Earl St. John (14 June 1892 – 26 February 1968) was an American film producer in overall charge of production for The Rank Organisation at Pinewood Studios from October 1950 to June 1964, and was credited as executive producer on 131 films. He was known as the "Earl of Pinewood". He was elected a Director of the Company in September, 1951.
John Davis of Rank called him "the greatest showman that The Rank Organisation has ever had, and probably the greatest showman to have lived in this country. "
His achievements including promoting Norman Wisdom and Peter Finch as film stars, and the box office success of Genevieve and Doctor in the House. However it has been argued "St John's fame has been completely overshadowed" by J. Arthur Rank and John Davis.
Early life St. John was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His father wanted him to become a soldier but he ran away from a military academy aged 17 and began his career as a page boy for Sarah Bernhardt's company.
St. John's uncle worked in the film business and he worked for him when he was 21. He worked as a poster boy then took two religious films around the US and Mexico. He worked during the Mexican Civil War and met Pancho Villa.Mr Earl St John The Guardian [London (UK)] 28 Feb 1968: 5. He fell out with his uncle and joined the Mutual Film Company.
Move to England St. John served in France with the Texas division during World War I. He demobilised in Liverpool, England, and elected to stay on in the country.
In the early 1920s, St. John ran a small picture theatre in Manchester, the Ardwick Green Picture Theatre, and became successful. In 1924, he joined Paramount Theatres Limited, building up its circuit and opening the Plaza and Carlton cinemas. In 1930, they took over the Astoria Cinemas and St. John was responsible for them as well.Astoria Cinemas. The Times (London, England), Tuesday, Dec 2, 1930; pg. 16; Issue 45685
Paramount was bought out by Odeon in 1938 and St. John joined The Rank Organisation. In 1939 he became personal assistant to John Davis."MAKING MORE & BETTER PICTURES" Karr, Jack. The Times of India [New Delhi, India] 16 May 1948: 5.
In 1946 St. John was appointed chief production adviser for the Rank Organisation.
In May 1947 he was appointed joint managing director of Two Cities Films along with Josef Somlo. (Somlo would quit in October 1947.) Their films included Hamlet, Fame is the Spur, Uncle Silas, The October Man, Vice Versa, The Mark of Cain, One Night with You, Mr Perrin and Mr Trail, and Sleeping Car to Trieste.
Head of Rank Early films In 1948 he was appointed Executive Producer at the studios by Rank's Managing Director John Davis with a brief to rein in financial losses."FILM PRODUCTION CHANGES" The Manchester Guardian [Manchester (UK)] 23 Dec 1948: 8. "Some producers objected because he was a showman," said one producer of this time. Under his austere and autocratic control, location filming was cut back, and budgets slashed. He oversaw a reduction of production costs of 45% from 1948 and set a ceiling of £200,000 for films aimed at the British market (with £175,000 regarded as a safer figure), allowing the amount to go to £325,000 if a co production with the US. The intention was for the average Rank budget to be £175,000.
Early films made under St. John at Rank included the musical Trottie True (1949) with Jean Kent, and the fantasy The Rocking Horse Winner (1949) with John Mills. The Woman in Question (1950) was a thriller with Kent and Dirk Bogarde, and Highly Dangerous (1950) was an unsuccessful attempt to restore Margaret Lockwood to her mid 1940s popularity. The Reluctant Widow (1950) starred Kent and Guy Rolfe; Rolfe was in Prelude to Fame (1950).
More successful than these were the war movies, They Were Not Divided (1950) and Morning Departure, and the drama The Browning Version (1951). In 1950 St John warned that British film budgets could not go below £100,000 "if we are to give the public its money's worth." In August 1950 he announced Rank's plan was to make 15-20 films a year.
Browning Version was based on a play by Terence Rattigan and St. John would go on to approve a number of films based on plays: "I started out as manager of a small out-of-town cinema, and I viewed films from the out-of-London angle," he explained in 1951; "This experience made me realise that the ordinary people in the remotest places in the country were entitled to see the works of the best modern British playwrights." The film was directed by Anthony Asquith, and St. John promptly agreed to finance another play adaptation from that director, The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), which was popular.
Also popular was Encore (1951) based on the stories of W. Somerset Maugham, Venetian Bird (1952), a thriller from the director-producer team of Ralph Thomas and Betty E. Box who would become crucial to Rank, and The Card (1952) with Alec Guinness. Less popular were dramas like It Started in Paradise (1952), Personal Affair (1953) and The Final Test (1953).
Rank's films in 1951 and 1952 were made through British Film Makers, a scheme where Rank financed films in conjunction with the National Film Finance Corporation. From late 1952 onwards Rank financed films alone, as Group Film Productions.
In February 1952 Earl St John of Rank announced the company would make a slate of 12 movies at a cost of £1,500,000, including Fanfare for Fig Leaves with Kay Kendall and Ian Hunter, Tonight at 8:30 with Ted Ray, and The Planter's Wife.
In August 1952 St John declared Rank would make more films abroad including Campbell's Kingdom (not made for several years), Scottish Settlement (never made) and Desperate Moment.
