John Paddy Carstairs on AllMovie

The son of British comic actor Nelson Keys (1887-1939) and brother of producer Anthony Nelson Keys, John Paddy Carstairs began his own film career as an assistant cameraman. By age 21, Carstairs was an established screenwriter, and at 24 he turned director with Paris Plane (1934). A more than competent journeyman, Carstairs specialized in mysteries (such as the 1939 Anglo-American production The Saint in London) and frothy comedies. Beginning in 1953, he was a principal writer/director of the popular Norman Wisdom film farces. A talented painter and comic novelist, John Paddy Carstairs was the author of three sprightly autobiographies: Honest Injun (1942), Hadn't We the Gaiety (1945), Kaleidoscope and a Jaundiced Eye (1946).