Early years British Lion Films was established in 1918 and operated for a number of years before going broke. It revived in 1927 under the chairmanship of
Edgar Wallace. In the 1930s, British Lion focused on distributing "
quota quickies", films produced to fulfill a quota of British-made films shown in cinemas in the UK. It also had a distribution deal with
Republic Pictures. In 1944 the company reported a profit of £101,000. It acquired 50% of the
Worton Hall studio in Isleworth.
Alexander Korda Korda joined with British Lion in 1945. He sold his shares in
United Artists to buy into the company. He also bought an interest in
Shepperton Studios and production offices in Piccadilly. British Lion distributed films made by Korda's
London Films. He signed three production groups to make films for the company:
Herbert Wilcox and
Anna Neagle,
Anthony Kimmins and
Edward Black. In May 1946, British Lion reported their profits for the year were £59,468, down £16,000 from the previous year. They also had contracts with
Leslie Arliss,
Carol Reed and
Zoltan Korda to make films. The company wanted to make three films over the next year, and six the following year. In 1947, the company reported a profit of £225,455. Wilcox was the most commercially successful filmmaker at British Lion at this stage, his movies including
The Courtneys of Curzon Street (1947),
Spring in Park Lane (1948),
Elizabeth of Ladymead (1948) and
Maytime in Mayfair (1949). Black had been enormously successful at
Gainsborough Pictures but died after only making one film for British Lion,
Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948), directed by Kimmins, which was a huge flop. Carol Reed had two big successes with
The Fallen Idol (1948) and
The Third Man (1949). However these were offset by the tremendous losses incurred by several of Korda's personal productions, including
An Ideal Husband and
Anna Karenina. Korda borrowed £250,000 from British Electric Traction.
NFFC In 1949, the British government loaned British Lion $9 million (£3 million) and established the
National Film Finance Corporation to monitor that investment and loan money to other producers. The entire $9 million would be lost. Korda stepped down as managing director to become an adviser. Arthur Jarratt was appointed managing director. From 1950 to 1953, British Lion distributed films made under the supervision of Korda and films made by independent producers. In 1950, the NFFC loaned £500,000 to British Lion. The following year it was £500,000. The company suffered from the commercial failure of several films, in particular
The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan and ''
The Beggar's Opera'' (both 1953). In June 1954, the NFFC it had lost its entire share capital of £1,208,000 and a substantial part of its government loan of £3 million. The NFFC made a reported loss of £1 million (US$2.8 million). In June 1954, the Conservative government effectively bailed out the company by placing it in receivership. The National Film Finance Corporation then wrote off nearly £3 million in loans and transferred the remaining assets to two new companies, British Lion Films Ltd and British Lion Studio Company Ltd. When the company was reorganised, Korda was asked who should take over running. Korda replied, "This is a very difficult problem. You see, I don't grow on trees." Korda succeeded in raising fresh finance before dying in January 1956. In January 1955, Launder, Gilliat and the Boulting brothers formed a new company, British Lion Films Ltd., which took over the running of Shepperton as well as British Lion's distribution business. They released
The Constant Husband (1955) which became a box office success. Also popular were
Geordie (1955),
The Green Man (1956),
The Smallest Show on Earth (1957) and ''
Blue Murder at St Trinian's'' (1957). The Boultings made
Josephine and Men (1955), ''
Private's Progress (1956) (a big hit), Brothers in Law (1957) and Lucky Jim'' (1957). Other British Lion films from this period included
John and Julie,
Stolen Assignment (both 1955),
Charley Moon,
A Hill in Korea (both 1956),
My Teenage Daughter (1956; from Wilcox),
The Birthday Present (1957),
Orders to Kill,
The Salvage Gang,
Behind the Mask, and
The Solitary Child (all 1958). In 1956, the Conservative government invested an extra $1.68 million in the company and lost half of that within two years.
New management In March 1958, five producers were invited to run it with the intention of restoring British Lion's fortunes, and then, eventually, selling it back to the public. The producers invited were Launder and Gilliat, John and Roy Boulting and
James Woolf. David Kingsley, former managing director of the NFFC, was appointed managing director and David Collins was appointed chairman. The NFFC had voting control and £600,000 in shares (at £1 per share). The producers were allowed to buy 180,000 deferred shares. James Woolf eventually retired, but the other producers formed the core of operations who turned around British Lion's performance. The government invested an extra $1.8 million. The following year this was £318,285, then £426,098, enabling the company to pay a dividend; Shepperton Studios also announced a profit of £114,032, compared to £54,298 the previous year. Other films from this period included
The Wind of Change (1961),
Double Bunk (1961),
Spare the Rod (1961),
Offbeat (1961), and
A Matter of Choice (1963). In 1961, British Lion and
Columbia Pictures created a joint distribution company, BLC Films. In March 1963, the company had profits of £468,910.
Forced sale In December 1963, the Conservative government bought a controlling interest in British Lion by forcing the private directors either to sell their interest in the company (for $420,000 for shares they bought for $5,000), or to pay the government by offering $4.2 million (£1.6 million). The argument was the company should be run privately not by the government. The forced sale was controversial because management of British Lion was generally held to have been successful and profitable, and the company was a vital source of locally financed British films at a time when the industry was dominated by American finance and two cinema chains, Rank and
ABC. The original directors made a capital gain of £741,000. Films from this period included
The Comedy Man,
Ring of Spies, and
Do You Know This Voice? (all 1964).
