John and James Woolf

Sir John Woolf (15 March 1913, London – 28 June 1999, London) and James Woolf (1919, London – 29 May 1966) were two distinguished British film producers. John and James founded the production companies Romulus Films and Remus Films, which were active during the 1950s and 1960s. They were also sons-in-law of Victor Saville.

Biography

Sir John Woolf and James Woolf were the sons of the British producer C. M. Woolf (1879–1942), who was co-producer with Michael Balcon of two Alfred Hitchcock films, Downhill (1927) and Easy Virtue (1928). John had been the sales manager of his father's General Film Distributors company until it was taken over by Rank.p. 170 Harper, Sue & Porter, Vincent British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference Oxford University Press, 2007

Following World War II, the brothers went to S.G. Warburg for financial backing for their new company called Independent Film Distributors. Following several failures, the Woolfs established their own new production company Romulus Films with its first release being Pandora and the Flying Dutchman. Romulus struck international critical and financial success with several films with John Huston, The African Queen and Moulin Rouge. The company also made several films with producer Daniel Angel and signed their first contract star, Laurence Harvey grooming him for stardom. The Woolfs established a twin...
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