Betty Box
Betty Box | |
---|---|
Betty Box in 1959
|
|
Born | Betty Evelyn Box 25 September 1915 Beckenham, Kent, England |
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Chiltern, Buckinghamshire |
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Film producer |
Betty Evelyn Box, OBE (25 September 1915 – 15 January 1999) was a prolific British film producer. Usually credited as Betty E. Box, she is considered one of the best of her generation, with a flair for making genuinely popular British films.[1]
Contents
Biography
Born in Beckenham, Kent, England, she planned to be a commercial artist or journalist.[2]
Early career
She entered the motion picture industry in 1942, joining her brother Sydney Box and his wife Muriel at Verity Films, where she helped produce more than 200 wartime propaganda shorts.[3] Box:
Sitting around was no good for me, my brother said, and he asked me to work for him. He was running an organisation that made training and recruitment films. 1 went along as a general dogsbody, and as more men were called up, there were more opportunities for me. We worked from 7 a.m. until 10 or 11 at night. I learnt more in those two years than I would in ten years in peacetime.[4]
Following World War II, she made an easy transition to feature films, beginning with The Years Between in 1946.
Gainsborough
When her brother assumed control of Gainsborough Pictures that year, he named her Head of Production at the Poole Street, Hoxton studio, where she produced ten films during the next two years.[5] While tight budgets and shooting schedules compromised the quality of some of them, others - such as When the Bough Breaks (1947) - proved to be among the most politically interesting films of the period.
"Every story I have at the moment has a murder in it," she said in 1947. "It's no wonder I'm being called 'Bloodthirsty Box'."[6]
She was also known for the trio of popular Huggetts films, starting with Here Come the Huggetts in 1948 and followed by Vote for Huggett and The Huggetts Abroad in 1949.[3]
Rank
When Gainsborough closed in 1949, Box moved to J. Arthur Rank's Pinewood Studios, where she collaborated with director Ralph Thomas on some 30-odd films. They started making thrillers such as The Venetian Bird but then switched to comedy.
The biggest success of their career commercially was the highly successful Doctor series, beginning with Doctor in the House in 1954 and ending with Doctor in Trouble in 1970.[7] The comedies contained a wacky irreverence which clearly struck a chord with contemporary audiences and helped to make stars of the young Dirk Bogarde and Donald Sinden.[8][9]
Personal life
Betty Box was married to Peter Rogers, producer of the Carry On film series, from 24 December 1948 until her death.[10] They did not have any children, but their godson was actor and theatre producer Marc Sinden, the son of Sir Donald Sinden, who starred for Betty Box in, amongst other films, Doctor in the House, Doctor at Large and Mad About Men.[11]
Box was awarded the OBE in 1958.
She died in Chiltern, Buckinghamshire aged 83 from cancer in 1999.[12]
A posthumous autobiography Lifting the Lid: The Autobiography of Film Producer Betty Box was published in 2000.[13]
Selected filmography
Gainsborough
- 29 Acacia Avenue (1945) (associate producer)
- The Seventh Veil (1946) (associate producer)
- A Girl in a Million (1946) (associate producer)
- The Years Between (1946) (associate producer - uncredited)
- Dear Murderer (1947)
- The Upturned Glass (1947) (associate producer)
- When the Bough Breaks (1947)
- Here Come the Huggetts (1948)
- Daybreak (1948) (associate producer)
- The Blind Goddess (1948) (executive producer)
- Miranda (1948)
- Vote for Huggett (1949)
- Marry Me (1949) aka I Want to Get Married
- Christopher Columbus (1949)
- It's Not Cricket (1949)
- The Huggetts Abroad (1949)
Rank
- Don't Ever Leave Me (1949)
- So Long at the Fair (1950)
- The Clouded Yellow (1950)
- Appointment with Venus (1951)
- Venetian Bird (1952) aka The Assassin
- A Day To Remember (1953)
- Mad About Men (1954)
- Doctor in the House (1954)
- Doctor at Sea (1955)
- The Iron Petticoat (1956)
- Checkpoint (1956)
- Doctor at Large (1957)
- Campbell's Kingdom (1957)
- True as a Turtle (1957) (uncredited)
- The Wind Cannot Read (1958)
- A Tale of Two Cities (1958)
- The 39 Steps (1959)
- Upstairs and Downstairs (1959)
- Conspiracy of Hearts (1960)
- Doctor in Love (1960)
- No, My Darling Daughter (1961)
- No Love for Johnnie (1961)
- A Pair of Briefs (1961)
- The Wild and the Willing (1962)
- Doctor in Distress (1963)
- Hot Enough for June (1964)
- The High Bright Sun (1965)
- Doctor in Clover (1966)
- Deadlier Than the Male (1967)
- Nobody Runs Forever (1968)
- Some Girls Do (1969)
Welbeck Films
- Doctor in Trouble (1970)
- Percy (1971)
- Anyone for Sex? (1973) (aka The Love Ban)
- Percy's Progress (1974)
Other
- The Olive Tree (1975) (TV movie)
Unmade films
- Requiem for a Wren (1959) - story about World War two from a woman's point of view based on script by R.C. Sheriff[14]
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ THE LONDON FILM SCENE: Prize-Winning Movie a Problem to Its Producer -- Money-Maker -- Addenda By STEPHEN WATTSLONDON.. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 16 May 1954: X5.
- ↑ Morley, Sheridan (1999). Dirk Bogarde: Rank Outsider. Bloomsbury (London) (second edition). ISBN 978-0-7475-4698-6.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ [1] Archived February 20, 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ BY WAY OF REPORT: Fox Buyers Eye O'Hara Novel -- Other Items By A. H. WEILER. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 13 July 1958: X5.
Bibliography
Lifting the Lid by Betty Box, published posthumously in 2000, ISBN 978-1-85776-489-5