by Stephen Vagg
We have discussed in previous pieces for this series how the Rank Organisation contracted its filmmaking division in the early 1960s – there were less big “international” productions, and a return to predominantly making comedies and thrillers. This worked from a financial point of view at least – Rank had some rough years in 1958 and 1959 but returned to profitability in 1960 and 1961.
This appears to have helped the organisation’s confidence. In February 1962, Rank’s head of production, Earl St John said that the company was investing large amounts in films such as Tiara Tahiti, Waltz of the Toreadors and 55 Days at Peking. “A couple of years ago, we never should have dreamed that high,” declared St John – a statement that wasn’t really true, as Rank did dream big in the late 1950s, but one should always forgive studio heads some hyperbole. Still, in October 1962, Rank’s film production and distribution division recorded a profit of £209,000. So, it was an okay year for the company, even if a lot of that profit was driven by movies from Universal Pictures and Allied Artists, which Rank distributed in the UK rather than homegrown product.
Let’s look at the British film released by the Rank Organisation in 1962
These included the following:
– comedies (Tiara Tahiti, A Pair of Briefs, The Fast Lady, On the Beat, Waltz of the Toreadors, Hair of the Dog);
– thrillers (The Traitors, The Fur Collar);
– dramas (Life for Ruth, All Night Long, The Wild and the Willing);
– sci-fi (The Day of Triffids);
– a concert film of an opera (Der Rosenkavalier);
– a musical (Band of Thieves)
This was down on the studio’s previous years, but it wasn’t bad. Rank distributed a classy British drama, Billy Budd, but only stepped in after the film had been made and the original distributor (Warner Bros) decided that it didn’t like the result, so we don’t really classify that as a Rank movie. Also, 55 Days at Peking, mentioned above, didn’t come out until 1963 and we’re not sure how much Rank invested in that in the end – it makes sense that they’d have some coin in it since Rank (a) distributed the movie (b) had invested in an earlier international movie from director Nicholas Ray, The Savage Innocents, and (c) had a strong relationship with producer Samuel Bronston… but Rank creative involvement seems to have been minimal.
Now, let’s look at Rank’s comedies of 1962.
Tiara Tahiti starred James Mason and John Mills as former British army officers squabbling on Tahiti. This movie was a sort of south seas version of Tunes of Glory (1960), and the first feature from Canadian TV director Ted Kotcheff, who later made Wake in Fright, and never spoke that highly of his debut effort. Tiara Tahiti became a hit in Britain, based one assumes on the popularity of its stars and the Tahitian locations. We’re not sure that the film “travelled” that well – other countries aren’t as interested in comedies about the class system as Britain, certainly not America – and it may not have recouped its budget of half a million pounds, but who knows? It’s a bit of a “whatever” movie. Incidentally, Tiara Tahiti is the sort of film that Kenneth More would’ve been ideal for had not John Davis stupidly blacklisted him.
A Pair of Briefs was a legal comedy about duelling barristers, a sort of British Adam’s Rib (1949), made by some old Rank favourites: produced by Betty Box, directed by Ralph Thomas, written by Nicholas Phipps, starring Michael Craig, James Robertson Justice and Brenda de Banzie, based on a play by the same writers responsible for the original stage play of No My Darling Daughter. It was Craig’s last film for Rank, after years of playing roles that Dirk Bogarde rejected. It’s fine.
Far more popular at the box office was The Fast Lady, from director Ken Annakin for Independent Artists, starring James Robertson Justice, Leslie Phillips and Julie Christie. Indeed, the film was popular enough for a sequel, Father Came Too. The same team made another comedy in 1962, Crooks Anonymous, but that was made for Amalgamated. That also starred Julie Christie who became another in the long, long line of classy female stars given early career breaks by Rank, only for the studio to not know what to do with her. Compare this with Nat Cohen of Anglo Amalgamated, who financed Crooks Anonymous – he then made Billy Liar with Christie, and even though that film lost money, he believed in her talent and so backed Darling (1965), which made a fortune. The Rank Organisation never had this sort of skill in not just identifying talent, but nurturing it and promoting it.
On the Beat saw Norman Wisdom’s return to Rank after a year away. The resulting movie – one of his most highly regarded – was a hit. So too was Waltz of the Toreadors, a Peter Sellers comedy based on a Jean Anouilh play and directed by John Guillermin for Independent Artists. This wasn’t very good to be honest, but Sellers was a huge name at the time and the movie was very popular in Britain (which doesn’t mean that it covered its considerable cost).
Hair of the Dog was a cheap B comedy from an independent company. Rank’s thrillers were also low budget efforts made outside the studio: The Traitors and The Fur Collar.
