The Magic Box

The Magic Box
Directed by	John Boulting
Produced by	Ronald Neame
Written by	Ray Allister and Eric Ambler
Starring	Robert Donat Margaret Johnston Maria Schell Robert Beatty Margaret Rutherford
Music by	William Alwyn
Cinematography	Jack Cardiff
Edited by	Richard Best
Distributed by	British Lion Films
Release date	1951
Running time	118 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	£82,398 (UK)

The Magic Box is a 1951 British, Technicolor, biographical drama film, directed by John Boulting. The film stars Robert Donat as William Friese-Greene, with a host of cameo appearances by actors including Peter Ustinov and Laurence Olivier. It was produced by Ronald Neame and distributed by British Lion Film Corporation. The film was a project of the Festival of Britain and adapted by Eric Ambler from the controversial biography by Ray Allister.

This biographical drama gives an account of the life of William Friese-Greene, who first designed and patented one of the earliest working cinematic cameras. The film was completed and shown just before the end of the 1951 Festival of Britain, but the general release was not until 1952. Told in flashback, the film details Friese-Greene's tireless experiments with the "moving image", leading inexorably to a series of failures and disappointments, as others hog the credit for the protagonist's discoveries.

In 1921, William Friese-Greene, in dire financial straits and separated from his wife, but still working, attends a film conference in London. He is saddened that all those attending are businessmen interested only in moneymaking. He attempts to speak, but no-one is interested and he sits down. He thinks back to his early pioneering days.

Young "Willie" works as an assistant to photographer Maurice Guttenberg, who will not let him take portraits his way. He leaves and, with his new wife, a client of his former employer, he opens a studio. After a slow start, he does well and opens other studios, but he is more interested in developing moving pictures and colour films. He single-mindedly works on his ideas, spending more and more money, and is eventually declared bankrupt. With the coming of World War I, their sons (one under age) enlist in the army to relieve their parents of the burden of providing for them.

In partnership with a businessman, he develops his ideas, but the partnership sours and he's on his own, bankrupt, again. Nevertheless, he perseveres and, late one night, he projects the short film he has taken in Hyde Park that afternoon. Excited, he rushes out and drags in a passing policeman to witness the success of the film. The policeman is dumbfounded, not quite comprehending what he has just seen.

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