Let's take a moment to celebrate Muriel Box!

It is International Women's Day 2024.
So let's take a moment to celebrate the remarkable career of,

Violette Muriel Box, Baroness Gardiner, was born on the 22nd of September 1905 in New Malden, Surrey, England (Now just part of south-west London)
She was an English screenwriter and film director.

Born Violette Muriel Baker to Charles & Caroline Baker, her father worked as a clerk for the South Western Railway at Waterloo. and Her mother had been a pupil teacher, a maid, and an assistant in a magic-lantern shop.
Her family called young Muriel "Tiggy". She attended Surbiton High School, Kingston upon Thames, Greater London, where she took ballet lessons and studied drama.
In the 1920s she met Joseph Grossman of Stoll Pictures which led to work as an extra in

“The Wandering Jew” and in the thriller series “The Old Man in the Corner”.

In 1929, Baker left a typing job at a clothing company for a job as a reader at British Instructional Pictures just as “talkies” were introduced, Barker read the unsolicited manuscripts which were sent to the company.

Being in that position aided her to develop her story and dialogue writing skills.
She landed a job as a “continuity clerk” on Anthony Asquith's “Tell England” (1931).

She moved to British International Pictures at Elstree, where she worked on Alfred Hitchcock's “Number Seventeen” (1932).

Violette Muriel Baker married journalist Sydney Box in 1935, with whom she co-wrote nearly forty stage plays, mainly writing the female roles the plays were for amateur theatre groups.

They founded their own production company, Verity Films, making short wartime propaganda films, including Muriels' directorial debut the documentary short
“The English Inn” (1941), after which she branched into fiction.

The couple achieved their greatest joint success with "The Seventh Veil" (1945) for which they won the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay.

After WW2, the Rank Organisation hired her husband Sydney Box to head their subdivision “Gainsborough Pictures”, where Muriel was put in charge of the scenario department,
Where she wrote the scripts for light comedies, “Easy Money” (1948)  & “Here Come the Huggetts” (1948).

Muriel Box occasionally assisted as a dialogue director, or re-shot scenes during post-production. Her extensive work on “The Lost People” (1949) gained her a co-director credit.

In 1951, her husband created “London Independent Producers”, allowing Box more opportunities to direct.
Many of her early films were adaptations of stage plays so they felt “stage-bound”.
These films are noteworthy for their strong performances rather than any distinctive directorial style.
She was a progressive and was a passionate advocate for female rights and equality she gravitated towards projects with topical and frequently controversial themes, including Irish politics, teenage sex, abortion, illegitimacy and syphilis and consequently, several of her films were banned by local authorities in the UK. Her favourite subject in film was the female experience which she explored in “Street Corner” (1953) a film about women police officers, Somerset Maugham's “The Beachcomber” (1954), with Glynis Johns as a resourceful missionary with Donald Sinden playing her husband,

Box again worked with Donald Sinden on “Eyewitness” (1956) and a series of comedies about the battle of the sexes, including “The Passionate Stranger” (1957), “The Truth About Women” (1958) and her final film, “Rattle of a Simple Man” (1964).

Murial Box as you can imagine experienced prejudice in the very male-dominated film industry, which was especially hurtful when perpetrated by other woman. Actress Jean Simmons had her replaced on “So Long at the Fair” (1950), and Kay Kendall unsuccessfully attempted to do the same with “Simon and Laura” (1955). Many producers questioned her competence to direct large-scale films. While the press at the time were always quick to note her position as one of very few women directors in the British film industry but their tone tended to be condescending rather than highlighting her talent.

She still is Britain's most prolific female film director, directing 12 feature films.

She co-directed the film “The Lost People” (1949)

She also made the short film, “The Piper's Tune” (1962)
and the Documentary short “The English Inn” (1941)

Muriel Box left film-making to write novels and created a successful publishing house, Femina, which proved to be a rewarding outlet for her, publishing feminist authors.
She published her memoirs, Odd Woman Out, in 1974, and published Rebel Advocate, a biography of her second husband, Gerald Gardiner, in 1983.

Murial passed away on the 18th of May 1991 at home in Hendon, London, England, UK
She was 85 years old.