on numerous films, including Brian Desmond Hurst's Theirs Is the Glory (1946),Jack Lee's The Wooden Horse (1950),and Pat Jackson's White Corridors (1951).
He then worked on Hurst's A Christmas Carol (1951),widely regarded as the definitive adaptation of Charles Dickens' timeless novel.
Richards had the opportunity to collaborate with the acclaimed American director Edward Dmytryk, who was making films in England due to being blacklisted during the McCarthy era in the US.
He made his directorial debut with the comedy The Horse's Mouth (1953) and went on to establish himself with a series of modest, whimsical comedies over the next two decades.
Richards' final film, the adventure Sky Pirates (1980),was released in 1977, after which he retired from the film industry.
