Never a Backward Step

Never a Backward Step
Directed byDonald Brittain
Arthur Hammond
John Spotton
Produced byGuy Glover
StarringRoy Thomson
Narrated byMichael Kane
CinematographyMartin Duckworth
Peter Hennessy
Paul Leach
Edited byJohn Knight (music and sound)
Production
company
Release date
  • 1966 (1966)
Running time
57 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Never a Backward Step is a 1966 documentary film, produced by the National Film Board of Canada and directed by Donald Brittain, Arthur Hammond and John Spotton.[1][2]

It is a profile of Canadian press magnate Roy Thomson,[3] whose single-minded attention to business brought him riches, power, and a baronetcy. A native of Timmins, Ontario, Thomson had a tremendous career as publisher, television magnate, financier, and owner of 200+ newspapers in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., including The Times. It was Thomson who coined the phrase "a permit to print money" (now normally heard as "license to print money") after he'd purchased Scottish Television.

The filmmakers followed Thomson for a few days and captured the many sides of this very ordinary Canadian who, by dint of hard work and luck, became one of the most powerful men in the world.[4]

  1. ^ "Never a Backward Step". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  2. ^ Robert Fulford, "Donald Brittain: Filmmaker needed an outsider's touch". The Globe and Mail, December 9, 1992.
  3. ^ "Canadian Film Awards 1949-1979". Northern Stars.
  4. ^ "Never a Backward Step". cfe.tiff.net. Canadian Film Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20 April 2023.