British Kinematography (1949)

Ill had made into film finance, with the inevitable accompaniment of adventurers with little or no qualification to produce films — because the first Quota Act had been more or less brought into disrepute by the " quickies " which flooded the market — the prestige of the film industry generally was then at a low ebb. It is no secret now, that in the early days a move had been made to disband the machinery working the Quota Act, and it looked as though the history of the first world war would be repeated as far as British film making was concerned. There was no immediate protection of studio personnel, who were joining up or being called up at a fast rate. The American production interests here, anticipating no doubt the collapse of the renters' Quota, ceased production. The Government's attitude towards the industry was undefined, but there seemed to be a vague idea that the G.P.O. film unit could furnish all that was required of wartime production ; indeed, the G.P.O. unit — later to become the Crown Film Unit — did a very fine job, but their mandate in the main was to make propaganda shorts, instructional five-minuters and so on. Wartime Role of the Film Were production of commercial features to have been abandoned, the production industry would have really gone down irrevocably, as I maintain it could never have survived a hiatus of six years. Fortunately, the war found even film producers in a fighting mood. It did not require much imagination to realise the post-war consequences economically (and, indeed, from every other point of view) of being without a national film industry. But even if any of us lacked that imagination, the lesson was quickly drummed into us by such enemy films as " Baptism of Fire," that there was an actual and practical wartime use for films, which meant that a closing down of the industry meant the immediate loss of a potential weapon of war. And, in retrospect, it is no idle claim to make that British films did play their part in rousing American opinion, in relations with allied and neutral countries, in keeping up the morale of the troops, and, more particularly, of the civilians in a war in which the civilians were more fully involved than ever before. Wartime Film Production Two factors emerged, both of the greatest importance and the widest implications. The first, of course, was the purely psychological effect of the conflict on film-makers, as on all creative people. It is a comment on the human scene on which I am not qualified to enlarge that, as flowers grow on bombed sites, so out of the horrors of all wars all arts begin to blossom. The second was an understandable external influence on the type of film produced. It was an understood thing, since personnel was reserved and materials in short supply were required for manufacture, that only films could be made which were considered " worth while." This did not mean that all films had to be propaganda : the question of keeping up morale was rightly considered as being within the category. Yet the total effect was salutary. Every subject that cameuip for discussion in the studios had to be examined in the light : was it right to use much needed timber for this purpose — much needed metal for that — much needed personnel for the other ? This was a spur which gave film producers, as at no other time, a sense of their deep responsibility towards the State and towards their fellow citizens. From this spur sprang such films — at Ealing alone — as " The Foreman Went to France," " Next of Kin," " Nine Men," " San Demetrio, London " and in other studios "49th Parallel," "We Dive at Dawn," "The Way Ahead/' " The Way to the Stars," " The First of the Few," " In Which We Serve,"