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films of the quarter
HOME— FROM ABROAD
FORSYTH HARDY
The major British films for the quarter have been British in subject, if not all British in origin. America's movie regard for this country, of which preliminary intimation was given by the faithful and reverential Cavalcade, has apparently steadily swollen, and we have since had Treasure Island, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, The Key, Vanessa, the Barrie films, the Dickens films, and now the films of the British in India. There is, of course, a commercial explanation for this unnatural display of devotion, as there is a commercial explanation for most of the apparently inexplicable enthusiams of film production. The revenue which an American picture derives from the British market is a bulky weight in the profit and loss scales. The flattering of the British film-goer is thus a simple commercial necessity. With the limitation of the foreign market through language barriers, Hollywood is obliged to regard Britain and the English-speaking possessions as its main source of revenue outside America. No longer can it afford to think only of the American film-goer in planning its productions. Thus we have the handsome and meticulously respectful David Copperfield and the discreet and dignified Lives of a Bengal Lancer. "It pays to be polite," the producers murmur, surveying the balance-sheets.
This material motive perceived, it would be idle to search for special significance in this latest movie tendency ; yet from the point of view of the film as a vehicle for national expression, the development is interesting. The impression of British life which these Americanmade films create abroad is important for this country. They are going to be shown all over the world, and a large percentage of the audience, untravelled, illiterate, is going to accept this Britain as the real thing. Is it? So far, Hollywood has been cautious and there has been flattery rather than defamation. But Hollywood has not forgotten the firmly established maxim that trade follows the film, and has been careful not to show British methods and institutions and commerce in a more favourable light than American. Generally in those American-British films, there is the suggestion that Britain is just a little backward, that it is an old-world country of Tudor mansions and tottering taxi-cabs, of dull-witted policemen and gruff, grumpy generals, of antique plumbing systems and venerable timbered houses, out of which it would be no surprise to see Mr.
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