Britain in the 1930s and 1940s

 


The 1927 Cinematograph Film Act had given a limited amount of protection to the British film industry in the 1930s. By granting distribution contracts for Hollywood films only to those studios that could make English pictures the government encouraged domestic production. Many of these films were known as ‘quota quickies’, made on tiny budgets in just twelve days or less (Harker 1995). They were shown in double bills next to American fare in the cynical knowledge that audiences would only stay for the Hollywood production. Nevertheless, many directors  and other film personnel learnt their craft on these low budget films or on the more prestigious projects of Korda’s London Films and the larger studios. By 1937, according to Cook (1994), the British industry had the second largest annual output in the world (225 features), yet British producers overstretched themselves financially and the following year saw many bankruptcies.

 

The Second World War both disrupted and boosted the industry: some filmmakers left for the US ; many who remained worked for the government on morale-boosting documentaries and features. The Ministry of Information had to approve all film scripts before production to ensure they supported the war effort in some way. After initially closing down cinemas for fear of bombing, it became clear that such measures were unnecessary and weekly cinema attendance rose from 19 million in 1939 to 30 million in 1945, with cinemas remaining open even during the worst nights of the Blitz (Bordwell 1994). As Lant (1996) remarks, ‘audiences seemed to thrive on the visual luxury and seeming daring of luminous screen display which contrasted so powerfully with the black-out conditions outside’.

 

Far fewer films were made during the war, but production values were higher due to cutbacks on quota quickies. There was also a sharing of filmmaking talent and ideas between features and documentaries. The Crown Film Unit produced an extraordinary series of wartime documentaries including ‘London Can Take It’ (1940) about the Battle of Britain; ‘Target for Tonight’ (1941) following an RAF bombing mission over Germany and ‘Desert Victory’ (1942) about the North African campaign. These films continued the tradition of calm, ‘factual’ style developed at the Empire Marketing Board’s Film Unit by John Grierson in the thirties (see chapter ‘Documentary’). According to Knight (1957) these films did much to boost morale at home and win support for the British in the early years of the war in the United States , without resorting to flamboyant techniques or emotion-charged commentaries.

 

British cinema in the 1940s was dominated by the J. Arthur Rank empire. At the end of 1941 Rank controlled two out of three cinemas, the Pinewood (one of the largest in the world) and Elstree studios and produced at its height more than thirty features per year. With assets of more than 200 million pounds the organisation was comparable in scale to any of Hollywood ’s ‘Big Five’ studios.

 

However, despite the talents of such directors as David Lean and Carol Reed, and considerable domestic success with films like ‘In Which We Serve’ (1942) and ‘Brief Encounter’ (1945), Rank experienced difficulty breaking into the American market. British films tended to be regarded by the American public, particularly outside the cosmopolitan cities, as eccentric and obscure and enjoyed greater success on the small art house circuits.

 

Ealing Studios, with Rank’s backing from 1944 to 1955, and Michael Balcon as head of production, was successful in the domestic market and in a modest way abroad. Balcon’s philosophy was to more or less ignore the American market and produce distinctively ‘British’ films, with an emphasis on ‘realism’ over ‘tinsel’. The ‘national’ qualities of Ealing productions tended to be gently eccentric, humorous, unhurried and reassuringly class bound. ‘Passport to Pimlico’ and ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’ (1949) established the identity of the classic Ealing comedy also typified by ‘The Lavender Hill Mob’ (1951) and ‘The Lady Killers’ (1955). These films adopted realist, documentary-inspired camera work to create a familiar background of post war London life, and then developed, ‘ a fantastic, contrasting plot in that setting to produce humour’ (Lant 1996).

 

Running against the dominant realism, ‘quality’ production values and cultural parochialism of mainstream British cinema were a small core of directors and production companies. Of the directors, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are remembered for their unconventional, sometimes controversial approach to filmmaking. Their use of styles, themes and cinematic experimentation generally rejected by contemporary critics have secured their place in the counter culture of British film history. These include explorations of the surreal and supernatural: ‘A Matter of Life and Death’ (1946); romantic passion and melodrama: ‘Black Narcissus’ (1947), ‘The Red Shoes’ (1948) and ‘Tales of Hoffmann’ (1951); and sexual fantasy and violence: the controversial ‘Peeping Tom’ (1959).

 

Gainsborough studio productions also, to some extent, ran against the grain of British film making. Gainsborough produced a series of successful melodramas aimed at a predominantly female audience exploring in a popular form the confused expectations about a woman’s place in the post-war world. Antonia Lant (1996) takes up this theme:

 

‘Gainsborough’s costume melodramas were disapproved of by critics for straying too far from the realist base of British cinema, matured in the stresses of war. The costumes, sets, and emotions of ‘The Wicked Lady’ were criticised for their excesses, thought particularly frivolous and tasteless in a time of rationing. Lady Barbara Skelton (Margaret Lockwood) is a noblewoman by day, but by night is a masked, armed highway robber who kills for the excitement. The popularity of the film with audiences suggests that the character of a murdering sexy woman gave form to fantasies kept at bay in a society shaped by austerity measures, and in which women, though conscripted, never gained access to the trigger of a gun.’

 

The repressed sexuality, emotional violence and sadism of ‘The Wicked Lady’ (1945) were also popular themes in, for example, ‘The Seventh Veil’ (1945) and ‘Jassy’ (1947). Whilst several of these melodramas were adaptations of respected novels, the films showed a disregard for the conventional realism and restraint of British cinema (Wyver 1989).