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The Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) is a British entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1937 by industrialist J. Arthur Rank. It quickly became the largest and most vertical integration, vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribution, and exhibition facilities as well as manufacturing projection equipment and chairs. It diversified into the manufacture of radios, TVs and photocopiers (as one of the owners of Rank Xerox). The company name lasted until February 1996, when the name and some of the remaining assets were absorbed into the newly structured Rank Group, Rank Group plc. The company itself became a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox and was renamed XRO Limited in 1997. The company's logo, the Gongman, first used in 1935 by the group's distribution company General Film Distributors
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Public Company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (listing (finance), listed company), which facilitates the trade of shares, or not (unlisted public company). In some jurisdictions, public companies over a certain size must be listed on an exchange. In most cases, public companies are ''private'' enterprises in the ''private'' sector, and "public" emphasizes their reporting and trading on the public markets. Public companies are formed within the legal systems of particular states and so have associations and formal designations, which are distinct and separate in the polity in which they reside. In the United States, for example, a public company is usually a type of corporation, though a corporation need not be a public company. In the United Kin ...
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Mill (grinding)
A mill is a device, often a structure, machine or kitchen appliance, that breaks solid materials into smaller pieces by grinding, crushing, or cutting. Such comminution is an important unit operation in many processes. There are many different types of mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically, mills were powered by hand or by animals (e.g., via a hand crank), working animal (e.g., horse mill), wind ( windmill) or water (watermill). In the modern era, they are usually powered by electricity. The grinding of solid materials occurs through mechanical forces that break up the structure by overcoming the interior bonding forces. After the grinding the state of the solid is changed: the grain size, the grain size disposition and the grain shape. Milling also refers to the process of breaking down, separating, sizing, or classifying aggregate material (e.g. mining ore). For instance rock crushing or grinding to produce uniform aggregate size for construc ...
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Sidney Gilliat
Sidney Gilliat (15 February 1908 – 31 May 1994) was an English film director, producer and writer. In the 1930s he worked as a scriptwriter, most notably with Frank Launder on ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938) for Alfred Hitchcock, and '' Night Train to Munich'' (1940), directed by Carol Reed. He and Launder made their directorial debut co-directing the home front drama '' Millions Like Us'' (1943). From 1945 he also worked as a producer, starting with '' The Rake's Progress'', which he also wrote and directed. He and Launder made over 40 films together, founding their own production company Individual Pictures. While Launder concentrated on directing their comedies, most famously the four St Trinian's School films, Gilliat showed a preference for comedy-thrillers and dramas, including ''Green for Danger'' (1946), '' London Belongs to Me'' (1948) and '' State Secret'' (1950). He wrote the libretto for Malcolm Williamson's opera '' Our Man in Havana'', based on the novel by ...
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Frank Launder
Frank Launder (28 January 1906 – 23 February 1997) was a British writer, film director and producer, who made more than 40 films, many of them in collaboration with Sidney Gilliat. Early life and career He was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England and worked briefly as a clerk before becoming an actor and then a playwright. He began working as a screenwriter on British films in the 1930s, contributing the original story for the classic Will Hay comedy '' Oh, Mr Porter!'' (1937). Sidney Gilliat Launder first collaborated with Gilliat in 1936 on the film '' Seven Sinners''. After writing a number of screenplays with Gilliat, including ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938) for Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ..., and '' Night Train to Munich'' for Caro ...
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Anthony Havelock-Allan
Sir Anthony James Allan Havelock-Allan, 4th Baronet (28 February 1904 – 11 January 2003) was a British film producer and screenwriter whose credits included '' This Happy Breed'', '' Blithe Spirit'', '' Great Expectations'', '' Oliver Twist'', the 1968 version of ''Romeo and Juliet'' and '' Ryan's Daughter''. Early life and education Havelock-Allan was born at the family home of Blackwell Grange near Darlington, County Durham. He was the third (but second surviving) son of Allan Havelock-Allan and his first wife, Anne Julia Chaytor, daughter of Sir William Chaytor, 3rd Baronet. His grandfather was the soldier and politician Sir Henry Havelock-Allan, 1st Baronet, who was awarded the Victoria Cross during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. His father's elder brother was Sir Henry Havelock-Allan, 2nd Baronet. He was educated at Charterhouse and schools in Switzerland. Career Before becoming a film producer, Havelock-Allan worked as a stockbroker, jeweller, record company exec ...
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John Bryan (art Director)
Eric John Bryan Pratt (12 August 1911 – 10 June 1969), known professionally as John Bryan, was a British art director and film producer. John Bryan was born in Kensington, London, England. He won the Oscar for Best Art Direction for the film '' Great Expectations'' in 1948. He was nominated twice more, for '' Caesar and Cleopatra'' in 1947 and for '' Becket'' in 1965. Bryan also won a BAFTA for ''Becket''. In 1959, he was a member of the jury at the 9th Berlin International Film Festival. He died from cancer at a hospital in Thames Ditton, Surrey, on 10 June 1969. Filmography Art director * '' Colonel Blood'' (1934) * '' Murder by Rope'' (1936) * '' Hearts of Humanity'' (1936) * '' The Captain's Table'' (1936) * '' Men of Yesterday'' (1936) * '' Things to Come'' (1936, assistant) * '' The Song of the Road'' (1937) * '' The Last Curtain'' (1937) * '' Talking Feet'' (1937) * '' Stepping Toes'' (1938) * '' Pygmalion'' (1938) * '' Inspector Hornleigh'' (1939) * '' On the Nigh ...
