The Guinea Pig (film)

Last updated

The Guinea Pig
"The Guinea Pig" (1948).jpg
Directed by Roy Boulting
Written byRoy Boulting
Warren Chetham-Strode (play)
Bernard Miles
Produced by John Boulting
Starring Richard Attenborough
Cinematography Gilbert Taylor
Edited by Richard Best
Music by John Wooldridge
Production
companies
Distributed by Pathé Pictures International (UK)
Release date
  • 27 October 1948 (1948-10-27)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£252,418 [1]
Box office£224,694 (UK) [2]

The Guinea Pig is a 1948 British film directed and produced by the Boulting brothers, known as The Outsider in the United States. The film is adapted from the 1946 play of the same name by Warren Chetham-Strode. [3]

Contents

Plot

The "guinea pig" is 14-year-old Jack Read (played by the 25-year-old Richard Attenborough), a tobacconist's son who, following the Fleming Report, is given a scholarship to Saintbury, an exclusive public school. Read's uncouth behaviour causes him difficulties in fitting into the school.

Only after the social changes caused by the Second World War could such a scenario be imagined.

Cast

Production and reception

The film was from Pilgrim Pictures a new company set up by Filippo Del Guidice. It was financed by a "mystery industrialist". [4] [5]

The school location used in the film was Sherborne School, [6] a public school in Dorset.

Reception

The film was controversial at the time of its first release, as it contains the first screen use of the word "arse". [7]

The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther, at the time of the film's first American release, was unimpressed. According to Crowther, "the details are highly parochial, the attitudes of the characters are strangely stiff, the accents and idioms are hard to fathom—and the exposition is involved and tedious". [8]

British trade papers called the film a "notable box office attraction" in British cinemas in 1949. [9] As of 1 April 1950 the film earned distributor's gross receipts of £173,052 in the UK of which £121,824 went to the producer. [1]

A reviewer for Time Out has called it, "solid entertainment, even if barely convincing". [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boulting brothers</span> Twin brothers and filmmakers

John Edward Boulting and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting, known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for their series of satirical comedies in the 1950s and 1960s. They produced many of their films through their own production company, Charter Film Productions, which they founded in 1937.

<i>Oliver Twist</i> (1948 film) 1948 British film by David Lean

Oliver Twist is a 1948 British film and the second of David Lean's two film adaptations of Charles Dickens novels. Following his 1946 version of Great Expectations, Lean re-assembled much of the same team for his adaptation of Dickens' 1838 novel, including producers Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan, cinematographer Guy Green, designer John Bryan and editor Jack Harris. Lean's then-wife, Kay Walsh, who had collaborated on the screenplay for Great Expectations, played the role of Nancy. John Howard Davies was cast as Oliver, while Alec Guinness portrayed Fagin and Robert Newton played Bill Sykes.

<i>Im All Right Jack</i> 1959 British comedy film by John Boulting

I'm All Right Jack is a 1959 British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney based on the 1958 novel Private Life by Alan Hackney.

<i>Captain Boycott</i> (film) 1947 historical drama film by Frank Launder

Captain Boycott is a 1947 British historical drama film directed by Frank Launder and starring Stewart Granger, Kathleen Ryan, Mervyn Johns, Alastair Sim and Cecil Parker. Robert Donat makes a cameo appearance as the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell. The film explains how the word boycott appeared in the English language. Ironically, the titular character plays a secondary role in the film, as an anti-hero, and the hero of the film is Hugh Davin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bosley Crowther</span> American film critic (1905–1981)

Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews were criticized as unnecessarily harsh. Crowther was an advocate of foreign-language films in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly those of Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini.

<i>The Magic Box</i> 1951 British drama film by John Boulting

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 numerous cameo appearances by performers such as Peter Ustinov and Laurence Olivier. It was produced by Ronald Neame and distributed by British Lion Film Corporation.

<i>Trio</i> (1950 film) 1950 film by Harold French, Ken Annakin

Trio is a 1950 British anthology film based on three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham: "The Verger", "Mr Know-All" and "Sanatorium". Ken Annakin directed "The Verger" and "Mr Know-All", while Harold French was responsible for "Sanatorium".

<i>Busmans Honeymoon</i> (film) 1940 British film by Arthur B. Woods

Busman's Honeymoon is a 1940 British detective film directed by Arthur B. Woods. An adaptation of the 1937 Lord Peter Wimsey novel Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman's Honeymoon stars Robert Montgomery, Constance Cummings, Leslie Banks, Googie Withers, Robert Newton and Seymour Hicks as Mervyn Bunter.

