Educated at
Bedales, Saunders entered the film industry in 1927 and acted as assistant director and editor with such companies as
Gaumont-British. His directorial debut was a romantic comedy called
No Exit (which he wrote, produced and directed), about a publisher's daughter who wrongly believes that a humble staff writer of her father's is secretly a best-selling author. However, his main occupation from 1930 to 1943 was in the film editing sphere, learning the trade by contributing to over 20 films, In 1944, he collaborated with
Bernard Miles to co-direct (and co-write)
Tawny Pipit, a film starring Miles himself as an Army colonel involved with village folk in an effort to protect rare birds' nests from egg thieves. and as a
location director in 1947 on
The White Unicorn, he resumed his career as director with
Fly Away Peter in 1948. featuring a then little-known
Audrey Hepburn as a hotel receptionist) before moving into television, and in 1953 and 1954 he directed eight episodes of the
anthology series Douglas Fairbanks Presents, for
Douglas Fairbanks Productions Limited. Seven more films followed in 1957, before Saunders began to make films which marked a departure from the formulaic work he had been employed on previously. was perhaps the beginning of the end of Saunders' mainstream career in films, although he did make a
horror movie the same year, called
Womaneater, the story of a crazed scientist who feeds women to a flesh-eating tree in return for a life-giving serum. It was produced by
Guido Coen, for whom Saunders made other movies such as the 1957 drama
Kill Her Gently and the 1959 thriller
Naked Fury. After several more films, concluding with the 1963 crime thriller
Danger by My Side, Saunders retired from film-making. He died in 1997 in
Denham, Buckinghamshire. ==Selected filmography==