Directed by:
John BoultingScreenplay:
Eric AmblerCinematography:
Jack CardiffComposer:
William AlwynCast:
Renée Asherson, Robert Donat, Maria Schell, Richard Attenborough, Edward Chapman, Henry Edwards, Robert Flemyng, Leo Genn, Joyce Grenfell, Kathleen Harrison (more)Plots(1)
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. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
James Kenney
UK
Best movies:
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951)
The Magic Box (1951)
Above Us the Waves (1955)
Everley Gregg
UK
Best movies:
Brief Encounter (1945)
Great Expectations (1946)
The Man Who Never Was (1956)
Ian Wilson
UK
Best movies:
Trouble in Store (1953)
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Herbert Lomas
UK
Best movies:
The Magic Box (1951)
The Ghost Goes West (1935)
Fire Over England (1937)
Amy Veness
UK
Best movies:
Oliver Twist (1948)
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951)
The Magic Box (1951)
Norman Pierce
UK
Best movies:
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
The Four Feathers (1939)
John Charlesworth
UK
Best movies:
Scrooge (1951)
The Magic Box (1951)
Yield to the Night (1956)
Hal Osmond
UK
Best movies:
The Million Pound Note (1954)
A Night to Remember (1958)
Hell Drivers (1957)
Charles Victor
UK
Best movies:
San Demetrio, London (1943)
The Magic Box (1951)
It Happened One Sunday (1944)
Joan Young
UK
Best movies:
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
The Fallen Idol (1948)
The Magic Box (1951)