Editing Muriel Box (section)

== Career ==
In 1935, she met and married journalist [[Sydney Box]], with whom she collaborated on nearly forty plays with mainly female roles for amateur theatre groups.<ref>{{cite web |title=BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, Carol and Muriel |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jcln |access-date=2023-02-19 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref> Their production company, [[Verity Films]], first released short wartime propaganda films, including ''The English Inn'' (1941), her first directing effort, after which it branched into fiction. The couple achieved their greatest joint success with ''[[The Seventh Veil]]'' (1945) for which they gained the [[Academy Award]] for Best Writing, Original Screenplay in the following year.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allmovie.com/artist/muriel-box-p82649|title=Muriel Box - Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos - AllMovie|work=AllMovie}}</ref><ref name="screenonline">{{cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/479374/|title=BFI Screenonline: Box, Muriel (1905-1991) Biography|work=screenonline.org.uk}}</ref>

After the war, the [[Rank Organisation]] hired her husband to head [[Gainsborough Pictures]], where she was in charge of the scenario department, writing scripts for a number of light comedies, including two for child star [[Petula Clark]], ''[[Easy Money (1948 film)|Easy Money]]'' and ''[[Here Come the Huggetts]]'' (both 1948). Muriel Box occasionally assisted as a dialogue director, or re-shot scenes during post-production.  Her extensive work on ''[[The Lost People]]'' (1949) gained her a credit as co-director, her first for a full-length feature.<ref name="screenonline"/>  In 1951, her husband created [[London Independent Producers]], allowing Box more opportunities to direct.  Many of her early films were adaptations of plays, and as such felt stage-bound.  They were noteworthy more for their strong performances than they were for a distinctive directorial style. She favoured scripts with topical and frequently controversial themes, including Irish politics, teenage sex, abortion, [[illegitimacy]] and [[syphilis]] — consequently,  several of her films were banned by local authorities.<ref name=screenonline/>

She pursued her favourite subject – the female experience – in a number of films, including ''[[Street Corner (1953 film)|Street Corner]]'' (1953) about women police officers, [[Somerset Maugham]]'s ''[[The Beachcomber (1954 film)|The Beachcomber]]'' (1954), with [[Donald Sinden]] and [[Glynis Johns]] as a resourceful missionary, again working with Donald Sinden on ''[[Eyewitness (1956 film)|Eyewitness]]'' (1956) and a series of comedies about the battle of the sexes, including ''[[The Passionate Stranger]]'' (1957), ''[[The Truth About Women]]'' (1958) and her final film, ''[[Rattle of a Simple Man]]'' (1964).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/06/women-muriel-betty-box-rachel-cooke-film|title=Power women of the 1950s: Muriel and Betty Box|author=Rachel Cooke|work=the Guardian|date=5 October 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Morley |first=Carol |date=2023-02-19 |title=Who was Muriel Box, Britain's most prolific female film director? |language=en-GB |work=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/feb/19/muriel-box-female-film-director-carol-morley-sunday-feature |access-date=2023-02-19 |issn=0029-7712}}</ref>

Box often experienced prejudice in a male-dominated industry, especially hurtful when perpetrated by another woman. [[Jean Simmons]] had her replaced on ''[[So Long at the Fair]]'' (1950), and [[Kay Kendall]] unsuccessfully attempted to do the same with ''[[Simon and Laura]]'' (1955).  Many producers questioned her competence to direct large-scale feature films, and while the press was quick to note her position as one of very few women directors in the British film industry, their tone tended to be condescending rather than filled with praise.<ref name=screenonline/>