Edgar Neville

Who was Edgar Neville?

Edgar Neville Romrée, Count of Berlanga de Duero was a Spanish playwright and film director, a member of the Generation of '27.

Neville was born in Madrid but lived in Hollywood in the 1930s, in the period of the dubbed Spanish versions of the studios' English-language films. He wrote dialogue for MGM's Spanish language films, and won acclaim for his script adapted from George Hill's The Big House known in Spanish as El Presidio. In Hollywood he became a close friend of Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. The films he directed in the 1940s and 1950s mixed realism and romanticism, but did not perform particularly well at the box-office. He married Angeles Rubio Arguelles y Alessandri. Their son, Raphael Neville, Count of Berlanga de Duero was a painter who in 1958, created a seaside resort in North Eastern Sardinia called Porto Rafael, where his birthday is still celebrated every year on August 11th. On his return to Spain, Neville directed the aforementioned La Señorita de Trevélez, and it was hailed one of the best films of its time. During the Spanish Civil War, Neville made a few short propaganda films for the Nationalists; he also made a trio of movies in Rome.