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Group Film Productions

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Group Film Productions was a British film production company that made movies through the Rank Organisation. It was wholly owned by Rank, and followed a similar company, British Film-Makers, which had made fourteen titles. It would be followed in turn by Rank Organisation Film Productions, which made 96 films between 1953 and 1967.[1]

Background

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In January 1951, Rank formed British Film Makers (BFM) in association with the National Film Finance Corporation.[2] Various producer director teams made movies for it. Rank's distribution arm, GFD, would distribute and guarantee 70% of finance, with the NFFC to provide the balance.[3][4][5] Rank pulled out of the scheme in late 1952 saying it no longer wished to rely on the NFFC.[6][7][8][9][10]

Group Film Productions would be Rank's main film production company. The studio also co financed with independent producers. According to academics Sue Harper and Vincent Porter:

Although some Rank films were produced independently, in practice the only difference between them and in-house productions appears to be that independent producers had more control over the choice of art director or director of photography. In [John] Davis’s view, there were extremely few ‘independent producers’, as they neither provided their own production finance, nor accepted the financial risks involved.' He therefore established an elaborate system of financial and organizational controls which shaped and limited the production of all Rank films.[11]

Productions

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The first official Group Film Production was The Kidnappers (1953) which was a commercial success and a personal favourite of J. Arthur Rank.[12] Most of its movies were comedies, such as The Million Pound Note starred Hollywood actor Gregory Peck, You Know What Sailors Are (1954), Doctor in the House (1954), Fast and Loose (1954), Up to His Neck (1954), and Mad About Men (1954). The blockbuster success of these was Doctor in the House which became the most successful movie in Rank's history and turned Dirk Bogarde and Kenneth More into film stars.[13][14] In October 1954 Rank reported that the film production arm showed a profit, albeit due to the Eady Levy.[15] Rank's goal was to make fifteen films a year and help finance six Ealing films.[16]

Group Film Productions expanded into other genres - romance (The Young Lovers), colonial war dramas (Simba), musicals (As Long as They're Happy), and relationship dramas (Passage Home, The Woman for Joe). However its main genre remained comedies: Doctor at Sea (1955), Value for Money, Simon and Laura, Man of the Moment and All for Mary. The most popular of these were comfortably Doctor and Sea and Man of the Moment. [17][18]

In October 1955 Rank reported that £1,000,000 had been spent on the Group Film Production scheme for the previous year.[19]

In 1955 the company was re-named Rank Organisation Film Productions.[20]

Select credits

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Notes

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  • Harper, Sue; Porter, Vincent (2003). British cinema of the 1950s : the decline of deference. Oxford University Press.

References

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  1. ^ Falk, Quentin (1987). The golden gong : fifty years of the Rank Organisation, its films and its stars. Columbus Books. p. 87.
  2. ^ "NFFC Prod Scheme seen as solving many of England's filmmaking woes". Variety. 31 January 1951. p. 11.
  3. ^ "Company report". The Birmingham Post. 15 October 1951. p. 7.
  4. ^ Harper and Porter p 38-40
  5. ^ Harper and Porter p 40
  6. ^ Harper and Porter p 40
  7. ^ "Finance change for Rank films". The Daily Telegraph. 13 November 1952. p. 18.
  8. ^ "To finance its own films". The Guardian. 13 November 1952. p. 1.
  9. ^ "Company report". Daily Herald. 12 October 1953. p. 8.
  10. ^ Vagg, Stephen (28 May 2025). "Forgotten British Studios: British Film-Makers". Filmink. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  11. ^ Harper and Porter p 42
  12. ^ Williams, Melanie (1 May 2007). "The Creative Producer: Frank Godwin". Journal of British Cinema & Television Date. Vol. 4, no. 1. p. 140-149 at p 144.
  13. ^ Stephen Watts London (19 December 1954). "Noted on the London Screen Scene: 'Doctor' Proves to Be A Bonanza -- Command Film Show Panned". New York Times. p. X7.
  14. ^ Vagg, Stephen (16 April 2023). "Surviving Cold Streaks: Kenneth More". Filmink.
  15. ^ "Company meeting". Daily Mirror. 11 October 1954. p. 5.
  16. ^ "Company report". The Guardian. 11 October 1954. p. 7.
  17. ^ "Overseas movie gossip". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 24, no. 26. Australia. 28 November 1956. p. 79. Retrieved 24 May 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "Other Money Makers of 1955". Kinematograph Weekly. 15 December 1955. p. 5.
  19. ^ "Company report". The Guardian. 10 October 1955. p. 10.
  20. ^ "Industry in the mansion". South Wales Argus. 20 May 1957. p. 6.
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