Early years
British Lion Films was established in 1918 and operated for a number of years before going broke.[4] It revived in 1927 under the chairmanship of Edgar Wallace.[5][6]
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.[7]
British Lion distributed films made by Korda's London Films.[8] He signed three production groups to make films for the company: Herbert Wilcox and Anna Neagle, Anthony Kimmins and Edward Black.[9]
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.[10] In 1947, the company reported a profit of £225,455.[11]
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.[12] Korda stepped down as managing director to become an adviser. Arthur Jarratt was appointed managing director.[13]
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.
Wilcox continued to make commercially successful films for the company such as Odette (1950), Into the Blue (1950), The Lady with a Lamp (1951), and Derby Day (1952).
Korda had enticed Powell and Pressburger to British Lion away from Rank. Their films were critically acclaimed but less successful at the box office: The Small Back Room (1949), Gone to Earth, The Elusive Pimpernel (both 1950), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).
Launder and Gilliat joined the company and made
Receivership
In 1954, the NFFC loaned British Lion £1 million. In 1955, it loaned a further £969,000.[14]
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).[15]
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).[16]
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.[17]
When the company was reorganised, Korda was asked who should take over running.
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.[22][23] 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.[12]
The new management was successful making over 80 films and paying back most of the $1.8 million.[12]
Launder and Gilliatt, who had made Fortune Is a Woman (1957) for Columbia, returned to British Lion to make Left Right and Centre (1959). Although The Bridal Path
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.[28][22]
A variety of buyers were interested, including Sir Michael Balcon, Lew Grade, Sydney Box, Morecambe and Wise and Sam Spiegel.[29] 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.[30][31]
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.[33][34][35]
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.[36] 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.[37]
Downturn
The British industry suffered a crisis in the late 1960s due to a combination of factors, particularly the withdrawal of American film money from the UK, reduced funding for the NFFC and a decline in the cinema-going audience. British Lion attempted to diversify into other areas. Around £500,000 was spent on extra equipment to be hired to British television companies, only to discover an over-supply of such equipment on the market. At attempt to enter the world of publishing was unsuccessful. They bought the cinema advertising business Pearl & Dean in August 1970, but it failed to make major profits.[45]
In January 1970, John Boulting was optimistic about the company but wanted an injection of government money of £5 million.[46] In 1970, Gilliat stepped down as chairman of Shepperton Studios to focus on filmmaking.[47] 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.
In November 1971, British Lion, then valued £2.7 million, attempted a take over of the Star Cinema chain, valued £9.2 million.[48]
Barclay securities
In April 1972, Barclay Securities, headed by John Bentley, bid £5.4 million for British Lion, and the board – by that stage consisting of Lord Goodman, Sir Max Rayne, John and Roy Boulting and Sidney Gilliat – accepted. British Lion owned a considerable property portfolio including Shepperton.[50][51] £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.[52] 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.)[53][54] The unions protested this, threatening to black ban the Boulting Brothers who were then making the film Soft Beds, Hard Battles.[55]
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.[60]
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.[61] 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.[62]
British Lion made two films, The Internecine Project
EMI
In May 1976, EMI Films paid £739,000 in cash and shares for the company.[66] In May 1977, British Lion officially ceased to trade. Deeley and Spikings were appointed to the board of EMI.[67]
