Ray Getteman

(b. Wandsworth, London, 24/12/1917 – d. South Africa, 28/09/1986). Cameraman, director.

Raymond Neville Robert Getteman was the son of a Belgian accountant who later became the Brussels correspondent of La Revue musicale, an important French music magazine. In the late thirties Ray Getteman was a cameraman for G.B. Instructional and is reported to have worked for a number of other studios, but when World War II broke out he became a pilot with 233 Squadron of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Besides flying photographic missions, he also flew bombing runs out of Gibraltar and on one occasion launched a successful attack on a German U-boat, returning safely to base with one engine out of action. For this he received the Distinguished Flying Cross in November 1942. Ironically, he was badly injured a year later when, while collaborating on the making of a documentary for the Ministry of Information, highly inflammable film stock caught fire and exploded.

Little is known about his subsequent movements, though in 1946 he was involved in the staging of the play The Toff, based on the character created by John Creasey. It was staged by arrangement with R.G. Film Productions, a company that was dissolved in 1957. However, in 1948 he was in South Africa, to direct what appears to have been his only film for African Film Productions, produced on behalf of the State Information Office. A half-hour semi-documentary called Pondo Story, it was photographed by Frank Dixon and though sometimes seen as a recruitment film for the mines, it met with some success. It received a favourable review in the Monthly Film Bulletin, was shown at the 1948 Venice Film Festival and was picked up for distribution in England by British Lion. (FO)