The Rank Organisation Davis cut staff, reduced budgets and concentrated film production at Pinewood. Other studio facilities (in Islington) were closed, sold (Lime Grove Studios) or leased (Denham). The Rank Organisation closed Independent Producers Ltd. The policies of Davis alienated many in the industry, in particular they led film director David Lean, responsible for some of Rank's most critically and financially successful films, to look elsewhere for backing. In 1949, the company bought the Bush Radio manufacturing facility and began to diversify its interests. In the early 1960s Rank took over Murphy Radio to form the Rank Bush Murphy Group (which was eventually
The Cardinal (1936 film) The Cardinal (1936 film) The Cardinal is a 1936 British historical drama film directed by Sinclair Hill and starring Matheson Lang, Eric Portman and June Duprez. The film depicts a power battle in sixteenth century Rome between the leading church-statesman Giuliano de' Medici and one of his rivals. Other themes in the film are the Italian Wars against France and the construction of the new St. Peter's Basilica to a design by Michelangelo. It was made at Welwyn Studios as an independent production, but released by a leading distributor Associated British. "Variety" considered the film to be weak apart from