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John and Roy Boulting
Roy (left) and John (right) Boulting, in 1952
Born
Joseph Edward John Boulting
(1913-12-21)21 December 1913
Alfred Fitzroy Clarence Boulting
(1913-12-21)21 December 1913

Bray, Berkshire,England
DiedJohn:17 June 1985(1985-06-17)(aged 71)
Sunningdale,Berkshire, England
Roy:5 November 2001(2001-11-05)(aged 87)
Eynsham,Oxfordshire,England
Other namesCollectively:Boulting brothers
John:John Edward Boulting[citation needed]
Roy:"Roy" Alfred Clarence Boulting[citation needed]
Occupation(s)Film producersanddirectors
SpousesJohn:
Veronica Davidson
​
​
(m.1938, divorced)​
Jacqueline Duncan
​
​
(m.1952;div.1966)​
[1]
Ann Marion
​
​
(m.1972, divorced)​
Anne Josephine
​
(m.1977)​
[2]
Roy:
Angela Warnock
​
​
(m.1936;div.1941)​
Jean Capon
​
​
(m.1942;div.1951)​
Enid Munnik
​
​
(m.1951;div.1964)​
​
​
(m.1971;div.1977)​
Sandra Spencer
​
​
(m.1978;div.1984)​
[2]
PartnerRoy:Victoria Vaughan (mid-1960s)[2]
ChildrenJohn:6
Roy:7, includingCrispian Mills

John Edward Boulting[3](21 December[2]1913 – 17 June 1985) andRoy Alfred Clarence Boulting[4](21 December[2]1913 – 5 November 2001), known collectively as theBoulting brothers,were English filmmakers andidentical twinswho became known for their series of satirical comedies in the 1950s and 1960s. They produced many of their films through their own production company,Charter Film Productions,which they founded in 1937.[5]

Early life

[edit]

The twin brothers were born to Arthur Boulting and his wife Rosetta (Rose)néeBennett inBray,Berkshire,England, on 21 December[2]1913. John was the elder by half an hour. John was named Joseph Edward John Boulting and Roy was named Alfred Fitzroy Clarence Boulting. Their elder brother Sydney Boulting became an actor andstage producerasPeter Cotes;he was the original director ofThe Mousetrap.A younger brother, Guy, died aged eight.

Both twins were educated atReading School,where they formed a film society. They wereextrasinAnthony Asquith's 1931 filmTell Englandwhile still at school.[2]

As a teenager, Roy emigrated toCanada,[6]working for a while as a shop assistant, but also writing dialogue for at least one Canadian film. He worked his passage home aboard a cattle freighter in about 1933, working first in film sales before moving into film production as assistant director on a 1936 comedy quickieApron Fools.[7][8][9]The money he made on his passage home went to finance the brothers' first work, a short entitledRipe Earth(1938),[10]about the village ofThaxted,Essex,narrated byLeo Genn.[6]

From January to November 1937,[11]John served on the Republican side in theSpanish Civil Waras an ambulance driver[12][13]with the Spanish Medical Aid Committee[14](not, as sometimes reported, with theInternational Brigades),[15][16]where — according toRichard Attenborough— he was nearly captured.[17]John also served with theBritish Film Unitas an officer in theRoyal Air Forceduring theSecond World War.[18]Roy served as acaptainin theBritish Army,first with atank regimentfor more than a year and then with theArmy Film Unit,where he made several short documentaries.[19][20]

Careers

[edit]
Frank Capra(right) confers with Roy Boulting on the editing of the filmTunisian Victory

The brothers constituted a producer-director team. For most of their careers one produced while the other directed, but the product remained essentially a 'Boulting Brothers film'. They were socialists, as John demonstrated with his involvement in the Spanish Civil War (see above), and wanted all film, including comedies, to reflect the real world.

Charter Film Productions

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In 1937, they set upCharter Film Productionsand made several short features, includingThe Landlady(1937) andConsider Your Verdict(1938), which attracted critical and commercial attention.[21]

They madequota quickiessuch asTrunk Crime(1939) andInquest(1939).

Feature films

[edit]

Being eager to speak out against theThird Reich,the brothers made their film,Pastor Hall(1940), a biopic ofMartin Niemöller,a German preacher who refused to kowtow to the Nazis. Roy directed and John produced. The film had to have its initial release delayed by the British Government, which was not yet ready to be openly critical of Nazism. Once released, the film was well received by the critics and the public.[22][23]

They followed up withThunder Rock(1942) withMichael Redgrave,a passionate anti-isolationist allegory distinguished by imaginative cinematography and a theatrical but highly atmospheric lighthouse setting. It was financed byMGM.

