John Henry Graham Cutts (1884[a] – 7 February 1958), known as Graham Cutts, was a British film director, one of the leading British directors in the 1920s. His fellow director A. V. Bramble believed that Gainsborough Pictures had been built on the back of his work.[4]: 167 Cutts worked with many leading figures in the UK film and stage world, including Basil Dean, Alfred Hitchcock, Gracie Fields, Ivor Novello, and Noël Coward.[3]
He started his career as a northern exhibitor [4]: 132 and moved into direction. When opportunities were limited in Britain, he filmed extensively in Europe.[5]
Ernest Betts describes him as "[seeming] likely to become a major talent in British films with Woman to Woman which he directed in 1922. Cutts had a polish, a know-how, an intimacy with worldly affairs which impressed the ordinary filmgoer … The Rat, The Wonderful Lie and The Blackguard which Cutts made in the 1920s showed a director who had learned much from the continental school and could match Hollywood in technical virtuosity."[1] Anthony Slide observes that "Both Graham Cutts and Herbert Wilcox deserve recognition as prominent British filmmakers who realized the necessity to bring over American actors (or more precisely former stars) to appear in their productions and thus assure them an American market."[6]
Cutts directed the sensational Cocaine (1922), the most controversial film of the 1920s.[7]
Reviewing Paddy the Next Best Thing (1923), Variety concluded "This is one of the best British films yet made", and the Kinematograph Weekly lauded Cutts' "smooth" direction and his skill in the humorous sections.[8]
His daughter was actress Patricia Cutts (1926–1974).
