Leslie Landau

Leslie Lesser Landau (28 November 1904 – 1977) was a British director, film producer, screenwriter, screenplay editor and playwright.

[7] Whilst at Fox, Landau became involved with film editing and was promoted to the position of newsreel editor, eventually becoming a documentary director in 1934.

In the run up to the 1931 UK election he advised Ramsay MacDonald, to make a final last word to the electorate, explaining the propaganda benefits of film.

[14] It would have been a challenging time for Landau, being of Jewish origin, working within the British media, whose owners were either appeasers of sympathetic to gradual changes in Germany and the erosion of civil rights of his friends and relatives in continental Europe.

[16] Fox Film ventured into British cinema, shortly before its merger with Twentieth Century Pictures, which presented an opportunity for Landau to leave newsreel behind and pursue his interest as a screenwriter.

[19] He worked with directors such as Lance Comfort,[20] Albert Parker, Bernard Vorhaus, Harold French, Michael Powell, Alex Bryce, Campbell Gullan, Eugene Forde, and producers such as Warwick Ward.

[22] He returned to England a few months before the outbreak of World War II with his wife, who had previously embarked on a radio tour of the United States.

In German sources, he has been associated with the release of a Harold French film, first aired in Germany in 1949 under the title of Strong Hearts.

His paternal grandfather lived in what is today known as Piątek, Łódź Voivodeship, a village in central Poland, and relocated with his wife and newborn son (Landau's father) to Dublin in the 1870s.

[54] His father, accompanied by a younger brother journeyed to Southern Africa in the 19th century; and after a series of successful enterprises became general traders north of the Limpopo River, having first established a presence in Bulawayo.

His father, who retained interests in South Africa, subsequently emigrated to California with Landau's American born stepmother, Evelyn Stark, and his half siblings in 1937.