Themes: Ladder to the Top, Rags To Riches, Filmmaking
Main Cast: Robert Donat, Margaret Johnston, Maria Schell, Robert Beatty, John Charlesworth, James Kenney
Release Year: 1951
Country: UK
Run Time: 103 minutes
Plot
The Magic Box was the English film industry's contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Its all-star cast generously forsook their usual salaries for the privilege of paying tribute to that unsung pioneer of cinema, William Friese-Greene, here played by Robert Donat. Adapted by Eric Ambler from the controversial biography by Ray Allister, Magic Box contends that Friese-Greene was the true father of motion pictures, and not such upstarts as W. K. L. Dickson and Thomas Edison. Told in flashback, the film details Friese-Greene's tireless experiments with the "moving image," leading inexorably to a series of failures and disappoints, as others hog the credit for the protagonist's discoveries. The huge cast includes such British film luminaries as Joyce Grenfell, Miles Malleson, Michael Redgrave, Eric Portman, Emlyn Williams, Richard Attenborough, Peter Ustinov, Cecil Parker, Kay Walsh, and, best of all, Laurence Olivier as the confused bobby who witnesses Friese-Greene's first motion picture demonstration. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Julia Squire - Costume Designer, John Boulting - Director, Richard Best - Editor, William Alwyn - Composer (Music Score), Harold Fletcher - Makeup, John Bryan - Production Designer, Jack Cardiff - Cinematographer, Ronald Neame - Producer, Dario Simoni - Set Designer, Eric Ambler - Screenwriter, Ray Allister - Book Author
The Magic Box is a Technicolor British film released in 1951. It was a project of the Festival of Britain. Adapted by Eric Ambler from the controversial biography by Ray Allister, it gave a biographic account of William Friese-Greene, who first designed and patented a working cinematic camera. This claim is subject to some controversy, but evidence now tends to support it. The film was notable for its cast: many well-known British film actors appeared in cameos (as listed below). It was completed and shown just before the end of the Festival, but the general release was not until 1952.
William Friese-Greene is played by Robert Donat. 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.[1]
