MAGIC BOX 1951 JOHN BOULTING PORTRAIT #SP-9 William Friese-Greene

Original British 9 7/8 inch x 7 3/4 inch Key Book Portrait of JOHN BOULTING on the set of his 1951 Drama THE MAGIC BOX, based on the biography “Friese-Greene, Close-Up of an Inventor” by Ray Allister, with a screenplay by Eric Ambler and starring Robert Donat as William Friese-Greene, Margaret Johnston, Maria Schell, Laurence Olivier, Leo Genn, Stanley Holloway, Glynis Johns, Barry Jones, Cecil Parker, Eric Portman, Dennis Price, Michael Redgrave, Renee Asherson, Richard Attenborough, Basil Sydney as William Fox-Talbot and Robert Beatty as Lord Beaverbrook.

This biographical drama gives an account of the life of William Friese-Greene, who first designed and patented a working cinematic camera. This claim is subject to some controversy, but evidence now tends to support it. The film was completed and shown just before the end of the 1951 Festival of Britain, but the general release was not until 1952. Told in flashback, the film details Friese-Greene's tireless experiments with the "moving image," leading inexorably to a series of failures and disappointments, as others hog the credit for the protagonist's discoveries.

The portrait, from the original key book, is in very good condition mounted on thin black card.