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Muriel Box is a Director, Scriptwriter and Producer British born on 22 september 1905

Muriel Box

Muriel Box
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Birth name Violette Muriel Baker
Nationality United-kingdom
Birth 22 september 1905
Death 18 may 1991 (at 85 years) at London (United-kingdom)

Muriel Box (22 September 1905 – 18 May 1991) was an oscar winning English screenwriter and director.

She was born Violette Muriel Baker in Tolworth, Surrey, England in 1905. When her attempts at acting and dancing proved to be unsuccessful, she accepted work as a continuity girl for British International Pictures. In 1935, she met and married journalist Sydney Box, with whom she collaborated on nearly forty plays with mainly female roles for amateur theatre groups. Their production company, Verity Films, first released short propaganda films, including The English Inn (1941), her first directing effort, after which it branched into fiction. The couple achieved their greatest joint success with The Seventh Veil (1945) for which they gained the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay in the following year.

After the war, the Rank Organisation hired her husband to head Gainsborough Pictures, where she was in charge of the scenario department, writing scripts for a number of light comedies, including two for child star Petula Clark, Easy Money and Here Come the Huggetts (both 1948). She occasionally assisted as a dialogue director, or re-shot scenes during post-production. Her extensive work on The Lost People (1949) gained her a credit as co-director, her first for a full-length feature.

In 1951, her husband created London Independent Producers, allowing Box more opportunities to direct. Many of her early films were adaptations of plays, and as such had a stage-bound feel, since she rarely shot on location. They were noteworthy more for their strong performances than they were for a distinctive directorial style. She favoured scripts with topical and frequently controversial themes, including Irish politics, teenage sex, abortion, illegitimacy, and syphilis, and several of her films were banned by local authorities.

She pursued her favorite subject - the female experience - in a number of films, including Street Corner (1953) about women police officers, Somerset Maugham's The Beachcomber (1954), with Glynis Johns as a resourceful missionary, and a series of comedies about the battle of the sexes, including The Passionate Stranger (1957), The Truth About Women (1958) and her final film, Rattle of a Simple Man (1964).

Box often experienced prejudice in a man-dominated industry, especially hurtful when perpetrated by another female. In 1950, Jean Simmons had her replaced on So Long at the Fair, and Kay Kendall unsuccessfully attempted to do the same with Simon and Laura (1955). Many producers questioned her competence to direct large-scale feature films, and while the press was quick to note her position as one of very few women directors in the British film industry, their tone tended to be condescending rather than filled with praise.

She left film-making to write novels and created a successful publishing house, Femina, which proved to be a rewarding outlet for her feminism. She divorced Sydney Box in 1969. The following year, she married Gerald Gardiner, who had been Lord Chancellor. She died in Hendon, London in 1991.

Biography

Elle nait dans la banlieue de Londres, elle est le troisième enfant d'une famille modeste.Sa mère a des idées progressistes qui l'influencent. Elle se passionne pour l'écriture, le théâtre et le cinéma, et essaie vainement de devenir actrice professionnelle ou danseuse de ballet. Son mariage avec Sydney Box en 1935, lui-même scénariste, conduit Muriel vers l'écriture et la réalisation ː pendant la guerre, elle assiste son mari dans la direction de Verity Films , et réalise son premier film The English Inn (1941), court métrage de propagande. Elle écrit avec son mari le scénario de The Seventh Veil , le plus gros film britannique de 1945, et ils obtiennent l'Oscar du meilleur scénario original.

En 1950, Sydney fonde sa propre compagnie, London Independent Producers, ce qui donne à Muriel plus de possiblilité de diriger. Elle réalise d'abord des adaptations de pièces de théâtre ː The Happy Family 1952), To Dorothy a son (1954), Simon et Laura (1955)... Son travail se caractérise ensuite par son approche de sujets d'actualité : la situation politique en Irlande, l’avortement, la sexualité chez les adolescents…

Elle abandonne le cinéma après l'insuccès de Rattle of a Simple Man. Muriel et Sydney divorcent en 1969 .Elle continue à écrire des romans et fonde la première maison d'édition féministe de Grande-Bretagne et devient une militante pour les droits des femmes, travaillant avec son amie, Edith Summerskill, femme politique, pour réformer les lois britanniques sur le divorce. En 1970, elle a épousé Gerald Gardiner, Lord Chancelier.

