Before becoming a film producer, Havelock-Allan worked as a
stockbroker,
jeweller, record company executive and
cabaret manager. In 1935, Havelock-Allan joined the short-lived
British and Dominions Imperial Studios, producing films with them like
Lancashire Luck (1937) until and even shortly after the studios burnt down in 1936. Havelock-Allan served as associated producer on the 1942 war film
In Which We Serve, which starred
Noël Coward, who co-directed the picture with
David Lean. The film was shot by cinematographer
Ronald Neame, who along with Havelock-Allan and Lean, founded their own company,
Cineguild. Cineguild's first production was a
film adaptation of Coward's 1939 play
This Happy Breed, which was produced by Coward, directed by Lean, and shot by Neame. All three partners — Havelock-Allan, Lean and Neame — collaborated on the script. The exact same combination of talents created the
1945 film adaptation of Coward's comedy
Blithe Spirit. The quartet then produced the classic
Brief Encounter, with Havelock-Allan and Neame sharing producing duties with Coward, with Coward helping write the script, an adaption of his 1936 one-act play
Still Life. The film won the
Palme d'Or at the 1946
Cannes Film Festival while lead
Celia Johnson was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actress in the 1947 awards. In 1999,
Brief Encounter came in second in a
British Film Institute poll of the
top 100 British films. Havelock-Allan, Lean and Neame moved away from Coward and next filmed two classic by
Charles Dickens, creating two classics of British cinema in the process. Both
Great Expectations (1946) and
Oliver Twist (1948) brought the three Oscar nominations for the
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He left Cineguild and founded Constellation Films in 1947. He later co-founded British Home Entertainment with
Lord Brabourne in 1960. He later was reunited with David Lean when he produced the great director's penultimate film, ''
Ryan's Daughter'' (1970). ==Personal life==