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Ronald Neame
Ronald Neame CBE, BSC (23 April 1911 – 16 June 2010) was an English film producer, director, cinematographer, and screenwriter. Beginning his career as a cinematographer, for his work on the British war film '' One of Our Aircraft Is Missing'' (1943) he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Special Effects. During a partnership with director David Lean, he produced '' Brief Encounter'' (1945), '' Great Expectations'' (1946), and '' Oliver Twist'' (1948), receiving two Academy Award nominations for writing. Neame then moved into directing, and some notable films included, '' The Man Who Never Was'' (1956), which chronicled Operation Mincemeat, a British WWII deception operation, '' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'' (1969), which won Maggie Smith her first Oscar, and the action-adventure disaster film '' The Poseidon Adventure'' (1972). He also directed '' I Could Go On Singing'' (1963), Judy Garland's last film, and '' Scrooge'' (1970), starring Albert Finney. For ...
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David Lean
Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor, widely considered one of the most important figures of Cinema of the United Kingdom, British cinema. He directed the large-scale epics ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' (1957), ''Lawrence of Arabia (film), Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962), ''Doctor Zhivago (film), Doctor Zhivago'' (1965), ''Ryan's Daughter'' (1970), and ''A Passage to India (film), A Passage to India'' (1984). He also directed the film adaptations of Charles Dickens novels ''Great Expectations (1946 film), Great Expectations'' (1946) and ''Oliver Twist (1948 film), Oliver Twist'' (1948), as well as the romantic drama ''Brief Encounter'' (1945). Originally a film editor in the early 1930s, Lean made his directorial debut with 1942's ''In Which We Serve'', which was the first of four collaborations with Noël Coward. Lean began to make internationally co-produced films financed by the big Hollywood studios, be ...
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Cineguild Productions
Cineguild Productions was a production company formed by director David Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame and producer Anthony Havelock-Allan in 1944. The company produced some of the major British films of the 1940s. History of Cineguild Havelock-Allan served as associated producer on the war film '' In Which We Serve'' (1942), which starred Noël Coward, who co-directed the picture with David Lean. The director of photography on the film was Neame. Havelock-Allan, Lean, and Neame founded their own company, Cineguild, in 1944. Its first production was an adaptation of Coward's 1939 patriotic play This Happy Breed (1944) film adaptation released in the same year. The film was produced by Coward, directed by Lean, and shot by Neame. All three partners—Havelock-Allan, Lean and Neame—collaborated on the script. The exact same combination of talents created the adaptation of Coward's comedy '' Blithe Spirit''(1945), with Havelock-Allan and Neame sharing producing duties with ...
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Emeric Pressburger
Emeric Pressburger (born Imre József Pressburger; 5 December 19025 February 1988) was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a collaboration partnership known as the Archers, and produced a series of films, including '' 49th Parallel'' (US: ''The Invaders'', 1941), ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1943), '' A Matter of Life and Death'' (US: ''Stairway to Heaven'', 1946), '' Black Narcissus'' (1947), '' The Red Shoes'' (1948), and '' The Tales of Hoffmann'' (1951). Early years Imre József Pressburger was born in Miskolc, in the Kingdom of Hungary, of Jewish heritage. He was the only son (he had one elder half-sister from his father's previous marriage) of Kálmán Pressburger, estate manager, and his second wife, Kätherina (née Wichs). He attended a boarding-school in Temesvár (today better known as Timișoara), where he was a good pupil, excelling at mathemat ...
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Michael Powell
Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company Powell and Pressburger, The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a series of classic British films, notably ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1943), ''A Canterbury Tale'' (1944), ''I Know Where I'm Going!'' (1945), A Matter of Life and Death (film), ''A Matter of Life and Death'' (1946, ''Stairway to Heaven'' in the U.S.), ''Black Narcissus'' (1947), The Red Shoes (1948 film), ''The Red Shoes'' (1948) and ''The Tales of Hoffmann (film), The Tales of Hoffmann'' (1951). His controversial ''Peeping Tom (1960 film), Peeping Tom'' (1960), which was so vilified on first release that it seriously damaged his career, is now considered a classic, and possibly the earliest "slasher movie". Many renowned filmmakers, such as Francis Ford Coppola, George A. Romero, Brian De Palma, Bertrand Taver ...
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Powell And Pressburger
The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell (1905–1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)—together often known as The Archers, the name of their production company—made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. Their collaborations—24 films between 1939 and 1972—were mainly derived from original stories by Pressburger with the script written by both Pressburger and Powell. Powell did most of the directing while Pressburger did most of the work of the producer and also assisted with the editing, especially the way the music was used. Unusually, the pair shared a writer-director-producer credit for most of their films. The best-known of these are ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1943), '' A Canterbury Tale'' (1944), '' I Know Where I'm Going!'' (1945), '' A Matter of Life and Death'' (1946), '' Black Narcissus'' (1947), '' The Red Shoes'' (1948), and '' The Tales of Hoffmann'' (1951). In 1981, Powell and Pressburger were recognised for ...
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