Military service

[edit]

In 1941, Roy joined theArmy Film Unit,where he was responsible forDesert Victory,which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1944.[24]He also worked onTunisian Victory(1944) andBurma Victory(1945). John joined theRAF Film Unit,where he madeJourney Togetherin 1945, a dramatised documentary about the training and combat experience of a bomber crew withRichard Attenboroughin the lead part.Terence Rattiganworked on the script.

Post-war films

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After the war, the Boultings made the dramaFame Is the Spur(1947) with Redgrave.[25]More successful at the box-office wasBrighton Rock(1947), starring Attenborough as the gangster "Pinkie" from the novel byGraham Greene.[26]Also well liked wasThe Guinea Pig(1948), starring Richard Attenborough as a young working-class boy sent to a public school. It was made for Pilgrim Pictures who the Boultings left shortly afterwards.[27]The Boultings co-directed the thrillerSeven Days to Noon(1950), which won an Oscar for Best Story.[28]It led to a less popular sequel,High Treason(1951). John directedThe Magic Box(1951), a biopic ofWilliam Friese-Greeneand a film containing numerous cameo appearances. It was shown at the 1951Festival of Britainbut on general release the following year proved a box office disappointment.

Hollywood-financed films

[edit]

Roy received an offer to direct a World War Two naval film,Sailor of the King(1953), starringJeffrey Hunterfor20th Century Fox.Seagulls Over Sorrento(1954) was another war naval story financed by a Hollywood studio (in this case MGM) with an imported star (Gene Kelly); it was not a big success. The brothers collaborated on a comedy,Josephine and Men(1955) then Roy was hired byUnited Artiststo do an action film with Hollywood stars,Run for the Sun(1956).

Satires

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In the mid-50s, the Boulting brothers became identified with "affectionate" satires on British institutions.[29]The sequence began with John'sPrivate's Progress(1956), a look at army life, starring Attenborough,Terry-ThomasandIan Carmichaeland co written byFrank Harvey.It was the second most commercially successful film in Britain in 1956.[30]

They followed it withLucky Jim(1957), set in academe, adapted from the novel byKingsley Amis.It starred Carmichael and Terry-Thomas.[31]Brothers in Law(1957) with Carmichael, Attenborough and Thomas, took on the legal profession. They had a break from satirising institutions withHappy Is the Bride(1958), an adaptation ofQuiet Wedding,then returned to it withCarlton-Browne of the F.O.(1959), focusing on diplomacy.

The Boultings took on increasingly powerful trade unions and ever corrupt board room power withI'm All Right Jack(1959), a sequel toPrivate's Progresswith Carmichael, Thomas and Attenborough reprising their roles, and Harvey co-writing. The film featured a performance byPeter Sellersas trade union foreman Fred Kite. It was the most popular film at the British box office in 1959.[32]Suspect(1960) was a return to the thriller genre for the brothers.A French Mistress(1960) was a comedy farce.Heavens Above!(1963) looked at religion in Britain, starring Sellers and Carmichael. It was a minor hit.[33]Rotten to the Core(1965) was a heist comedy which attempted to make a star ofAnton Rodgersin a Peter Sellers-type role, playing multiple parts. It featured a youngCharlotte Rampling.

Hayley Mills

[edit]

The Boultings directed and produced the northern comedyThe Family Way(1966), starringJohn Millsand his teenage daughter Hayley. Roy Boulting andHayley Millsbegan a relationship during the shoot despite a 33-year age difference; they married in 1971.[29][34]Roy wrote and directedTwisted Nerve(1968), a thriller starring Mills andHywel Bennett.The brothers had a massive hit withThere's a Girl in My Soup(1970) starring Sellers andGoldie Hawn.Roy was called in to replace the director onMr. Forbush and the Penguins(1971), and he brought in Mills to star. The movie was not successful. Neither was the comedySoft Beds, Hard Battles(1974) made by the brothers starring Peter Sellers. Roy Boulting lost a considerable amount of money on the film.[35]In 1975, Roy was working on a stage play,The Family Games.[36]He worked on the script forThe Kingfisher Caper(1975), starring Mills.

Later career

[edit]

In the US, Roy directedThe Last Word(1979), a comedy starringRichard Harristhat was barely seen. When John died of cancer in 1985, Roy stopped making films. His last credit was directing an episode of theMiss Marpleseries for TV,The Moving Finger(1985). He was working on an adaptation ofTerence Rattigan's playDeja Vuwhen he died.[35]When the National Film Theatre mounted its biggest retrospective to date of British cinema in the late 1980s, Roy who launched it, introducedDesert Victory.The Boulting Brother's films have been described as being "a sensitive barometer of the changing times".[37]

Personal lives

[edit]

