[1] He directed and co-wrote the screenplay of the pioneering motorcycle speedway film Once a Jolly Swagman (1949) which starred Dirk Bogarde.
Among Jack Lee's other films are The Wooden Horse (1950),[2] a popular Second World War POW escape film; Turn the Key Softly (1953), a realistic drama; A Town Like Alice (1956), starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch, based on Nevil Shute's novel;[3] and Robbery Under Arms (1957), a Western-style adventure set in Australia, based on the 1888 bushranger novel by "Rolf Boldrewood".
According to Filmink magazine "Lee wasn't the world's most energetic director – he starts the movie with Dick and Jim literally lounging on the ground in the hot sun and is overly in love with shooting action and characters in long shot.
In 1946 he married British casting director Nora Francisca Blackburne (21 April 1914 – 7 July 2009), following her divorce from Adam Alexander Dawson.
She was not allowed to take them out of the country, so he settled in Australia, and although he returned often to Britain, he spent the rest of his life there.