Best films

The Seventh Veil (1945)
(Writer)

Usually with

Sydney Box
Sydney Box
(26 films)
Peter Rogers
Peter Rogers
(6 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Muriel Box (31 films)

Display filmography as list

Director

Rattle of a Simple Man, 1h45
Directed by Muriel Box
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy
Themes Sports films, Association football films
Actors Diane Cilento, Harry H. Corbett, Michael Medwin, Dame Thora Hird, Brian Wilde, Marianne Stone
Rating66% 3.330093.330093.330093.330093.33009
Un jeune supporter naïf se rend à Londres pour assister à la finale de la Coupe d'Angleterre de football. Il tombe amoureux d'une prostituée.
Too Young to Love, 1h28
Directed by Muriel Box
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Cec Linder, Bessie Love, Thomas Mitchell, Charles Farrell, Michael Bell, Larry Martyn
Rating59% 2.9663252.9663252.9663252.9663252.966325
In juvenile court, 15-year-old Elizabeth (Pauline Hahn) recounts her story (in flashback) before the judge. Elizabeth lives with her working mother in New York while her father is away working in California. Elizabeth's tale is one of parental neglect and lack of guidance. She gets in with "the wrong crowd". After an affair with a sailor, she has an abortion and is eventually arrested for teenage prostitution. The judge (Thomas Mitchell) is sympathetic, but Elizabeth's fate hangs in the balance.
Subway in the Sky, 1h27
Directed by Muriel Box
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Actors Van Johnson, Hildegard Knef, Albert Lieven, Cec Linder, Katherine Kath, Carl Jaffe
Rating57% 2.862682.862682.862682.862682.86268
Baxter Grant, an American soldier in West Berlin, deserts and goes on the run when faced with false drug trafficking and murder charges. He takes shelter with cabaret singer Lilli Hoffman, who he manages to persuade to help prove his innocence.
This Other Eden, 1h20
Directed by Muriel Box
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Audrey Dalton, Leslie Phillips, Niall MacGinnis, Norman Rodway, Milo O'Shea, Harry Brogan
Rating61% 3.084483.084483.084483.084483.08448
A small Irish provincial town wants to erect a statue to an Irish Republican Army (IRA) man, killed during the Irish War for Independence. However, the son of the Colonel who killed the rebel objects.
The Passionate Stranger, 1h37
Directed by Muriel Box
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy
Actors Margaret Leighton, Ralph Richardson, Patricia Dainton, Carlo Giustini, Ada Reeve, Frederick Piper
Rating61% 3.089293.089293.089293.089293.08929
Judith Wynter (Leighton) is a novelist who pens torrid escapist romantic fiction for the popular women's market, although in real life she is a respectable, unassuming woman, happily married to husband Roger (Richardson). She uses people she knows and situations she encounters as the raw material for her fictional flights of fancy. As Roger recuperates from an illness which leaves him temporarily immobile, she pens the rough draft of her latest novel, a lurid tale of a bored and unsatisifed woman with a pompous disabled husband she despises, who embarks on a wild affair with her chauffeur and finds herself expecting his child. The husband dismisses the chauffeur, who vows revenge, and matters escalate melodramatically towards a deadly conclusion.
The Truth About Women, 1h47
Directed by Muriel Box
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romance
Actors Laurence Harvey, Julie Harris, Marius Goring, Diane Cilento, Mai Zetterling, Eva Gabor
Rating60% 3.0013353.0013353.0013353.0013353.001335
When his son-in-law comes to him with a woeful tale of an unhappy relationship and a belief that all women are impossible to love, elderly Sir Humphrey Tavistock calmly puts him straight.
Eyewitness
Eyewitness (1956)
, 1h22
Directed by Muriel Box
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama
Actors Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Belinda Lee, Michael Craig, Nigel Stock, Susan Beaumont
Rating62% 3.1471353.1471353.1471353.1471353.147135
After an argument with her husband, Lucy Church storms out of her house and goes to see a film at the local cinema. While coming back from making a phone call, she stumbles across the office where she witnesses the murder of the cinema manager by two criminals Wade and Barney who are in the process of robbing the cinema's safe. When they pursue her, she is struck by a bus and is taken to hospital. Unable to leave the town until they know what has happened to her, the two robbers head to the hospital to observe her. Meanwhile her husband Jay Church has grown concerned and scours the town searching for her.
