No one was surprised when, in April 1928, Gainsborough was relaunched
as a public company, Gainsborough Pictures (1928) Ltd, with C.M. Woolf
and Maurice Ostrer joining Balcon
on the board. Gaumont also retained the right to nominate two further
directors. Whatever soothing noises were made about continued independent
operation; Gainsborough was now a wholly owned outpost of the Gaumont-British
empire.
In 1936, Michel Balcon left Gaumont-British for MGM. Ted
Black was appointed as Balcon's replacement, Black was not
a cosmopolitan like Balcon and concentrated on making films for British
audiences. Black brought in music hall performers Will
Hay, Will Fyffe and the Crazy Gang and radio comedian Arthur
Askey, but he also signed up unknown actors like Margaret
Lockwood, Michael Redgrave
and Phyllis Calvert. Carol Reed
was also lured away from Ealing with the promise of a £100 per week
contract. Black was a great success during his period at Gaumont-British
and was said to have his finger on the pulse of public taste, by the
end of 1944 Black had been recruited by Alexander
Korda for MGM. After Black's departure, Ostrer brought in two producers
to help him run the studio: Harold Huth and R.J. Minney. In October
1941 the Ostrers sold their shares to J.
Arthur Rank, though it was not until 1944 that the conflicting interests
in the corporation were sufficiently reconciled for Rank to assume complete
control of the Gaumont-British empire.
In September 1946, Sydney Box took
control of the studio with a promise to produce twelve films per year.
Box rose to the challenge, releasing nine films in 1947, eleven in 1948
and twelve in 1949. Predictably, quality was sacrificed to the pressures
of time and money. Anthony Asquith, who had made such a good job of
the straggling narrative of Fanny
by Gaslight, was passed over as the director of The Man Within (1947)
because he demanded a £10,000 fee, and the Box's fell back on Gainsborough's
uninspiring stalwart Bernard Knowles.
Thus a sort of drabness shrouds the Box films, from the gone-wrong noir
of Daybreak
(1946) to the routine plot mechanics of Dear Murderer (1947) and Broken
Journey (1948) to the bitterness of the Somerset Maugham short story
compendium films, Quartet
(1948) and Trio (1950). And though they acted with the best of intentions,
the Box's wrecked Gainsborough's lucrative tradition of costume melodrama.
Betty Box at the age of 26 took over the running of Islington and brought
it back to life for the last time. Her husband Peter Rogers, who helped
Muriel to re-establish a scenario department for the studio, went on
to develop the hit comedy Doctor in the House (1954) and its successors,
and the Carry On films. Muriel Box
pioneered a successful career as a director; but her and Sydney's penchant
for offbeat subjects gradually shifted them from the centre to the periphery
of the film industry. Betty Box felt no regret at leaving the smelly
environs of Islington for the leafy splendour of Pinewood, and considered
that Gainsborough was not closed down so much as incorporated within
the Rank Organisation. Gainsborough had been a pawn in corporate politics
since 1928 and in a time when trademarks and product identities were
seen as less important than they are now it is not surprising that it
was merged into the amorphous Rank empire. But for nearly 30 years interesting
films were produced at Islington and Shepherd's Bush, and Gainsborough,
at least as much as Ealing, contributed significantly to the history
of the British film industry.
