Roger Manvell
Arnold Roger Manvell (10 October 1909 – 30 November 1987) was the first director of the British Film Academy (1947–1959) and author of many books on films and film-making. He wrote (sometimes in collaboration with Heinrich Fraenkel) many books on Nazi Germany, including biographies of Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring. During World War II, Manvell worked in the Ministry of Information, creating propaganda films for the British government.
Also recorded as Arnold Roger Manvell
Roger Manvell

Gilbert Adams · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Roger Manvell
- Born
- 10 October 1909
- Birthplace
- London, England
- Died
- 30 November 1987 (aged 78)
- Place of death
- Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Nationality
- United Kingdom · United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Occupation
- film director · screenwriter · film scholar · opinion journalist
- Education
- Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College · The King's (The Cathedral) School · Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys
- Languages
- English
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Roger Manvell. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q707628 · wikipedia · Roger Manvell
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
Statements marked “Documentary record” are set in the article beside the passage they confirm. Each is read from the authority records of the institutions named here; select “Prove” to see the record it was read from, where in that record, and when.
Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Biography
Biography
In his career, he also lectured widely in universities, and was a broadcaster and screenwriter. He joined the Boston University faculty in 1975 teaching film history classes at the College of Communications. Manvell was named University Professor in 1982.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Roger Manvell • Born — 10 October 1909 • Birthplace — London, England • Died — 30 November 1987 (aged 78) • Place of death — Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Documentary record
Roger Manvell was a “Filmwissenschaftler” and publicist, born on 10 October 1909 in London and died on 30 November 1987 in Boston, Massachusetts. Both events are recorded by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Biography
Biography
He was the son of the Rev. Arnold Edward William Manvell, who graduated B.A. at the University of Oxford in 1891, and his wife Gertrude Theresa Baines, daughter of Samuel Charles Baines of Leicester. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys, Leicester, and King's School, Peterborough. He read English literature at University College, Leicester, then gaining a doctorate at the University of London. After a period as a schoolteacher, he joined Bristol University in 1937. From 1940 Manvell worked at the Ministry of Information, concentrating on film work. He then worked for two year at the BFI, before taking up a position in 1947 as Director of the British Film Academy. Manvell recalled his interest in cinema began when he was five years old, specifically due to film serials and slapstick comedy. He received his London PhD on the verse and critical work of poet W. B. Yeats. In his 1944 book Film, Manvell thanked his parents for teaching him "to go to the pictures," and John Grierson for teaching him "to look at them."
Documentary record
Place of activity recorded by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek: London.
Novels
Novels
• The Dreamers • The Passion
On Nazi Germany
On Nazi Germany
• The Canaris Conspiracy • The Conspirators • Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death • Films and the Second World War • Gestapo • Göring • Hess • Heinrich Himmler: The SS, Gestapo, His Life and Career • Heinrich Himmler • Hitler: The Man and The Myth • The Hundred Days to Hitler • Incomparable Crime, The: Mass Extermination in the Twentieth Century • The July Plot • SS & Gestapo: Rule of Terror
Biography
Biography
• Chaplin • Elizabeth Inchbald: England's Principal Woman Dramatist and Independent Woman of Letters in 18th Century London – A Biographical Study • Ellen Terry (1968) • Ingmar Bergman, an Appreciation • Sarah Siddons • The Trial of Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1909
Roger Manvell born at London.
1987
Roger Manvell died at Boston.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
London.
Birth place
Boston.
Death place
Books
Some books authored or co-authored by Roger Manvell.
On the arts (film/television/theatre)
• A Seat at the Cinema • Age of Communication: Press, Books, Films, Radio, TV • Art in Movement: New Directions in Animation • The Cinema (annual Pelican film review) • Design in motion • Experiment in the Film • Film (1944) • Film and The Public (annual Pelican film review) • Film and the Second World War (1974) • The German Cinema • History of the British Film • Images of Madness: Portrayal of Insanity in the Feature Film • The International Encyclopedia of Film • Living Screen: Background to the Film and Television • Love Goddesses of the Movies • Masterworks of the German Cinema: The Golem – Nosferatu – M -The Threepenny Opera • New Cinema in Britain • New Cinema in Europe • New cinema in the U.S.A: The feature film since 1946 • On the air: A study of broadcasting in sound and television • The Penguin Film Review (1946-1949) • Progress in Television • Shakespeare and the Film (1979) • Selected Comedies: Elizabeth Inchbald • The Technique of Film Animation • The Technique of Film Music • Theatre and Film: A Comparative Study of the Two Forms of Dramatic Art and of the Problems of Adaptation of Stage Plays into Films • This Age of Communication • Three British screen plays: "Brief Encounter","Odd man out," "Scott of the Antarctic" • What is Film?
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Roger Manvell, revision 1273801385 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Manvell, Roger (archived), BFI Film & TV database
- 2.Low, Rachael. Manvell, (Arnold) Roger (1909–1987).
- 3.Foster, Joseph. Oxford Men, 1880-1892, with a Record of Their Schools, Honours and Degrees. J. Parker. 399. 1893.
- 4.88-Year-Old Leicester Man's Broken Heart. Leicester Evening Mail. 9. 27 June 1938.
- 5.Manvell, (Arnold) Roger.
- 6.Manvell, Roger. Film. Pelican Books. 1944.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Formation and teaching. Manvell studied at Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, The King's (The Cathedral) School and Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys. Recorded as having studied at Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, The King's (The Cathedral) School and Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys.
Activity and practice
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 30 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
38,713 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Roger L. SimonPerson
- Roger LionPerson
- Roger LiveseyPerson
- Roger ManderscheidPerson
- Roger MichellPerson
- Roger MoorePerson
- Roger NygardPerson
- Roger PierrePerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Roger Manvell?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.