St. John decided to finance an action drama set during the Malayan Emergency, The Planter's Wife (1952), directed by Ken Annakin and starring Jack Hawkins and Anthony Steel. In an attempt to appeal to American audiences, St. John arranged for Claudette Colbert to co-star. The movie was not successful in the US but was a big hit in Britain, and led to St. John making several movies with imperial settings. These included Malta Story (1952), a hugely popular World War Two story with Guinness, Hawkins and Steel; The Seekers (1954), an adventure tale set in New Zealand with Hawkins and Glynis Johns; Above Us the Waves (1955), a war film with Mills and John Gregson; Simba (1955), set in the Mau Mau Uprising; and The Black Tent (1956) set in Africa, all three with Donald Sinden.
St. John commissioned a number of thrillers at Rank, including: Hunted (1952), and Desperate Moment (1953), both with Dirk Bogarde; The Long Memory (1953) with John Mills; The Net (1953); Turn the Key Softly (1953); The Kidnappers (1953); Forbidden Cargo (1954); Passage Home (1955); Lost (1956); and House of Secrets (1956).
Dramas tended to be less popular such as The Young Lovers (1954); The Woman for Joe (1955); and Jacqueline, (1956).
In the early 1950s, St. John moved Rank more into the comedy area with films such as: Made in Heaven (1952); Penny Princess (1953) with Bogarde; Always a Bride (1953); and A Day to Remember (1953). He was a big believer in making films in colour to compete with television. He also imported many actors from Europe to appear in Rank films.
St. John spotted Norman Wisdom on television in a Christmas Party special, signed him to a seven year contract and starred him in Trouble in Store (1953). "I feel we have here the most exciting screen comedian since Chaplin," said St John. The film was a huge success and led to a series of popular Wisdom movies such as: Man of the Moment (1955); and One Good Turn (1955).
Another great St. John success was Genevieve, directed by Henry Cornelius, starring John Gregson, Dinah Sheridan, Kenneth More and Kay Kendall, although St John was reportedly originally not enthusiastic about it being made. St John had put Kendall under long term contract in 1952.
However his most profitable comedies were the "Doctor" series from Thomas and Box, starring Dirk Bogarde, starting with Doctor in the House (1954). This led to several sequels including Doctor at Sea (1955).
Other comedies included :You Know What Sailors Are (1954); Mad About Men (1954); The Beachcomber (1954) with Robert Newton; To Paris with Love (1955) with Guinness; All for Mary (1955); Value for Money (1955) with Gregson and Diana Dors; Simon and Laura (1955) with Peter Finch and Kendall; An Alligator Named Daisy (1955), with Donald Sinden and Dors again; and Jumping for Joy (1956) with Frankie Howerd.
Less popular were the musicals. He announced a film with Petula Clark called Convent Garden that was never made. As Long as They're Happy (1955) was made.
St. John put writer Norman Hudis under long term contract early in that writers career.
According to a 1954 profile: His highly-paid job gives him power to say what films will be made, how they will be made and who will make them. He works with 12 producer - director teams, 21 contract artists, a varying number of guest artists, a story department consisting of an editor, two assistants and three readers, and three contract scriptwriters. Pinewood Studios' quota of 15 films a year, for which St. John is responsible and which average £150,000 each, is the largest in Britain today. In his films, St. John has fostered such stars as Petula Clark, Kay Kendall, Anthony Steel, Terence Morgan, Dirk Bogarde and John Gregson and he has helped to promote Jack Hawkins, Glynis Johns and Norman Wisdom. In the past four years he has supervised the making of more than 50 films... St. John has earned a reputation for being a driving showman with a gift for succinct expression. "He is like a ringmaster who is happy as long as his charges are performing correctly," said producer Peter Rogers. "His approach is: do what you want, but you know what I want," said director Robert Hamer.
According to academics Sue Harper and Vincent Porter, Rank "was run like a boys’ public school, where everyone was expected to behave properly. Davis was the headmaster and Earl St John the second master who was expected to iron out any local difficulties."Harper and Porter p 41 They argued St John "was not much help" at the studio "as he spent most of his time covering his own back. That is probably why Davis appointed the ambitious James Archibald as his personal assistant and cut St John out of the creative process for over a year by intercepting all his mail."Harper and Porter p 43 They declared St John's main job was to plan the company's annual output of films: Although he could sometimes act as both a creator and a facilitator by persuading Rank to make a particular picture, he subsequently became a ‘yes-man’ to Davis, often having to act as the buffer between the producers and Davis’s diktats. Publicly, however, St John claimed that, as the person in charge of production, he judged story ideas or treatments by their warmth or their sincerity, and considered that his most vital task was to fit the right subject to the right production team. Although producers or directors sometimes came to him with ideas, he also passed ideas from the story department onto them.
International films Rank had ambitions to make films that appeared in America. St. John used Gregory Peck in The Million Pound Note (1954) and The Purple Plain (1954)."Mr Earl St John." The Times [London, England] 28 Feb. 1968: 12. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.
In July 1954 Rank announced all its films would be made using Visa Vision.
In 1956 Rank made less comedies and more thrillers.