by Stephen Vagg
It’s nearly impossible to be a successful film mogul in Britain – especially a consistently successful one. Even the most famous (Alex Korda, Michael Balcon, Sydney Box, Michael Carreras) face consistent setbacks, while the most skilled get forced out of their studios (Nat Cohen, Ted Black). The moguls we’re discussing today, however, were not only successful but both ended their careers on a high – a professional high that is, the personal story being something altogether different. These are the brothers Woolf, John and James, who ran Romulus Productions in the 1950s and 1960s.
They were nepo babies, the sons of Charles Woolf, who was described as one of the shrewdest people in the British film industry. Woolf Senior was not a filmmaker but rather a film seller, i.e. a big deal in distribution and exhibition – a major figure at Gaumont British who in the 1930s helped established General Film Distributors (which later became part of the Rank Organisation). Charles Woolf died in 1943, by which time both his sons were already working in the industry: John (the eldest) in distribution and James in publicity. Neither of them liked working for a big studio, so in the late 1940s they decided to go into business for themselves – both had plenty of experience, contacts, and money they had inherited from their father. Still, others had enjoyed equal advantages and failed – filmmaking is tough. How would the Woolf brothers go?
John and James set up two companies, Independent Film Distributors, which would distribute movies, and Romulus Films, which would make them. Broadly speaking, John was in charge of the money while James was in charge of artistic matters, although it’s clear there was a lot of cross over.
From the beginning, the Woolfs used a two-prong attack in their movie making career – they would produce lower budgeted films aimed primarily at the British domestic market, and big international pictures with Hollywood stars and finance from major studios. They didn’t have a particular preference for any kind of film but worked in commercial genres – comedies, thrillers, war/adventure, sexy melodramas. Their films were almost always based on some pre-existing IP – a novel, a play – and almost always constructed as star vehicles.
John and James got off to a rocky start with their first few movies: The Shadow of the Eagle (1950), a flop historical drama with Richard Greene; She Shall Have Murder (1950), a drama; Never Take No for an Answer (1951), a children’s story; I’ll Get You For This (1951), a crime movie with imported American George Raft; The Late Edwina Black (1951), a much-filmed play. However, the brothers stepped up a notch, helping make Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951), an arty, glossy drama shot in Europe with Ava Gardner and James Mason, that was done as a co production with MGM, directed by Albert “I tried to be a Hollywood intellectual and didn’t quite get there” Lewin.
That film did so-so at the box office, but what really put the Woolfs on the map was The African Queen (1951), which they helped producer Sam Spiegel finance. This film became such a blockbuster (and was based on a splendid novel), it’s weird to think it was ever a risky project, but looking back The African Queen was a major roll of the dice – it was about a romance between two older characters, Spiegel (aka “the velvet octopus”) then had a very erratic track record, director John Huston was coming off the trauma of The Red Badge of Courage (1951), there was extensive location film work in Africa. However, it all paid off, with Oscars, acclaim, heaps of money, career boosts… and a wonderful movie. The African Queen was a turning point in the careers of all involved – including the Woolf brothers who were now established as major players.
The brothers backed two more Huston movies: Moulin Rouge (1952), a musical drama with plenty of sex and a big hit, and Beat the Devil (1953), an all-star comedy-mystery that flopped but became a cult favourite.
Romulus started to have success (in Britain at least) with its lower budgeted films – comedies such as The Galloping Major (1951) and Innocents in Paris (1953), and sexy dramas like Women of Twilight (1952, about unwed mothers) and Cosh Boys (1952, about criminals). There were a few flops too (Treasure Hunt).
Overall, the brothers found bigger budgeted productions more lucrative. This included four movies made by Alex Korda with money provided by the Woolfs: Storm Over the Nile (1956) a remake of The Four Feathers, A Kid for Two Farthings (1955) from Carol Reed with Diana Dors, Richard III (1956) from Laurence Olivier, Summertime (1955) from David Lean with Katherine Hepburn. These were all popular movies – indeed, they broke Korda’s string of flops and ensured that when the producer died (in 1956), he went out on a creative and commercial high.
Sometime during the early 1950s, James Woolf fell in love with the actor Laurence Harvey, who had been in Woman of Twilight, and set about building Harvey in to a star. It was real Emperor Hadrian-Antinous stuff (google it): Harvey was given a key role in such Woolf-financed efforts as The Good Die Young (1954), an entertaining heist thriller (although the heist is introduced too late); I am a Camera (1955), from the Chris Isherwood stories that inspired the musical Cabaret; Storm Over the Nile; Three Men in a Boat (1956), a (dreadful) comedy from a popular book; After the Ball (1957) based on a TV play about musical star Vesta Tilley (whose life was not that interesting); The Silent Enemy (1958), a biopic about a war hero; Room at the Top (1959), a sexy melodrama from a bestselling book; Of Human Bondage (1964), another sexy melodrama from a book; and Life at the Top (1965), a sequel to Room at the Top.