Syndicate takes over In March 1964, a syndicate acquired a controlling interest in the company from the National Film Finance Corporation for $4,452,000 (£1.6 million). This syndicate consisted of Michael Balcon,
Woodfall Films (
Tony Richardson and
John Osborne), the Boultings, Launder and Gilliat,
Joseph Janni and
John Schlesinger, and Walter Reade. It was intended that there should be five different production units within the company. Several months later, the company started making movies again, such as
Joey Boy (1965) from Launder/Gilliat,
Rotten to the Core (1965) from the Boultings, and
Modesty Blaise.
Modesty Blaise ended up being taken over by
20th Century Fox. In August 1965, the company announced that pretax profits fell from £280,543 to £194,741. In September 1965,
Lord Goodman of the
Arts Council was appointed chairman. The board consisted of Balcon, Roy Boulting, David Kingsley, Gilliatt, Richardson and Peter Cooper. The board of British Lion asked for the government to buy the company back but this was refused. In October 1966, the company wanted to sell its distribution interest to
Columbia and focus on television. In late 1966 Sir Michael Balcon led a take over attempt of the company. However, by December this had been rejected. That month the company announced a half yearly jump of profits from £82,000 to £218,000, mostly due to the strong box office performances of
Morgan and
The Great St Trinians Train Robbery/ The Boultings'
The Family Way (1966), from British Lion, was the only film made in Britain over a 12-month period financed entirely by British capital. In October 1967, five-sixths of the company was owned by
Max Rayne (who recently bought a one-sixth interest from Walter Reade), the Boultings (who bought out a one eighth holding once owned by Tiberian Films), Launder and Gilliat, and Lord Goodman, with institutional investors owning the rest. Profits for the year 1967/68 were £152,514. Joseph Janni and Roy Boulting resigned as directors of the studio board and were replaced by Max Rayne and John Boulting In 1968, to raise new finance, the studio's financial advisers, Hambros Bank, recommended British Leion go public. In December 1968 British Lion Holdings went public, offering over one million shares. The company made a profit that year of £247,000, its releases including the Boultings'
Twisted Nerve (1968). By 1969, John Boulting had 354,000 shares, Roy Boulting 366,000 and Lord Goodman 155,000. In 1969, the company made a profit of £575,679. In January 1970, John Boulting was optimistic about the company but wanted an injection of government money of £5 million. In 1970, Gilliat stepped down as chairman of Shepperton Studios to focus on filmmaking. His last film for the company would be
Endless Night (1972) with
Hayley Mills. For the year ended March 1971, the company made a profit of £137,273. The bid was unsuccessful. In March 1972, the company reported a loss of £1 million. £2 million was for the film library, £1.8 million for the land of the studios, and the rest for Pearl and Dean. Bentley was known at the time for buying businesses,
shutting them down and selling off the real estate. By this stage, Shepperton was losing money and Barclay wanted to sell off part of the land for real estate development. (The land was worth an estimated £3,500,000.) The unions protested this, threatening to black ban the Boulting Brothers who were then making the film
Soft Beds, Hard Battles. Among British Lion films released around this time were
Ooh... You Are Awful (1972). Bentley appointed
Peter Snell managing director and he greenlit two films,
The Wicker Man and ''
Don't Look Now'' (1973). In September 1972, Barclays sold its own business, Mills and Allen, to British Lion. In November 1972, it was reported British Lion made a loss the previous year of £941,000 including a tax write off of £804,000 for unsuccessful films.
Spikings and Deeley Barry Spikings and
Michael Deeley were entrepreneurs with experience in filmmaking. They had a company with actor
Stanley Baker Greater Western Investments (GWI) and wanted to sell their main asset, a building, but wanted to avoid the high tax rate that came with real estate development. They decided to swap their shares in the company for shares in Lion International, the company that owned British Lion Films, Shepperton Studios, Pearl & Dean cinema advertisers, and Mills and Allen outdoor advertising. This would enable Lion to sell the building for cash, offsetting the profit against existing losses incurred by some of its subsidiaries. Deeley said there was opposition to GWI becoming involved in British Lion, especially from John Boulting, but eventually in January 1973 Deeley was appointed managing director of British Lion Films, and on the board of the company. When he took over, two films had been greenlighted by Peter Snell and were in post production, ''Don't Look Now
and The Wicker Man
. Don't Look Now
was sold to Paramount but The Wicker Man'' had a more difficult post production process, resulting it being re-edited; its commercial reception was poor but eventually it was considered a cult movie. British Lion made two films,
The Internecine Project and
Who?, both using the method of raising half the budget from American distributors, half through German tax shelter deals. The company then made
Conduct Unbecoming and
Ransom. In June 1975, British Lion was bought outright by Deeley and Spikings, by selling their interest in Lion International for British Lion Films. They went on to make
The Man Who Fell to Earth,
Nickelodeon and ''At the Earth's Core''. However Deeley and Spikings wanted to put the company on a more stable financial setting and sought interest from EMI Films.
EMI In May 1976, EMI Films paid £739,000 in cash and shares for the company. In May 1977, British Lion officially ceased to trade. Deeley and Spikings were appointed to the board of EMI. ==Selected films produced or distributed by British Lion==