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Rank Organisation Film Productions
Rank Organisation Film Productions was a British film production company that made movies for the Rank Organisation. It followed on from Group Film Productions and was established in 1955. In February 1956, Davis announced Rank would make 20 films at over £3 million. He said "great care will be taken to ensure that, while retaining essentially British characteristics the films will have the widest international appeal. This is part of an intensified drive to secure ever widening showing in overseas markets which already return more than half the revenue earned by Pinewood films." That year, Rank announced it would set up distribution in the United States (see below). In 1956 Rank released a series of dramas such as ''Eyewitness'', ''The Black Tent'', ''House of Secrets'', ''Tiger in the Smoke'' and ''Checkpoint''. The most popular were ''The Spanish Gardener'' with Dirk Bogarde and ''Up in the World'' with Norman Wisdom. The studio also co financed the hugely popular ''Reach for th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) is a British entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1937 by industrialist J. Arthur Rank. It quickly became the largest and most vertical integration, vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribution, and exhibition facilities as well as manufacturing projection equipment and chairs. It diversified into the manufacture of radios, TVs and photocopiers (as one of the owners of Rank Xerox). The company name lasted until February 1996, when the name and some of the remaining assets were absorbed into the newly structured Rank Group, Rank Group plc. The company itself became a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox and was renamed XRO Limited in 1997. The company's logo, the Gongman, first used in 1935 by the group's distribution company General Film Distributors [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Fury (1958 Film)
''Sea Fury'' is a 1958 British action film directed by Cy Endfield and starring Stanley Baker, Victor McLaglen, Luciana Paluzzi and Grégoire Aslan. It was written by John Kruse and Endfield (as C. Raker Endfield). It was the last film appearance from Victor McLaglen. Plot A qualified First Mate, Abel Hewson, arrives in a Spanish seaside town looking for work on local ships salvaging still-afloat abandoned ships. Abel Hewson and Captain Bellew become love rivals for 18-year-old Josita. Both men go on a dangerous mission to salvage a floating wreck carrying explosives which will detonate on contact with any water. Their rivalry comes between them and their work. The tug-boat crew, especially Gorman, also resent Abel Hewson being made their First Mate. The crew are also competing against another tug-boat operator, Captain Mulder, for the salvage prize. Cast * Stanley Baker as Abel Hewson * Victor McLaglen as Captain Bellew * Luciana Paluzzi as Josita * Grégoire Aslan as Fernan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Black Tent
''The Black Tent'' is a 1956 British war film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Donald Sinden, Anthony Steel, Anna Maria Sandri, André Morell and Donald Pleasence. It is set in North Africa, during the Second World War and was filmed on location in Libya. Along with '' Bengazi'' (1955), ''The Black Tent'' is one of the few feature films set in the last days of the British Military Administration of Libya from 1945 to 1951. Plot summary During the British retreat through Libya, British officer Captain David Holland takes shelter with a Bedouin tribe and marries the sheik's daughter. After the war his younger brother, who had believed him to be dead, learns that he may be alive in Libya – prompting him to set out and search for him. Plot Colonel Sir Charles Holland receives a note at his country estate. He contacts the Foreign Office and is informed that his missing-in-action brother may still be alive in Libya. A promissory note dating from the Second World War h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jumping For Joy
''Jumping for Joy'' is a 1956 British comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Frankie Howerd, Stanley Holloway, Joan Hickson and Lionel Jeffries. It was written by Henry Blyth and Jack Davies. It tells of the comic adventures of an ex-worker at a greyhound racing track. Plot Willie Joy works at a greyhound track as a cleaner, which involves picking up droppings from the dog track between races. He is tricked into standing in the line of the lure and falls on it as it speeds past with the dogs chasing it. He is fired. Breeder Bert Benton has a sick dog and sells it to Joy who takes it home. His landlady evicts him. He meets con-man "Captain" Jack Montague and together they hatch a plan to make money from the dog, whom they name "Lindy Lou". Nursed back to health, Lindy starts to prove herself at racing trials. Benton wants to buy her back. Crooks use Joy as an unwitting collaborator in fixing races and placing large bets. They pass doped meat for the dog but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lost (1956 Film)
''Lost'' (also known as ''Tears for Simon'') is a 1956 British thriller film directed by Guy Green and starring David Farrar, David Knight and Julia Arnall. It was written by Janet Green. It is set in 1950s London, and revolves around the apparent kidnapping of a young couple's baby. Plot US embassy employee Lee Cochrane and his Austrian wife discover their 18-month-old son Simon has been abducted, after their nanny leaves the child unattended outside a chemist's shop. London Detective Inspector Craig pledges to find the child, though clues are thin on the ground. The couple are criticised in a newspaper article. They and the police follow up various leads which turn out to be dead ends, including supposed kidnappers who are con artists. Eventually the wife of one of the officers recognises the words in a torn piece of paper as belonging to a particular novel. This enables the police to track down a copy of the novel that was borrowed from the library by a widow who has be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rank Film Distributors Of America