John Boulting was married four times. He had six children: two sons by his first marriage; three daughters by his second. He also had a third son.[2][38]With his first wife, Veronica, daughter of Irish barrister, John Craig Nelson Davidson,[39]he had sons Norris (b. 1941) and Nicholas (b. 1943).[40]Norris is the father of TV presenter and journalistNed Boulting.[41][42]With his second wife, Jacqueline (Jackie), he had three daughters: Jody, Emma & Lucy;[43]the last of whom, Lucy Boulting Hill, has become a successfulcasting director.[44]John's grandson, Jordan Stephens (son of Emma), is one half of British hip hop duoRizzle Kicks.[45]

Roy Boulting was married five times. He had seven children, all sons: two by his second marriage; three by his third; one through his relationship with Victoria Vaughan; and one by his fourth.[2]With his second wife, Jean Capon (née Gamage),[38]he had sons Jonathan (b. 1944) and Laurence (b. 1945),[46][47]the latter becoming a successful film producer and director in his own right.[48]With his second marriage, in March 1951, to Enid Munnik (née Groenewald/Grünewald),[49]he had three children: first, Fitzroy (b. 1951); then identical twins Edmund and Rupert (b. 1952).[50]The couple divorced in 1964. Enid, an established fashion model and later fashion editor at the French magazineElle,married the 9thEarl of Hardwickein April 1970.[51]The model and actressIngrid Boultingis Enid's daughter from her first marriage, to Cornelius Munnik.[49]

Following his split with his third wife, Roy entered into a relationship with another fashion model, Victoria Vaughan.[52][53]They had one son together. The relationship ended with his involvement withHayley Mills.In 1971, Roy married, for the fourth time, Hayley Mills, 33 years his junior, whom he had met on the set ofThe Family Way.Their son is musician and filmmakerCrispian Mills.The couple separated in 1975, and divorced in 1977.[2]His fifth and final marriage, in October 1978, was to actressSandra Payne.[38]They divorced in 1984.

Deaths

[edit]

John Boulting died on 17 June 1985 at his home inSunningdale,Berkshire, and Roy Boulting 16 years later on 5 November 2001 in theRadcliffe Infirmary,Oxford;both died of cancer.[2]

[edit]

A still fromThe Family Waywas used forThe Smithssingle "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish".

Filmography

[edit]

Films directed jointly

[edit]

Films directed by John

[edit]