The dramas were far more interesting… although all might have done better commercially had they been thrillers. In All Night Long, producer Michael Relph and director Basil Dearden took the story of Othello and put it in the world of jazz musicians. The cast features old Rank contract players like Patrick McGoohan and Keith Michell, and actually has black people in the cast. A lot of American victims of the blacklist worked on the film – executive producer Bob Roberts (John Garfield’s former business manager), actor Betsy Blair and writer Paul Jarrico. The public didn’t much like this film – for one thing, it has a happy ending and we’re not sure that Othello works with a happy ending – but it is endlessly fascinating and has been critically rediscovered in recent years. All Night Long wasn’t made through Allied Film Makers, the co-op set up by Dearden and Relph, but through Bob Roberts Productions (the project originally came from America).
Dearden and Relph’s other film for 1962 was for Allied: Life for Ruth. This was the story of a man who lets his child die because of his religious beliefs and gets prosecuted. Although this film was written by Janet Green, who’d done Sapphire and Victim for Dearden/Relph, this was not a hit like those had been. Watching the movie, it’s not hard to see why: it’s well made, but the story is just so inherently depressing because a couple lose their child. Maybe this story would have had a broader appeal if Green had used the murder mystery structure of Sapphire and Victim, but she didn’t – indeed, we’re really surprised that was not deployed again by Rank as a way to dramatise a hot button topic. The film starred Michael Craig, Patrick McGoohan and Janet Munro – the latter finally getting a chance at Rank after the studio rejected her in 1957.
The Wild and the Willing was an oddity from the team of Betty Box and Ralph Thomas, who always tried to alternate comedies with dramas. This was an ensemble piece about the lives and loves of young students, a subject that had given them their greatest success with Doctor in the House. However, while that was a bright comedy in colour about people doing something useful, dramatic and of universal appeal (i.e. being medical students), The Wild and the Willing was a grim, serious drama shot in black and white about whinging university students. The film feels like Box and Thomas’ attempt to join in on the British new wave, with much angst and bed hopping, but it doesn’t work – we think that maybe the filmmakers were too upbeat and happy people to relate to their characters for this one. The casting was however first rate – the movie marked the big screen debuts of Ian McShane, Samantha Eggar, and John Hurt, and also features early parts for Virginia Maskell, Johnny Sekka and Jeremy Brett – that’s a pretty good strike rate. And full marks to Box and Thomas for having a go.
Rank’s other films of 1962 were a real grab bag. Der Rosenkavalier was a film of an opera shot by Paul Czinner, who’d also made The Royal Ballet and The Bolshoi Ballet for Rank. Band of Thieves was a trad jazz musical, starring Acker Bilk, who was a name at the time: there is something daggily endearing about the way the Rank Organisation missed out on making all the British rock musicals of the late 1950s and early 1960s that earned money (i.e. the ones with Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard, and The Beatles) but decided to invest in a trad jazz musical.
Day of the Triffids was science fiction, a genre that Rank had steered clear from, probably because it had a disreputable smell. This was, in hindsight, a missed opportunity – the Brits can do sci-fi brilliantly, and Rank had the technical facilities and personnel to make excellent sci-fi/fantasy movies, had it so wished, like those turned out by say, Hammer’s Nigel Kneale (The Quatermass Experiment, The Abominable Snowman) or Ray Harryhausen’s films at Columbia (Mystery Island, Jason and the Argonauts). It’s a shame that when Rank finally dipped its toe in sci-fi waters with Day of the Triffids the result was such a mess. The film was made by Philip Yordan and Allied Artists, who had a relationship with Rank via blockbusters like El Cid… Triffids, based on a classic novel by John Wyndham, was financed off the back of the success of MGM’s 1960 effort, Village of the Damned, also from a Wyndham work. However, the movie – shot in 1961 and pointlessly starring American song and dance man, Howard Keel, who’d been pointlessly cast in Rank’s Floods of Fear – came in with a too-short running time (!), resulting in a whole extra subplot in a lighthouse having to be written and shot with a new cast and crew in 1962. Day of the Triffids didn’t hit cinemas until 1963 but we’re including it here. People love this movie, but we don’t think even its most rabid fans would call it well made.
Rank announced several films for 1962 that weren’t shot. Producer Hugh Stewart was going to film Kingsley Amis’ novel Take a Girl Like You but that wasn’t adapted – by other hands – until 1970. He was one of Rank’s leading filmmakers, and he couldn’t get projects financed. It was an indication that although 1962 wasn’t a bad year for Rank, the organisation was getting more and more conservative. Ironically, it was a time when British cinema was getting more and more exciting.
In October 1962, Lord Rank (as he was by then) resigned as chairman of Rank Organisation and was replaced by managing director John Davis. Lord Rank died in 1972, leaving behind a fascinating legacy, of which the movies of 1962 aren’t a bad example: some good, some bad, a lot of mediocrity, vaguely disappointing overall, but still more interesting to watch and discuss than flour.
