Editing Sydney Box

{{Short description|British film producer and screenwriter (1907–1983)}}
{{for|the British trade unionist|Sidney Box}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Sydney Box
| image              = 
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = Frank Sydney Box<ref>[http://www.freebmd.org.uk Births England and Wales 1837-1915]</ref>
| birth_date         = {{birth date|df=yes|1907|4|29}}
| birth_place        = [[Beckenham]], [[Kent]], England, UK
| death_date         = {{death date and age|df=yes|1983|5|25|1907|4|29}}
| death_place        = Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| occupation         = {{hlist|Film producer|writer|screenwriter|film company co-founder}}
| spouses            = [[Muriel Box]] (1935–1969),<br>Sylvia Knowles
| children           = 1 daughter
| yearsactive        = 1935–1967
}}
'''Frank Sydney Box''' (29 April 1907 – 25 May 1983) was a British film producer and screenwriter, and brother of British film producer [[Betty Box]]. In 1940, he founded the documentary film company [[Verity Films]] with [[Jay Lewis]].<ref name="Spicer2006">{{cite book|last=Spicer|first=Andrew|title=Sydney Box|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sY1LGFNtCOEC&pg=PA18|access-date=13 April 2012|series=British Film Makers|year=2006|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-5999-5|page=18}}</ref>

He produced and co-wrote the screenplay, with his then wife director [[Muriel Box]], for ''[[The Seventh Veil]]'' (1945), which received the 1946 [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] for best original screenplay.<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>

Sydney and Muriel married in 1935, had a daughter [[Muriel Box#Daughter|Leonora]] the following year, and divorced in 1969.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-10-05|title=Power women of the 1950s: Muriel and Betty Box|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/06/women-muriel-betty-box-rachel-cooke-film|access-date=2021-07-15|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

==Gainsborough Studios==
The couple were hired after the war by [[the Rank Organisation]] to run [[Gainsborough Pictures|Gainsborough Studios]]. They disapproved of the [[Gainsborough melodramas]] which had been the studio's major successes for several years, and switched production to a broader range of more "realistic" films with mixed results. Box made 36 films at Gainsborough, which was merged into the Rank Organization in 1949. It has been argued Box's overexpansion "killed" Gainsborough.<ref name="edward">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-ted-black/|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=1 December 2024|access-date=1 December 2024|title=Forgotten British Film Moguls: Ted Black}}</ref>

In 1951 Box founded his own production company [[London Independent Producers]] with [[William MacQuitty]].

Box ended his cinema career in 1958 to concentrate on working in television. He was part of a consortium that launched the ITV franchise, [[ITV Tyne Tees|Tyne Tees Television]] in 1959.

According to Sue Harper and Vincent Porter:
<blockquote>Box was a skilled entrepreneur who was able to raise regular loans from the NFFC and to encourage others' talents. According to his assistant David Deutsch, he provided, more effectively than anyone he had ever known, 'the right environment for creative people to work, welcoming, encouraging and subtly influencing'. Box’s position as an outsider—a socialist of sorts, a realist by instinct, and a feminist by default—meant that he became increasingly excluded from the meritocracy. He lacked a strong visual sense, but this was supplied by Muriel Box, whose lively inventiveness was accompanied by an uncompromising sexual radicalism, which pleased her but not the distributors or the audiences.<ref>{{cite book|title= British cinema of the 1950s : the decline of deference|last1=Harper|first1= Sue|last2=Porter|first2=Vincent|date=2003|publisher= Oxford University Press|page=162}}</ref> </blockquote>

==Selected filmography==
'''Screenwriter and producer'''
* ''[[Alibi Inn]]'' (1935)
* ''[[29 Acacia Avenue]]'' (1945)
* ''[[The Seventh Veil]]'' (1945)
* ''[[The Years Between (film)|The Years Between]]'' (1946)
* ''[[A Girl in a Million]]'' (1946)
* ''[[The Happy Family (1952 film)|The Happy Family]]'' (1952)
* ''[[Street Corner (1953 film)|Street Corner]]'' (1953)
* ''[[Too Young to Love (film)|Too Young to Love]]'' (1959)

'''Producer'''
* ''[http://timeimage.org.uk/films-of-the-british-council/country-town-1943/ Country Town]'' (1943)
* ''[[Don't Take It to Heart]]'' (1944)
*''[[The Brothers (1947 film)|The Brothers]]'' (1947)
*[[The Happy Family (1952 film)|''The Happy Family'']] (1952)
*[[The Beachcomber (1954 film)|''The Beachcomber'']] (1954)
*[[Eyewitness (1956 film)|''Eyewitness'']] (1956)
*''[[The Truth About Women]]'' (1957)
*''[[Subway in the Sky]]'' (1959)

===Films as Head of Gainsborough===
*''[[The Man Within (film)|The Man Within]]'' (1947)
*''[[The Brothers (1947 film)|The Brothers]]'' (1947)
*''[[Dear Murderer]]'' (1947)
*''[[The Upturned Glass]]'' (1947)
*''[[Holiday Camp (film)|Holiday Camp]]'' (1947)
*''[[Jassy (film)|Jassy]]'' (1947)
*''[[When the Bough Breaks (1947 film)|When the Bough Breaks]]'' (1947)
*''[[Easy Money (1948 film)|Easy Money]]'' (1948)
*''[[Snowbound (1948 film)|Snowbound]]'' (1948)
*''[[Miranda (1948 film)|Miranda]]'' (1948)
*''[[Broken Journey]]'' (1948)
*''[[Good-Time Girl]]'' (1948)
*''[[The Calendar (1948 film)|The Calendar]]'' (1948)
*''[[My Brother's Keeper (1948 film)|My Brother's Keeper]]'' (1948)
*''[[The Blind Goddess (1948 film)|The Blind Goddess]]'' (1948) 
*''[[Quartet (1948 film)|Quartet]]'' (1948)
*''[[Here Come the Huggetts]]'' (1948)
*''[[Portrait from Life]]'' (1948)
*''[[Vote for Huggett]]'' (1949)
*''[[The Bad Lord Byron]]'' (1949)
*''[[It's Not Cricket (1949 film)|It's Not Cricket]]'' (1949)
*''[[A Boy, a Girl and a Bike]]'' (1949)
*''[[The Huggetts Abroad]]'' (1949)
*''[[Marry Me! (1949 film)|Marry Me!]]'' (1949)
*''[[Christopher Columbus (1949 film)|Christopher Columbus]]'' (1949)
*''[[Helter Skelter (1949 film)|Helter Skelter]]'' (1949)
*''[[Don't Ever Leave Me]]'' (1949)
*''[[The Lost People]]'' (1949)
*''[[Diamond City (film)|Diamond City]]'' (1949)
*''[[Boys in Brown]]'' (1949)
*''[[Traveller's Joy]]'' (1949)
*''[[The Astonished Heart (film)|The Astonished Heart]]'' (1950)
*''[[So Long at the Fair]]'' (1950)
*''[[Trio (1950 film)|Trio]]'' (1950)

==Selected plays==
* ''[[The Seventh Veil (play)|The Seventh Veil]]'' (1951)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|id=0101511|name=Sydney Box}}

{{AcademyAwardBestOriginalScreenplay 1940-1960}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Box, Sydney}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners]]
[[Category:English film producers]]
[[Category:English male screenwriters]]
[[Category:People from Beckenham]]
[[Category:British film studio executives]]
[[Category:20th-century English screenwriters]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English businesspeople]]