Allies formed to create critical and commercial successes

Allied Film Makers (AFM) was an independent company established in 1959 with an impressive role call including Jack Hawkins, Basil Dearden, Richard Attenborough and Bryan Forbes, who formed Beaver Films as part of AFM.

The Angry Silence and The League of Gentlemen were the first two movies produced under the Beaver Films umbrella, both released in 1960 and both box office smashes.

And the next project, Whistle Down the Wind, would exceed all expectations commercially, in its popularity with audiences and overall success.

In 1961, The Daily Telegraph newspaper wrote:“richard Attenborough and Bryan Forbes are two people to be reckoned with on the film production side; artists who could turn to making films with business-like despatch and eventual profit.”

When Mary Hayley Bell sent a copy of her latest book Whistle Down the Wind, a story inspired by her three children, to Richard Attenborough, both he and Bryan Forbes agreed that a combination of Mary’s book and

Hayley playing the eldest of the three child characters would make a terrific next project; so taken was Forbes with the idea that he became determined to direct the film.

In his autobiography, Richard Attenborough recalled:“although Bryan Forbes had no experience as a director, his proposal made perfect sense to me.

“I knew, being an actor, he had a finely-tuned sense of performance and, also being a crazy collector of every kind of camera, he also had a terrific eye for composition.

“What followed was a council of war with my close friend John Mills, who finally agreed that Bryan, with his creative ideas and enthusiasm for the project, would sit in the director’s chair.”