That is a lot of movies! To be fair, some of the Woolf-Harvey collaborations were very successful at the box office: The Good Die Young, I am a Camera, Storm Over the Nile, Three Men in a Boat (its quality notwithstanding), and most of all, Room at the Top, a huge hit. Other films were very unsuccessful (After the Ball, Of Human Bondage), and often Harvey was badly miscast (Three in a Boat, After the Ball) and/or had nil chemistry with his co-stars (I am a Camera, Of Human Bondage). Still, Room at the Top cleanses a lot of sins.
Harvey wasn’t the only person that the Woolfs tried to build into a star – there was also Heather Sears who they put in The Story of Easter Costello (1957) (another sexy melodrama) then Room at the Top, but she didn’t really become a top rank star (she was in the 1959 Australian film The Siege of Pinchgut). Sarah Miles, discovered in the Woolf-produced Term of Trial (1962), had better luck.
Throughout this time, the Woolfs continued to make/distribute low budget films: Time is My Enemy (1954), To Dorothy a Son (1954), The Passing Stranger (1954) (which introduced Australia’s own Diane Cilento), They Can’t Hang Me (1955), Time Lock (1957), and The Vicious Circle (1957).
On a bigger scale, adaptations of thriller plays were in fashion: Carrington V.C. (1955), a court melodrama with David Niven; The Whole Truth (1958) a John Guillermin murder tale with Stewart Granger and Donna Reed; Term of Trial (1962), some sexy stuff with Laurence Olivier as a teacher getting all sweaty over school girl Sarah Miles (this spilled into behind the scenes shenanigans between the two actors as well – she was 18, he was 53, incidentally).
There were also comedies: Sailor Beware (1956), a big hit with Roland Lewis and Shirley Eaton; Dry Rot (1956); The Iron Petticoat (1956), an awful troubled effort with Katherine Hepburn and Bob Hope (who demanded the script be rewritten but not enough); and two Peter Sellers blockbusters: The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963) and Heavens Above! (1963).
The success of Room at the Top prompted more sex-related drama: The L-Shaped Room (1962) with Leslie Caron, The Pumpkin Eater (1964) with Peter Finch and Anne Bancroft, Of Human Bondage (1964) with Harvey and Kim Novak and director Ken Hughes stepping in after Henry Hathaway quit, Life at the Top (1965). King Rat (1965), from a novel by James Clavell, was an outlier – there was some sex in the novel but Bryan Forbes removed it, which possibly hurt the film at the box office.
In 1966, James Woolf died in a hotel room of an overdose of barbiturates, possibly accidental, possibly intentional.
John Woolf took over a musical film that his brother had been preparing with Lewis Gilbert, Oliver! When Gilbert went on to do another film, Carol Reed took over Oliver! And the resulting movie was a big hit in 1968.
While James Woolf had the better artistic reputation out of the two brothers, John did okay on his own – he later produced The Day of the Jackal (1973), No Sex Please We’re British (1973), The Odessa File (1974) and the TV series Tales of the Unexpected. That is a solid effort. He made a fortune out of television and real estate and died a very rich man.
The Woolf Brothers’ output was incredible. They made a handful of classic films (African Queen, Moulin Rouge, Room at the Tip, Oliver!, Day of the Jackal), a bunch of cult favourites (Beat the Devil, I am a Camera), a large proportion of box office winners and very few out and out flops. They were key to the development of new talent like Jack Clayton, Bryan Forbes, Laurence Harvey, Lewis Gilbert (who made some of his early films for the brothers), Joan Collins and producer Peter Rogers. They also pushed a lot of censorship-busting sex content (Room at the Top, L Shaped Room, I am a Camera), and gave some stars their most iconic roles (Bogie and Hepburn in The African Queen, Ava Gardner in Pandora, Jose Ferrer in Moulin Rouge, Stanley Baker in The Good Die Young, Laurence Harvey in Room at the Top.)
In hindsight, it seems that their success was down to a combination of things:
– fiscal conservatism: none of their films got out of control in terms of budget, even risky ones (The African Queen); the flops (eg After the Ball) never risked sinking the company;
– strong relationships with American co-producers on the more expensive films;
– a varied slate in commercial genres – comedies, war films, thrillers, sexy dramas – as well as variety in terms of big budget and low budget films;
– use of sex as a way to sell drama;
– use of pre-existing IP;
– skilled use of stars. Aside from a few disasters (Three Men in a Boat, Of Human Bondage, Iron Petticoat), Woolf films used stars beautifully (Bogart, Hepburn, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Laurence Olivier, Laurence Harvey in his good films, Simone Signoret).
The Woolf brothers should be better known. They’re not completely obscure – James Woolf’s early death and love for Laurence Harvey gave him some notoriety and John Woolf was played by Reece Shearsmith in the 2022 film See How They Run. But their achievements in such a tough field really were remarkable.
