Arthur B . Woods Arthur Bickerstaffe Woods ( 17 August 1904 – 8 February 1944 ) was an English film director with 27 credits between 1933 and 1940 . Woods ' films were mainly quota quickies but were diverse in style , from light comedy and musicals to dark crime thrillers . His most acclaimed film is 1938 ' s " They Drive by Night " . By the end of the 1930s Woods was gaining a reputation as one of Britain ' s most promising and versatile young directors , but put his career on hold to volunteer for war service in the Royal Air Force , the only British film director to do so . He was killed while on active service in February 1944 , leaving his potential largely unfulfilled . Early life . Born into a wealthy shipping family in Liverpool , Woods was educated at the exclusive Downside School in Somerset before enrolling to study medicine at Christ ' s College , Cambridge at the behest of his father . Before completing his studies however , he dropped out to join a travelling repertory company . Aged 22 , he obtained employment with a documentary film unit and gained experience over the following few years . In 1929 he picked up his only screen acting credit in the film " Lost Patrol " . On 27 August 1932 at the Brooklands School of Flying he was awarded the Royal Aero Club aviator certificate # 10735 . Directing career . In 1933 , Woods joined British International Pictures , becoming the company ' s youngest director . His first solo assignment " On Secret Service " was well received . This was a thriller , but Woods spent the next four years making comedies and musical films ( including three with popular singer Keith Falkner which represented Falkner ' s entire screen output ) before starting also to take on crime films , starting with " The Dark Stairway " , made in 1937 and released in early 1938 . Many of his films involved collaborations with producer Irving Asher , cinematographer Basil Emmott and screenwriter Brock Williams , while another frequent association was with actress Chili Bouchier . As was the case with many non - prestige British films of the 1930s , little attention or care was given to Woods ' films after their original cinema run , and most of his films from the mid - 1930s are now considered lost . In 1938 Woods returned to the thriller genre with " They Drive by Night " . This was still a quota quickie , but exceptionally dark and bleak in tone and execution . " They Drive by Night " has survived , and later assessments rate it very highly . Paul Moody of the British Film Institute summarises the film as : " ( London ) is presented as the site of all that is wrong with society - a place where a convict is the closest one can get to a hero , where a young girl can be murdered in her own home , and where a pillar of the community is actually a murderer . " " Time Out " reviewer Robert Murphy wrote : " The fusion of quirky British realism and slick Hollywood melodramatics produced a real gem . Woods . . . takes the workmanlike story of a petty criminal . . . and invests it with an atmosphere of unrelenting wind , rain and gloom which makes the average American film noir look bright and breezy by comparison . " Woods ' reputation was further enhanced by the 1939 spy drama " Q Planes " ( co - directed with Tim Whelan ) and his final film " Busman ' s Honeymoon " , a Dorothy L . Sayers adaptation . World War II . Woods , already a skilled pilot , joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1939 as a Navigator . He was involved in the Battle of Britain later that year , and in 1942 was awarded the Air Force Cross . On 8 February 1944 , Flight Lieutenant Woods was killed in a mid - air collision over the Hampshire coast , aged 39 . Woods and his pilot Norwegian Jan Otto Bugge were flying a de Havilland Mosquito night fighter when it collided with a Vickers Wellington and crashed at Emsworth , killing them both . ♦ These films are confirmed by the British Film Institute as currently missing , believed lost .