Simon and Laura, 1h27
Directed by Muriel Box
Genres Comedy
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Peter Finch, Kay Kendall, Muriel Pavlow, Maurice Denham, Ian Carmichael, Richard Wattis
Rating62% 3.137353.137353.137353.137353.13735
Un couple en instance de divorce devient le couple vedette d'une émission de télévision.
The Beachcomber, 1h22
Directed by Muriel Box
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romance
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films
Actors Donald Sinden, Glynis Johns, Robert Newton, Paul Rogers, Donald Pleasence, Michael Hordern
Rating61% 3.09613.09613.09613.09613.0961
The new British Resident of the Welcome Islands, Ewart Gray (Donald Sinden)arrives in full uniform by ship anticipating the excitement of a posting in the tropical Indian Ocean. He is informed that the last Governor had shot himself from 'loneliness', which dampens his spirits a little. On landing he finds his quarters are not ready for him, and he is invited to stay by the local missionary Owen Jones (Paul Rogers) and his sister Martha (Glynis Johns). He soon finds their company, while friendly, a little overbearing – and returns to stay at his own residence despite it not being finished. That evening he is visited by the only other European resident of the island, known as the 'Honorable Ted' who introduces himself and drinks a large amount of Gray's whisky. Despite having been warned that Ted was a scoundrel, Gray soon warms to him, finding him well-spoken and obviously educated.
The Beachcomber, 1h22
Directed by Muriel Box
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romance
Actors Glynis Johns, Robert Newton, Donald Sinden, Paul Rogers, Donald Pleasence, Michael Hordern
Rating61% 3.09613.09613.09613.09613.0961
Ewart Gray, le nouveau représentant de la couronne, arrive aux Îles Welcome en grand uniforme, tout excité à l'idée de ce nouveau poste. On le prévient que son prédécesseur s'est suicidé à cause de la solitude, ce qui refroidit un peu son enthousiasme. Une fois débarqué du bateau, il se rend compte que son logement n'est pas prêt et accepte l'invitation du révérend Owen Jones et de sa sœur Martha. Il trouve leur compagnie agréable, mais bientôt un peu envahissante, il décide alors d'occuper son logement, même soi les travaux ne sont pas terminés. Le même soir, il reçoit la visite du seul autre Européen résidant sur l'île, Edward Wilson, alias "l'Honorable Ted", qui en profite pour boire une grande partie du whisky de Gray.
The Happy Family, 1h26
Directed by Muriel Box
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Stanley Holloway, Kathleen Harrison, Naunton Wayne, Dandy Nichols, John Stratton, Shirley Mitchell
Rating65% 3.2781453.2781453.2781453.2781453.278145
The House of Lords is a grocery shop that sits on the South Bank of the river Thames close to the site of Festival Hall which is noisily under construction. It is owned by the Lord family, a husband and wife with several children. Lillian Lord runs the shop, while Henry is a British Railways train driver, who has worked on the railways for over 30 years and who is just about to retire. He is looking forward to enjoying a quiet retirement at the family shop looking after his pet hare, Winston, though his spiritualist sister in law Ada has had supernatural visions of "men in black" bringing discord.
The Lost People, 1h29
Directed by Muriel Box, Bernard Knowles
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Dennis Price, Mai Zetterling, Richard Attenborough, Siobhán McKenna, Maxwell Reed, William Hartnell
Rating63% 3.1848153.1848153.1848153.1848153.184815
After the Second World War, some British soldiers are guarding a theatre in Germany containing various refugees and prisoners trying to work out what to do with them. However, the displaced people, after uniting against fascism for five years, begin to disintegrate into their own petty feuds: Serb against Croat, Pole against Russian, resistance fighter against collaborator and everyone against the Jews. Two people, Jan and Lily, begin a romance and decide to wed. However, one of the refugees is diagnosed with bubonic plague.