David MacDonald (9 May 1904 in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire – 22 June 1983 in London) was a Scottish film director, writer and producer.
His intention was to become a doctor but changed his mind and aged 17 went to Malaya to work on a rubber plantation for seven and a half years.
[1] MacDonald followed it with other quota quickies: an adaptation of It's Never Too Late to Mend (1937) with Tod Slaughter; The Last Curtain (1937); Death Croons the Blues (1937); Riding High (1937); Make It Three (1938); A Spot of Bother (1938); and Meet Mr. Penny (1938).
The War Office then called him and asked him to form the Army Film Unit, where he rose to the rank of major.
He worked at Pinewood Studios for six-months with the Army Film Unit, then was transferred to the Far East where he made Burma Victory (1946).
He made the Scottish melodrama The Brothers (1947) with Patricia Roc, partly shot on location on the Isle of Skye.
MacDonald then made Snowbound (1948), an Alpine-set thriller based on a novel by Hammond Innes; and Good-Time Girl (1948) with Jean Kent.
MacDonald directed two flops for Box, both biopics: The Bad Lord Byron (1949) with Dennis Price, and Christopher Columbus (1949), with Fredric March.
Also unsuccessful at the box office was Diamond City (1949), an attempt to make a British western in South Africa.