Group Film Productions

In January 1951, Rank formed British Film Makers (BFM) in association with the National Film Finance Corporation.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety181-1951-01/page/11/mode/1up?|date=31 January 1951|page=11|title=NFFC Prod Scheme seen as solving many of England's filmmaking woes}} Various producer director teams made movies for it. Rank's distribution arm, GFD, would distribute and guarantee 70% of finance, with the NFFC to provide the balance.{{cite news|title=Company report|newspaper=The Birmingham Post|date=15 October 1951|page=7}}Harper and Porter p 38-40Harper and Porter p 40 Rank pulled out of the scheme in late 1952 saying it no longer wished to rely on the NFFC.Harper and Porter p 40{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=13 November 1952|page=18|title=Finance change for Rank films}}{{cite news|newspaper=The Guardian|date=13 November 1952|page=1|title=To finance its own films}}{{cite news|title=Company report|newspaper=Daily Herald|date=12 October 1953|page=8}}{{cite magazine|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-studios-british-film-makers/|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=Forgotten British Studios: British Film-Makers|date=28 May 2025|access-date=28 May 2025}}

Group Film Productions would be Rank's main film production company. The studio also co financed with independent producers. According to academics Sue Harper and Vincent Porter:

Although some Rank films were produced independently, in practice the only difference between them and in-house productions appears to be that independent producers had more control over the choice of art director or director of photography. In [John] Davis’s view, there were extremely few ‘independent producers’, as they neither provided their own production finance, nor accepted the financial risks involved.' He therefore established an elaborate system of financial and organizational controls which shaped and limited the production of all Rank films.Harper and Porter p 42

The first official Group Film Production was The Kidnappers (1953) which was a commercial success and a personal favourite of J. Arthur Rank.{{cite magazine|magazine= Journal of British Cinema & Television Date|date=1 May 2007|first=Melanie|last=Williams|volume=4|issue=1|title=The Creative Producer: Frank Godwin |page= 140-149 at p 144}} Most of its movies were comedies, such as The Million Pound Note starred Hollywood actor Gregory Peck, You Know What Sailors Are (1954), Doctor in the House (1954), Fast and Loose (1954), Up to His Neck (1954), and Mad About Men (1954). The blockbuster success of these was Doctor in the House which became the most successful movie in Rank's history and turned Dirk Bogarde and Kenneth More into film stars.{{cite news|title=Noted on the London Screen Scene: 'Doctor' Proves to Be A Bonanza -- Command Film Show Panned|author=Stephen Watts London|work=New York Times|date=19 December 1954|page=X7}}{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/surviving-cold-streaks-kenneth-more/|title=Surviving Cold Streaks: Kenneth More|date=16 April 2023}} In October 1954 Rank reported that the film production arm showed a profit, albeit due to the Eady Levy.{{cite news|title=Company meeting|newspaper=Daily Mirror|date=11 October 1954|page=5}} Rank's goal was to make fifteen films a year and help finance six Ealing films.{{cite news|title=Company report|newspaper=The Guardian |date=11 October 1954|page=7}}

Group Film Productions expanded into other genres - romance (The Young Lovers), colonial war dramas (Simba), musicals (As Long as They're Happy), and relationship dramas (Passage Home, The Woman for Joe). However its main genre remained comedies: Doctor at Sea (1955), Value for Money, Simon and Laura, Man of the Moment and All for Mary. The most popular of these were comfortably Doctor and Sea and Man of the Moment. {{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48072397 |title=Overseas movie gossip |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=24 |issue=26 |location=Australia |date=28 November 1956 |access-date=24 May 2016 |page=79 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite magazine|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|title=Other Money Makers of 1955|date=15 December 1955|page=5}}

Filmink argued the "biggest issues" of Group films were "miscast stars and poor plotting" althugh "The technical quality of the films was consistently high – the sets, the gorgeous colour, the photography. The acting of the support parts was usually solid."

In October 1955 Rank reported that £1,000,000 had been spent on the Group Film Production scheme for the previous year.{{cite news|title=Company report|newspaper=The Guardian|date=10 October 1955|page=10}}

In 1955 the company was re-named Rank Organisation Film Productions.{{cite news|newspaper=South Wales Argus|date=20 May 1957|page=6|title=Industry in the mansion}}

• A Day to Remember (Nov 1953)
• The Little Kidnappers (Dec 1953)
• The Million Pound Note (Jan 1954)
• You Know What Sailors Are (Feb 1954)
• Fast and Loose (Feb 1954)
• Doctor in the House (March 1954)
• The Seekers (Jun 1954)
• Up to His Neck (Aug 1954)
• The Young Lovers (Aug 1954) aka Chance Meeting
• Mad About Men (Nov 1954)
• Simba (Jan 1955)
• As Long as They're Happy (Mar 1955)
• Passage Home (Apr 1955)
• Doctor at Sea (Jul 1955)
• Value for Money (Aug 1955)
• The Woman for Joe (Aug 1955)
• Simon and Laura (Nov 1955)
• Man of the Moment (Nov 1955)
• All for Mary (Dec 1955)
• An Alligator Named Daisy (Dec 1955)

• {{cite book|title= British cinema of the 1950s : the decline of deference|last1=Harper|first1= Sue|last2=Porter|first2=Vincent |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0148500&sort=release_date,asc Group Film Productions] at IMDb

Category:Film production companies of the United Kingdom

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