Bryanston Films was a British film company formed by

Michael Balcon Sir Michael Elias Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in West London from 1938 to 1955. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British fil ...

and Maxwell Setton in mid-1959 following the collapse of

Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever s ...

. Neither a production studio, nor a distributor, it released independent British films through British Lion Films In operation until 1963, it was intended to be an unofficial group of independent film producers.

History

The Bryanston consortium was composed of 12 to 15 members who bought their way in by putting up £5,000; the equity of the group guaranteed distribution through British Lion and financing from the

National Film Finance Corporation The National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC) was a film funding agency in the United Kingdom in operation from 1949 until 1985. The NFFC was established by the Cinematograph Film Production (Special Loans) Act 1949, and further enhanced by the ...

, banks, and American producers. In addition to Balcon and Setton, members included Kenneth Shipman, John Bryan,

Tony Richardson Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson (5 June 1928 – 14 November 1991) was an English theatre and film director and producer whose career spanned five decades. In 1964, he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film ''Tom Jones''. Early ...

Julian Wintle Julian may refer to: People * Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363 * Julian (Rome), referring to the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots * Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints * Julian (gi ...

and

Ronald Neame Ronald Neame CBE, BSC (23 April 1911 – 16 June 2010) was an English film producer, director, cinematographer, and screenwriter. Beginning his career as a cinematographer, for his work on the British war film '' One of Our Aircraft Is Miss ...

. Alliance Films, Denham Laboratories and Lloyds Bank were also investors. Producer-investors were meant to "vet" each other's scripts. Ronald Neame said that:

The old complaint of producers has always been that the distributors tend to ask us for old formula films. Many of us have said this has forced us to be less enterprising than we would wish to be. But now the onus is on us. If I submit a script to Bryanston, I know it will be vetted by fellow producers whose opinions I respect.

The company started off with £1,000,000. In November 1961 the company announced it would go into co-production with

Seven Arts Productions Seven Arts Productions was a production company which made films for release by other studios. It was founded in 1957 by Eliot Hyman, Ray Stark, and Norman Katz. History Seven Arts' first film was '' The Gun Runners'', released by United ...

, to make ''Sammy Going South'' and ''Tom Jones''. Bryanston distributed several films made by

Woodfall Film Productions Woodfall Film Productions was a British film production company established in the late 1950s. It was established by Tony Richardson, John Osborne and Harry Saltzman to make a screen adaptation of Osborne's best known play. The film version of ''L ...

but refused to produce '' Tom Jones'' (1963) in colour, the success of which could have established the company for a long time. United Artists stepped in to finance the film instead. Bryanston released its last film in 1964 and the company was sold to

Associated-Rediffusion Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...

in 1965. Balcon later became head of British Lion Films.

Selected films

*'' The Battle of the Sexes'' (1959) *'' Cone of Silence'' (1960) *'' Light Up the Sky!'' (1960) *'' The Entertainer'' (1960) *'' The Big Day'' (1960) *''

The Boy Who Stole a Million ''The Boy Who Stole a Million'' is a 1960 British comedy thriller film directed by Charles Crichton. The film was shot on location in the Spanish city of Valencia, with an international cast list. With multiple street locations it acts as an ex ...

'' (1960) *''

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'' is the first novel by British author Alan Sillitoe and won the Author's Club First Novel Award. It was adapted by Sillitoe into a 1960 film starring Albert Finney, directed by Karel Reisz, and in 1964 was ...

'' (1960) *''

Linda Linda may refer to: As a name * Linda (given name), a female given name (including a list of people and fictional characters so named) * Linda (singer) (born 1977), stage name of Svetlana Geiman, a Russian singer * Anita Linda (born Alice Lake i ...

'' (1960) *'' Double Bunk'' (1961) *'' Two and Two Make Six'' (1961) *'' Girl on Approval'' (1961) *'' Dangerous Afternoon'' (1961) *'' The Wind of Change'' (1961) *'' Spare the Rod'' (1961) *'' The Impersonator'' (1961) *'' A Taste of Honey'' (1961) *''

Dilemma A dilemma ( grc-gre, δίλημμα "double proposition") is a problem offering two possibilities, neither of which is unambiguously acceptable or preferable. The possibilities are termed the ''horns'' of the dilemma, a clichéd usage, but dist ...

'' (1962) *'' Lunch Hour'' (1962) *'' Strongroom'' (1962) *''

The Quare Fellow ''The Quare Fellow'' is Brendan Behan's first play, first produced in 1954. The title is taken from a Hiberno-English pronunciation of ''queer''. Plot The play is set in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. The anti-hero of the play, The Quare Fellow, is never ...

'' (1962) *'' A Prize of Arms'' (1962) *'' Don't Talk to Strange Men'' (1962) *'' The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'' (1962) *''

Panic Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reactio ...

'' (1963) *'' Calculated Risk'' (1963) *'' The Small World of Sammy Lee'' (1963) *''

Sammy Going South ''Sammy Going South'' (retitled ''A Boy Ten Feet Tall'' for its later US release) is a 1963 British adventure film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, photographed by Erwin Hillier and starring Edward G. Robinson, Fergus McClelland and Constan ...

'' (1963) *''

A Place to Go ''A Place to Go'' is a 1963 British crime drama film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Bernard Lee, Rita Tushingham and Michael Sarne. Set in contemporary Bethnal Green in the East End of London, it charted the dramatic changes that were ...

'' (1963) *''

Girl in the Headlines ''Girl in the Headlines'' (AKA ''The Model Girl Murder Case'') is a 1963 British detective film directed by Michael Truman and starring Ian Hendry, Ronald Fraser, Jeremy Brett, and Jane Asher. It is based on the 1961 novel ''The Nose on my Fa ...

'' (1963) *'' Ladies Who Do'' (1963) *''

The Wild Affair ''The Wild Affair'' is a 1965 British comedy film written and directed by John Krish and starring Nancy Kwan, Terry-Thomas, Jimmy Logan, Gladys Morgan, and Betty Marsden. It was adapted from the 1961 novel ''The Last Hours of Sandra Lee'' by W ...

'' (1963) *'' The System'' (1964)

Notes

External links

Bryanston Films
at

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

{{Cinema of the United Kingdom Film production companies of the United Kingdom