Rank Film Distributors of America was a short lived distribution company established in the USA by the Rank Organisation to distribute its films. The company only lasted a few years before collapsing. History In 1956 Rank established Rank Film Distributors of America to distribute its films in the USA. It would distribute fifteen Rank films plus some non Rank movies. John Davis of Rank declared "it was not a gamble but a reasonable business risk... We know that in our line up product we have stories, stars, backgrounds that cannot fail to appeal." The company lost a reported $1 million in its first year with its only success being ''The Pursuit of the Graf Spee'', which made over $500,000. However some high-profile films such as ''Reach for the Sky'' made just $100,000 and most films grossed between $50,000 and $75,000. Irv Sochin, general sales manager, left the company in October 1958 which was seen as a sign trouble within the company. The company had high hopes for the US succe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Herren
Eric "Kip" Herren (d. August 1976) was a British film executive. He was general manger director of Pinewood Studios then was managing director of Rank Film Productions. Biography Herren was educated at Regent Street Polytechnic and London University. He served in the war and attained the rank of colonel. Herren worked at Shepperton General Studios then joined Pinewood Studios as assistant general manager in 1957. He succeeded Spencer Reis as general manager in 1959 and became managing director in 1966. In March 1966 Rank announced it would make nine films with a total cost of £7.5 million of which it would provide £4 million. Two films were financed by Rank completely, a Norman Wisdom movie and a "doctor" comedy (''Doctor on Toast'' which became ''Doctor in Trouble''). The others were ''The Quiller Memorandum'', ''Deadlier than the Male'', ''Maroc 7'', '' The Red Hot Ferrari'' (never made), ''The Fifth Coin'' (never made), '' The Battle of Britain'' and ''The Long Duel ''The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doctor In Trouble
''Doctor in Trouble'' is a 1970 British comedy film, the seventh and last film in the ''Doctor'' series. The film was directed by Ralph Thomas and stars Leslie Phillips as a doctor who gets accidentally trapped on an outgoing cruise ship while it begins a round the world trip. The cast was rounded out by a number of British comedy actors including James Robertson Justice, Harry Secombe and Angela Scoular. The film was based on the 1961 novel '' Doctor on Toast'' by Richard Gordon, and is unrelated to the 1964 novel bearing the same title written by Clare Cavendish. Plot Renowned surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt arranges a cruise for his patient, the famous television star Basil Beauchamp. The captain of the ship is Lancelot Spratt's brother George Spratt. Doctor Burke becomes a stowaway by mistake when chasing his girlfriend Ophelia onto the ship to propose to her. She is one of a group of models doing a fashion shoot with camp photographer Roddy. Other passengers aboard ship in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, the ''Times'' serves as one of the country's Newspaper of record, newspapers of record. , ''The New York Times'' had 9.13 million total and 8.83 million online subscribers, both by significant margins the List of newspapers in the United States, highest numbers for any newspaper in the United States; the total also included 296,330 print subscribers, making the ''Times'' the second-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States, following ''The Wall Street Journal'', also based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' is published by the New York Times Company; since 1896, the company has been chaired by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, whose current chairman and the paper's publ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Associated British Picture Corporation
Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), originally British International Pictures (BIP), was a British film production, distribution and exhibition company active from 1927 until 1970 when it was absorbed into EMI. ABPC also owned approximately 500 cinemas in Britain by 1943, and in the 1950s and 60s owned a station on the ITV television network. The studio was partly owned by Warner Bros. from about 1940 until 1969; the American company also owned a stake in ABPC's distribution arm, Warner-Pathé, from 1958. It formed one half of a vertically integrated film industry duopoly in Britain with the Rank Organisation. History From 1927 to 1945 The company was founded during 1927 by Scottish solicitor John Maxwell after he had purchased British National Pictures Studios and its Elstree Studios complex and merged it with his ABC Cinemas circuit, renaming the company British International Pictures. The Wardour Film Company, with Maxwell as chairman, was the distributor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in west London, England. 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 since. It is the oldest continuously working studio facility for film production in the world, and the current stages were opened for the use of sound in 1931. It is best known for a series of classic films produced in the post-WWII years, including '' Saraband for Dead Lovers'' (1948), '' Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949), '' Passport to Pimlico'' (1949), ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' (1951), and '' The Ladykillers'' (1955). The BBC owned and filmed at the Studios for forty years from 1955 until 1995. Since 2000, Ealing Studios has resumed releasing films under its own name, including the revived '' St Trinian's'' franchise. In more recent times, films shot there include '' The Importance of Being Earnest'' (2002) and '' Shaun of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passionate Summer (1958 Film)
''Passionate Summer'' (also known as ''Storm Over Jamaica'') is a 1958 British drama film directed by Rudolph Cartier and starring Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers and Yvonne Mitchell. The screenplay was by Joan Henry based on the 1949 novel ''The Shadow and the Peak'' by Richard Mason. Premise A British schoolteacher moves to Jamaica to teach after a tumultuous divorce, and meets an exciting new woman. Cast * Virginia McKenna as Judy Waring * Bill Travers as Douglas Lockwood * Yvonne Mitchell as Mrs Pawley * Alexander Knox as Leonard Pawley * Carl Möhner as Louis * Gordon Heath as coroner * Guy Middleton as Duffield * Pearl Prescod as Mrs Morgan * Ellen Barrie as Sylvia Development The film was based on Richard Mason's novel ''The Shadow and the Peak'' which was published in 1949. It was Mason's second novel, following ''The Wind Cannot Read'', which the Rank Organisation had filmed with Dirk Bogarde. The ''New York Times'' called ''The Shadow and the Peak'' "diverting, it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
