The Constant Husband Explained

The Constant Husband
Director:Sidney Gilliat
Producer:Sidney Gilliat
Frank Launder
Starring:Rex Harrison
Margaret Leighton
Kay Kendall
Cecil Parker
Cinematography:Edward Scaife
Music:Malcolm Arnold
Studio:Individual Pictures Ltd
Runtime:88 minutes
Country:United Kingdom
Language:English
Gross:£162,649 [1]

The Constant Husband is a 1955 British comedy film, directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Rex Harrison, Margaret Leighton, Kay Kendall, Cecil Parker, George Cole and Raymond Huntley.[2] The story was written by Gilliat together with Val Valentine, and the film was produced by Individual Pictures, Gilliat's and Frank Launder's joint production company. Because the film got caught up in the 1954 bankruptcy of British Lion Film Corporation, it was not released until more than seven months after it had been finished and reviewed by the British Board of Film Censors.

Plot

A man wakes up in a hotel room in Wales, suffering from amnesia. He has no recollection of who he is, why he is there, or where he comes from. With the help of psychologist Doctor Llewellyn, they trace a wife and home in London, but they go on to discover that she is just one of many women whom he has bigamously married.

Main cast

Production

The film was made in Shepperton Studios, with shooting finished in early June 1954,[3] just a week after the studio's owner and the film's intended distributor, British Lion Film Corporation, went into receivership on 1 June 1954.[4] The opening scenes were filmed on location at New Quay and Aberaeron, Ceredigion, Mid Wales, and others at Kensington, Millbank, Wormwood Scrubs, Holborn, and St. Paul's, London.[5] When the film was screened by the censors at BBFC on 10 September 1954, it was submitted by Frank Launder's company Launder Productions, as it did not yet have a new distributor.[6] In January 1955, Launder, Gilliat and the Boulting brothers formed a new company, British Lion Films Ltd., which took over the running of Shepperton as well as British Lion's distribution business, and the film finally received its world premiere at the London Pavilion on 21 April 1955.

Gilliat says the film was plagued by problems with the colour stock.[7]

Reception

According to the National Film Finance Corporation, the film made a comfortable profit.[8]

According to Kinematograph Weekly it was a "money maker" at the British box office in 1955.[9]

External links

References

  1. Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p506
  2. Web site: The Constant Husband . 9 August 2024 . British Film Institute Collections Search.
  3. The Times, 3 June 1954, page 2: Film production at Shepperton – found in The Times Digital Archive (subscription required) 2014-07-25
  4. The Times, 2 June 1954, page 6: Receiver for British Lion Film Corporation – found in The Times Digital Archive (subscription required) 2014-07-25
  5. The Constant Husband at reelstreets.com
  6. http://www.bbfc.co.uk/search/releases/any/any/any/any/any/0/any/any/aff006979/any/any/any/any?advanced=true BBFC: The Constant Husband (1954)
  7. Web site: Interview with Sidney Gilliat. British Entertainment History Project. 15 May 1990. Roy. Fowler. Taffy. Haines. 149. 16 March 2023. 23 April 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220423035302/https://historyproject.org.uk/sites/default/files/BEHP%200143%20T%20Sidney%20Gilliat%20Transcript.pdf. live.
  8. U.S. MONEY BEHIND 30% OF BRITISH FILMS: Problems for the Board of TradeThe Manchester Guardian (1901-1959) [Manchester (UK)] 4 May 1956: 7
  9. Kinematograph Weekly. Other Money Makers of 1955. 15 December 1955. 5.