Sydney Box

British film producer and screenwriter

Film producer
writer
screenwriter
film company co-founder

Years active1935–1967SpousesMuriel Box (1935–1969),
Sylvia KnowlesChildren1 daughter

Frank Sydney Box (29 April 1907 – 25 May 1983) was a British film producer and screenwriter, and brother of British film producer Betty Box. In 1940, he founded the documentary film company Verity Films with Jay Lewis.^[2]

He produced and co-wrote the screenplay, with his then wife director Muriel Box, for The Seventh Veil (1945), which received the 1946 Oscar for best original screenplay.^[3]

Sydney and Muriel married in 1935, had a daughter Leonora the following year, and divorced in 1969.^[4]

Gainsborough Studios

The couple were hired after the war by the Rank Organisation to run Gainsborough Studios. They disapproved of the Gainsborough melodramas which had been the studio's major successes for several years, and switched production to a broader range of more "realistic" films with mixed results. Box made 36 films at Gainsborough, which was merged into the Rank Organization in 1949. In 1951 he founded his own production company London Independent Producers with William MacQuitty.

Box ended his cinema career in 1958 to concentrate on working in television. He was part of a consortium that launched the ITV franchise, Tyne Tees Television in 1959.

Selected filmography

Screenwriter and producer

Alibi Inn (1935)
29 Acacia Avenue (1945)
The Seventh Veil (1945)
The Years Between (1946)
A Girl in a Million (1946)
The Happy Family (1952)
Street Corner (1953)
Too Young to Love (1959)

Producer

Country Town (1943)
Don't Take It to Heart (1944)
The Brothers (1947)
The Happy Family (1952)
The Beachcomber (1954)
Eyewitness (1956)
The Truth About Women (1957)
Subway in the Sky (1959)

Films as Head of Gainsborough

The Man Within (1947)
The Brothers (1947)
Dear Murderer (1947)
The Upturned Glass (1947)
Holiday Camp (1947)
Jassy (1947)
When the Bough Breaks (1947)
Easy Money (1948)
Snowbound (1948)
Miranda (1948)
Broken Journey (1948)
Good-Time Girl (1948)
The Calendar (1948)
My Brother's Keeper (1948)
The Blind Goddess (1948)
Quartet (1948)
Here Come the Huggetts (1948)
Portrait from Life (1948)
Vote for Huggett (1949)
The Bad Lord Byron (1949)
It's Not Cricket (1949)
A Boy, a Girl and a Bike (1949)
The Huggetts Abroad (1949)
Marry Me! (1949)
Christopher Columbus (1949)
Helter Skelter (1949)
Don't Ever Leave Me (1949)
The Lost People (1949)
Diamond City (1949)
Boys in Brown (1949)
Traveller's Joy (1949)
The Astonished Heart (1950)
So Long at the Fair (1950)
Trio (1950)

Selected plays

The Seventh Veil (1951)

References

^ Births England and Wales 1837-1915
^ Spicer, Andrew (2006). Sydney Box. British Film Makers. Manchester University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-7190-5999-5. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
^ Morley, Carol (19 February 2023). "Who was Muriel Box, Britain's most prolific female film director?". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
^ "Power women of the 1950s: Muriel and Betty Box". the Guardian. 5 October 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2021.