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The Path Ahead
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Films, Inc., in the United States. His own renting organisation here, General Film Distributors, will carry on normal work, but the new companies will be particularly charged with the duty of selling our productions overseas.
TN the great allied onslaught against the forces of the Axis, there * has been a greater lesson in selfless co-operation than the world has ever seen, but it would be out of all reason to calculate on any such spirit animating the commercial activities of the nations after the war has been brought to a satisfactory end. On the contrary, competition has always ruled, and it will undoubtedly characterise our international trade again as soon as this becomes possible. Consequently, we have to prepare as efficiently as we can for a fight, even if it is a friendly fight, for the adequate presentation of our goods in foreign markets.
Of all foreign markets, America is outstandingly the most important. There are many reasons to account for our lack of success hitherto, and it is no use ignoring the fact that quality is a considerable one. And it is not often even our best pictures have an irresistible appeal to U.S. patrons. Making full allowance for these points, however, our producers have experienced a good deal of sales resistance and somehow or other this must be overcome. The natural bias of the American public for their own country's output can be understood, but British producers feel they have had Tess than a fair opportunity, and in selling goods which rely upon novelty and variety of appeal, as films do, some playing time might reasonably be expected. To establish a selling organisation over there seems therefore an obvious first step, and Eagle-Lion has been designed to carry out this policy.
The rest of the world must also represent an urgent call, and while selection of subjects and treatment will have to be based upon something like universal appeal — or as near to that ideal as we can reach — there must also be the added handicap of language. However, dubbing is by now a highly developed art, and it will play its part in the endeavour to let the rest of the globe share our ideas, our culture, and above all, our entertainment. This last is, as always, the executive word. A scheme for collective planning has been proposed, but its welcome was not very cordial, and all indications point to the necessity for individual action. Mr. Rank has the spirit, and he has the resources to put up a fight in which the whole of the British industry might have participated.
AA EANTIME, the Industry is having its full share of anxieties about the present, and occasional lack of enthusiasm about the future can be understood. Owing to the decline in output — which is almost as marked in America as it is in our own studios,