After working on documentaries in France in the late '40s, Guillermin returned to England and made his debut as a writer/director in 1949. He helmed several solid British films in the '50s and '60s, most notably the war films I Was Monty's Double, Guns at Batasi, and The Blue Max, the caper film The Day They Robbed the Bank of England, and the comedy Waltz of the Toreadors with Peter Sellers. In the late '60s he began directing in America and helmed such big-budget '70s projects as The Towering Inferno and the remake of King Kong.