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 |
| Died | John: 17 June 1985(1985-06-17) (aged 71) Sunningdale, Berkshire, England Roy: 5 November 2001(2001-11-05) (aged 87) Eynsham,Oxfordshire, England |
| Other names | Collectively: Boulting brothers John: John Edward Boulting[citation needed] Roy: "Roy" Alfred Clarence Boulting[citation needed] |
| Occupation(s) | Film producers anddirectors |
| Spouses | John: Roy: |
| Partner | Roy: Victoria Vaughan (mid-1960s)[2] |
| Children | John: 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 twins who 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]
The twin brothers were born to Arthur Boulting and his wife Rosetta (Rose)née Bennett 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 producer asPeter 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 wereextras inAnthony Asquith's 1931 filmTell England while 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 War as 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 Unit as an officer in theRoyal Air Force during theSecond World War.[18] Roy served as acaptain in theBritish Army, first with atank regiment for more than a year and then with theArmy Film Unit, where he made several short documentaries.[19][20]
_of_the_US_Army_Signal_Corps_confers_with_Captain_Roy_Boulting_of_the_British_Army_Film_Unit_on_the_editing_of_the_film_%2527Tunisian_Victory%2527_in_February_1944._D18377.jpg)
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.
In 1937, they set upCharter Film Productions and made several short features, includingThe Landlady (1937) andConsider Your Verdict (1938), which attracted critical and commercial attention.[21]
They madequota quickies such asTrunk Crime (1939) andInquest (1939).
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.
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 Together in 1945, a dramatised documentary about the training and combat experience of a bomber crew withRichard Attenborough in the lead part.Terence Rattigan worked on the script.
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-Greene and a film containing numerous cameo appearances. It was shown at the 1951Festival of Britain but on general release the following year proved a box office disappointment.
Roy received an offer to direct a World War Two naval film,Sailor of the King (1953), starringJeffrey Hunter for20th 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 Artists to do an action film with Hollywood stars,Run for the Sun (1956).
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-Thomas andIan Carmichael and 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 Progress with Carmichael, Thomas and Attenborough reprising their roles, and Harvey co-writing. The film featured a performance byPeter Sellers as 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 Rodgers in a Peter Sellers-type role, playing multiple parts. It featured a youngCharlotte Rampling.
The Boultings directed and produced the northern comedyThe Family Way (1966), starringJohn Mills and his teenage daughter Hayley. Roy Boulting andHayley Mills began 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.
In the US, Roy directedThe Last Word (1979), a comedy starringRichard Harris that was barely seen. When John died of cancer in 1985, Roy stopped making films. His last credit was directing an episode of theMiss Marple series for TV,The Moving Finger (1985).[37] He was working on an adaptation ofTerence Rattigan's playDeja Vu when 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".[38]
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][39] With his first wife, Veronica, daughter of Irish barrister, John Craig Nelson Davidson,[40] he had sons Norris (b. 1941) and Nicholas (b. 1943).[41] Norris is the father of TV presenter and journalistNed Boulting.[42][43] With his second wife, Jacqueline (Jackie), he had three daughters: Jody, Emma & Lucy;[44] the last of whom, Lucy Boulting Hill, has become a successfulcasting director.[45] John's grandson, Jordan Stephens (son of Emma), is one half of British hip hop duoRizzle Kicks.[46]
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),[39] he had sons Jonathan (b. 1944) and Laurence (b. 1945),[47][48] the latter becoming a successful film producer and director in his own right.[49] With his second marriage, in March 1951, to Enid Munnik (née Groenewald/Grünewald),[50] he had three children: first, Fitzroy (b. 1951); then identical twins Edmund and Rupert (b. 1952).[51] The couple divorced in 1964. Enid, an established fashion model and later fashion editor at the French magazineElle, married the 9thEarl of Hardwicke in April 1970.[52] The model and actressIngrid Boulting is Enid's daughter from her first marriage, to Cornelius Munnik.[50]
Following his split with his third wife, Roy entered into a relationship with another fashion model, Victoria Vaughan.[53][54] 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.[39] They divorced in 1984.
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]
A still fromThe Family Way was used forThe Smiths single "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish".