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THE FILM SINCE THEN
The great revival of British production since 1942, stimulated partly by wartime conditions and partly by Rank's manoeuvres (and capital power) are familiar. By comparison with any previous period, the British Film Industry to-day seems in an excellent position. But I want seriously to suggest that the position has, in reality, changed in no essential way since the first burgeoning days of Korda and his London Films; and that, for this reason, it is quite possible that the present boom could be followed by disastrous collapse once again within the foreseeable future, although one hopes the contrary.1
Rank's strategy seems to be based for the most part on, once again, capturing a substantial slice of the American market in order to recoup his high production costs. He is penetrating other overseas markets as well, but his main dependence is clearly on the United States. He has gone about this skilfully. Assuring distribution by complicated deals with American firms, he has reversed the former pre-doomed policy of Korda and Gaumont-British, and sought approval of metropolitan audiences. No longer are British films the last resort of hard-pressed exhibitors in the slums or the country towns of America. They are shown, with great eclat, on Park Avenue and even occasionally at Radio City Music Hall. Prestige is theirs. Every list of the ten best films of the year contains from three to six British productions vastly to the annoyance of Hollywood. They have replaced French films as the fad of the intelligentsia. But their vogue and prestige are hollow. They are liked by the upper income-level groups because they are literate, because they flirt with ideas, because they are invested with the traditions of the English theatre and of English acting. But how hollow this vogue and this prestige actually are can be demonstrated by the fact that
1 Mr. Griffith is writing before the Anglo-American Film Agreement was signed and before Mr. Rank announced his £2 million loss on 'prestige' films destined for the U.S. market, and, even more important, before the fixing of the 45% quota of British feature films for British cinemas in the Cinematograph Films Act of 1948, which may result in even less playing-time for British pictures in the United States as a retaliatory measure for the high quota figure. — P.R.
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