Betty Evelyn Box, was a prolific British film producer. Usually credited as Betty E. Box, she is considered one of the best of her generation, with a flair for making popular films, especially comedies.
Sitting around was no good for me, my brother said, and he asked me to work for him. He was running an organisation that made training and recruitment films. I went along as a general dogsbody, and as more men were called up, there were more opportunities for me. We worked from 7 a.m. until 10 or 11 at night. I learnt more in those two years than I would in ten years in peacetime.
Following World War II, she made an easy transition to feature films, beginning with The Years Between. When her brother assumed control of Gainsborough Pictures that year, he named her Head of Production at the Poole Street, Hoxton studio, where she produced ten films during the next two years. While tight budgets and shooting schedules compromised the quality of some of them, others – such as When the Bough Breaks – proved to be among the most politically interesting films of the period. "Every story I have at the moment has a murder in it", she said in 1947. "It's no wonder I'm being called 'Bloodthirsty Box'." She was also known for the trio of popular Huggetts films, starting with Here Come the Huggetts and followed by Vote for Huggett and The Huggetts Abroad.
When the Gainsborough studios were closed by Rank in 1949, Box moved to Pinewood Studios, where she collaborated with director Ralph Thomas on some 30-odd films. They began by making thrillers such as Venetian Bird but then concentrated on comedy. The biggest success of their career commercially was the seven-film Doctor series, beginning with Doctor in the House and ending with Doctor in Trouble. The comedies contained a wacky irreverence which clearly struck a chord with contemporary audiences and helped to make stars of the young Dirk Bogarde and Donald Sinden. Towards the end of her career, Box said the genre she preferred was comedy:
You can assess laughter. I get pleasure out of making a movie, but to listen to people laughing at what we have made – this is great. I'm a natural pessimist. Comedies are difficult. You can make a good adventure story if you have the money, good actors, and a good story, and you'll know the film will please. Comedy is more of an instinctive thing.
Personal life
Betty Box was married to Peter Rogers, producer of the Carry Onfilm series, from 24 December 1948 until her death. It was her second marriage; her first, to a pilot during the war, ended in divorce. Box and Rogers did not have any children, but their godson was actor and theatre producerMarc Sinden, the son of Sir Donald Sinden, who starred for Betty Box in, amongst other films, Doctor in the House, Doctor at Large and Mad About Men. "We made the choice not to have children", said Box in 1973. "I don't think I would have made a very good mother. You know making a movie is like having a baby – it takes eight weeks to film and nine months to produce." Box was awarded the OBE in 1958. She died in Chiltern, Buckinghamshire aged 83 from cancer in 1999. A posthumous autobiography Lifting the Lid: The Autobiography of Film Producer Betty Box was published in 2000.