Films directed by Roy

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^"Mrs. John Boulting Gets Decree".The Times.21 June 1966. p. 16.
  2. ^abcdefghijkBurton, Alan. "Boulting, John Edward (1913–1985); also including Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting (1913–2001)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30836.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  3. ^"BFI Screenonline: Boulting, John (1913–1985) Biography".screenonline.org.uk.Retrieved29 January2018.
  4. ^"BFI Screenonline: Boulting, Roy (1913–2001) Biography".screenonline.org.uk.Retrieved29 January2018.
  5. ^IMDb: Charter Film ProductionsLinked 2013-05-24
  6. ^abDoering, Jonathan (October 2002)."The Boulting Brothers and the contemporary British film industry".Contemporary Review.281(1641): 235–241.Retrieved8 April2022.
  7. ^"Apron Fools".British Film Institute.Archived fromthe originalon 8 April 2022.Retrieved8 April2022.
  8. ^Walker, Dave (28 July 2016)."Elsie in the Movies".The Library Time Machine.Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.
  9. ^"Roy Boulting – Biography".Turner Classic Movies.Accessible from US IPs only.Retrieved8 April2022.
  10. ^"Ripe Earth".British Film Institute.Archived fromthe originalon 8 April 2022.Retrieved8 April2022.
  11. ^"John Boulting".Spartacus Educational.Retrieved8 April2022.
  12. ^The New York Times Biographical Service.University Microfilms. July 1985.
  13. ^Patricia Burgess; Roland Turner (1988).The Annual Obituary.St. Martin's.ISBN9780912289823.
  14. ^"Spanish Medical Aid Committee".Spartacus Educational.Retrieved8 April2022.
  15. ^Robert Shail (2007).British Film Directors: A Critical Guide.SIU Press. pp.30–.ISBN978-0-8093-2832-1.
  16. ^Brian McFarlane (1997).An Autobiography of British Cinema: As Told by the Filmmakers and Actors who Made it.Methuen.ISBN978-0-413-70520-4.
  17. ^Diana Hawkins; Richard Attenborough (4 September 2014).Entirely Up to You, Darling.Random House. pp. 68–.ISBN978-1-4481-0604-2.
  18. ^English Film Maker John Boulting DiesLos Angeles TimesviaInternet Archive.Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  19. ^Movie-Cameramen in the Front Line of BattleTraces of War.Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  20. ^Desert Victory (1943)British Film Institute.Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  21. ^Carney, George; Goring, Marius; Petrie, Hay (1 January 2000),Consider Your Verdict,retrieved28 January2017
  22. ^"BFI Screenonline: Boulting Brothers".screenonline.org.uk.Retrieved28 January2017.
  23. ^"Pastor Hall".The Sydney Morning Herald.No. 32, 069. New South Wales, Australia. 10 October 1940. p. 18.Retrieved13 September2017– via National Library of Australia.
  24. ^"The 16th Academy Awards | 1944".Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.Retrieved28 January2017.
  25. ^"TWIN PRODUCERS".Cairns Post.No. 13, 838. Queensland, Australia. 10 July 1946. p. 6.Retrieved13 September2017– via National Library of Australia.
  26. ^"THE GUINEA PIG".Northern Times.Vol. 75, no. 52. Western Australia. 27 December 1951. p. 8.Retrieved13 September2017– via National Library of Australia.
  27. ^"Charge of wasting film money".The Sun.No. 2387. New South Wales, Australia. 9 January 1949. p. 31.Retrieved13 September2017– via National Library of Australia.
  28. ^"FILM GOSSIP FROM LONDON AND HOLLYWOOD EVEN THE ACTORS DON'T KNOW FULL STORY".Sunday Times (Perth).No. 2693. Western Australia. 9 October 1949. p. 2 (Sunday Times Comics).Retrieved13 September2017– via National Library of Australia.
  29. ^abBarr, Charles (7 November 2001)."Roy Boulting".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved28 January2017.
  30. ^BRITISH. FILMS MADE MOST MONEY: BOX-OFFICE SURVEY The Manchester Guardian (1901–1959) [Manchester (UK)] 28 December 1956: 3
  31. ^"A FACULTY OF FUN".The Australian Women's Weekly.Vol. 25, no. 39. Australia. 5 March 1958. p. 60.Retrieved13 September2017– via National Library of Australia.
  32. ^FOUR BRITISH FILMS IN 'TOP 6': BOULTING COMEDY HEADS BOX OFFICE LIST Our own Reporter. The Guardian (1959–2003) [London (UK)] 11 December 1959: 4.
  33. ^The Times, 3 January 1964, page 4:Most Popular Films of 1963– found in The Times Digital Archive 2012-07-11
  34. ^"LEISURE-THE ARTS New star for UK films".The Canberra Times.Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 17 January 1967. p. 12.Retrieved13 September2017– via National Library of Australia.
  35. ^ab"CLASSIC SIXTIES DIRECTOR ROY BOULTING LOSES BATTLE WITH".us.hellomagazine.6 November 2001.
  36. ^"Hayley Mills, 28, and Roy Boulting, 61: Pollyanna Never Had It So Happy – Vol. 3 No. 14".14 April 1975.
  37. ^"Obituary: Roy Boulting".TheGuardian.7 November 2001.
  38. ^abcBurton, Alan."The Boultings (John and Roy)".filmdope.Britmovie – Home of British Films.Retrieved8 April2022.
  39. ^Davidson, John Craig Nelson (30 December 1904)."News of the Week".The Irish Jurist and Local Government Review.V(8): 63.JSTOR44514528.Retrieved8 April2022.
  40. ^"Birth Records: Surname, Boulting; Mother's Surname, Davidson".FamilySearch.Retrieved9 April2022.
  41. ^"Marriage Records: Norris CR Boulting to Juliet Richardson".FamilySearch.
  42. ^"Birth Records: Surname, Boulting; Mother's Surname, Richardson".FamilySearch.Retrieved9 April2022.
  43. ^"John Boulting – Family".Internet Movie Database (IMDb).
  44. ^"Lucy Boulting".IMDb.Retrieved19 September2016.
  45. ^Duerden, Nick (31 July 2014)."Rizzle Kicks interview: The Brighton boys are on a roll".The Independent.
  46. ^"Roy Boulting – Family".Internet Movie Database (IMDb).Retrieved8 April2022.
  47. ^"Birth Records: Surname, Boulting; Mother's Surname, Gamage".FamilySearch.Retrieved8 April2022.
  48. ^"Laurence Boulting".Internet Movie Database (IMDb).Retrieved8 April2022.
  49. ^ab"Enid Grünewald".The Encyclopaedia of South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance (ESAT).Retrieved8 April2022.
  50. ^"Enid Boulting with her children Fitzroy, Edmund and Rupert".National Portrait Gallery.Retrieved28 January2018.
  51. ^"Earl Weds Mrs. Enid Boulting".The New York Times.29 April 1970.Retrieved28 January2018.
  52. ^Vaughan, Victoria."Model Victoria Vaughan stops traffic in london wearing a suit designed by Mary Quant".Alamy.Retrieved8 April2022.
  53. ^Vaughan, Victoria."Cover – Woman's Mirror Magazine May 1962".Magazine Canteen.Retrieved8 April2022.
  • Burton Alan, O'Sullivan Tim, Wells Paul; Eds. 2000.The Family Way: The Boulting Brothers and British Film Culture.Trowbridge: Flicks Books.ISBN0-948911-59-X
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