Biography Earl St. John

1 biography

1.1 move england
1.2 head of rank
1.3 later years

biography

he born in baton rouge, louisiana. father wanted him become soldier ran away military academy aged 17 , began career page boy sarah bernhardt s company.

st john had uncle in film business went work when 21. worked poster boy took 2 religious films around , mexico. worked during mexican civil war , met pancho villa. fell out uncle , went work mutual film company.

move england

st john served in france texas division during world war one. demobilised in liverpool, england, , elected stay on in country.

st john ran small picture theatre in manchester , became successful. in 1924 joined paramount, building circuit , opening plaza , carlton cinemas. in 1930 took on astoria cinemas , st john responsible themtoo.

paramount bought out odeon in 1938 , st john joined rank organisation. in 1939 became personal assistant john davis.

in 1946 appointed chief production adviser rank.

head of rank

in 1948 appointed executive producer @ studios rank s managing director john davis brief reign in financial losses. producers objected because showman, said 1 producer of time.

under austere , autocratic control, location filming cut back, , budgets slashed. despite this, number of successful productions emerged pinewood including genevieve, reach sky , night remember.

according 1954 profile:

his highly-paid job gives him power films made, how made , make them. works 12 producer - director teams, 21 contract artists, varying number of guest artists, story department consisting of editor, 2 assistants , 3 readers, , 3 contract scriptwriters. pinewood studios quota of 15 films year, st. john responsible , average £150,000 each, largest in britain today. in films, st. john has fostered such stars petula clark, kay kendall, anthony steel, terence morgan, dirk bogarde , john gregson , has helped promote jack hawkins, glynis johns , norman wisdom. in past 4 years has supervised making of more han 50 films... st. john has earned reputation being driving showman gift succinct expression.

st john s films included number of adaptations of plays terence rattigan, oscar wilde , william shakespeare. started out manager of small out-of-town cinema, , viewed films out-of-london angle, explained. experience made me realise ordinary people in remotest places in country entitled see works of best modern british playwrights.

he made several films overseas, particularly malta (malta story), canada (campbell s kingdom), south africa (nor moon midnight), hong kong (ferry hong kong), sri lanka (windom s way) , australia (robbery under arms). successful films war movies , comedies. big believer in making films in colour compete television. imported many actors europe appear in rank films.

ringmaster happy long charges performing correctly, said producer peter rogers. approach is: want, know want, said director robert hamer.

producer betty box called st john wonderful old drunk... wonderful man. didn t quite fit british filmmaking tradition. anthony havelock-allan said did [rank chairman john] davis told him to... nice man not creative @ all, not imaginative. did told.

sir john davis later said st john jolly good. executive producer function produce films - units make them. both creative influence , facilitator, grasp of technical side of making films, , understood creative atmosphere.

contemporary historical consensus st john s influence limited, , did davis told him do.

earl st john had @ times difficult relationship dirk bogarde cast bogarde in doctor in house, made him big star, , suggested him lead in victim.

later years

st john s slate of films became less successful in 1960s. british film industry turned riskier subject matter. instance st john bought film rights novel saturday night , sunday morning rank board refused let him make film, became big success. refused make film of in anger.

st john retired in 1964. died while on vacation in spain, survived wife whom married in 1946.