The Guinea Pig is a three-act play by Warren Chetham-Strode. The work premiered in London's West End at the Criterion Theatre in 1946, starring Rachel Gurney as Lynne Hartley. Following its successful sixteen month run, the play was adapted into a 1948 film, starring Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim.

<i>Bond Street</i> (film) 1948 British film by Gordon Parry

Bond Street is a 1948 British portmanteau drama film directed by Gordon Parry and based on a story by Terence Rattigan. It stars Jean Kent, Roland Young, Kathleen Harrison, and Derek Farr. The film depicts a bride's dress, veil, pearls and flowers purchased in London's Bond Street—and the secret story behind each item.

<i>Murder Without Crime</i> 1950 film

Murder Without Crime is a 1950 British crime film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Dennis Price, Derek Farr and Patricia Plunkett. J. Lee Thompson also wrote the screenplay adapted from Double Error, his own successful West End play.

<i>Maytime in Mayfair</i> 1949 British film

Maytime in Mayfair is a 1949 British musical romance film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Nicholas Phipps, and Tom Walls. It was a follow-up to Spring in Park Lane.

<i>The Franchise Affair</i> (film) 1951 British film

The Franchise Affair is a 1951 British mystery thriller film directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring Michael Denison, Dulcie Gray, Anthony Nicholls and Marjorie Fielding. It is a faithful adaptation of the novel The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey. It was shot at Elstree Studios with location shooting taking place around Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire which stood in for the fictional town of Melford. The film's sets were designed by the art director Terence Verity.

<i>For Them That Trespass</i> 1949 British film

For Them That Trespass is a 1949 British crime film directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and starring Richard Todd, Patricia Plunkett and Stephen Murray. It is an adaptation of the 1944 novel of the same name by Ernest Raymond.

<i>West of Zanzibar</i> (1954 film) 1954 film

For the 1928 film starring Lon Chaney, Lionel Barrymore and Warner Baxter, see West of Zanzibar

<i>No Place for Jennifer</i> 1950 film

No Place for Jennifer is a 1950 British film directed by Henry Cass and starring Leo Genn, Rosamund John, Guy Middleton and Janette Scott.

<i>Brothers in Law</i> (film) 1957 British film by Roy Boulting

Brothers in Law is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Richard Attenborough, Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas and Jill Adams. The film is one of the Boulting brothers successful series of institutional satires that begun with Private's Progress in 1956. It is an adaptation of the 1955 novel Brothers in Law by Henry Cecil, a comedy set in the legal profession.

<i>The Dancing Years</i> (film) 1950 British film

The Dancing Years is a 1950 musical British film based on the musical by Ivor Novello.

<i>The Trunk</i> 1961 British film by Donovan Winter

The Trunk is a low budget, black and white 1961 British mystery film directed by Donovan Winter and starring Phil Carey, Julia Arnall and Dermot Walsh.

<i>Always Together</i> 1947 film by Frederick de Cordova

Always Together is a 1947 American comedy film directed by Frederick de Cordova and written by I. A. L. Diamond, Henry Ephron and Phoebe Ephron. The film stars Robert Hutton, Joyce Reynolds, Cecil Kellaway, Ernest Truex, Don McGuire and Ransom M. Sherman. The film was released by Warner Bros. on December 10, 1947.

References

  1. 1 2 Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 355.
  2. Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p. 487
  3. "The Guinea Pig | BFI | BFI". Explore.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  4. "Millionaire To Back Pictures". The Evening Advocate . Queensland, Australia. 29 January 1948. p. 2. Retrieved 13 September 2017 via National Library of Australia.
  5. "Mystery millionaire backs movie company". The Sun . No. 11, 847. Sydney. 15 January 1948. p. 19. Retrieved 13 September 2017 via National Library of Australia.
  6. "The Guinea Pig". The Old Shirburnian Society. 22 August 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  7. "The Guinea Pig (1948) - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast". AllMovie. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  8. Crowther, Bosley (2 May 1949). "Movie Review – The Guinea Pig – THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'The Guinea Pig,' English Film About Public School System, Opens at Little Carnegie". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  9. Murphy, Robert (2005) [1992]. Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48. London & New York: Routledge. p. 211. ISBN   9781134901500.
  10. "The Guinea Pig". Time Out. London. Retrieved 12 March 2014.