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{Above) Matheson Lang in a scene from Channel Crossing, one of Britain’s best pictures.
{Ceft) Deirdre Gale with Glen, the champion sheepdog, in Song of the Plough
name for themselves. In many cases people stayed away when they were billed.
On the other hand, the quota did give breathing space and a chance to British concerns to whom quality did mean something and it has helped them to build up the fast-growing reputation they now possess.
Now that the British trade is firmly re-established on its feet and gaining international esteem, the quota requirements are rendered unnecessary ; indeed, more than that they are likely to prove a restraining influence in the upward trend of entertainment and quality values for American companies still have to put out a certain number and there is no reason or indication to expect that they will be particular about the class or grade of film they handle.
Exhibitors are now showing far more than the seventeen and a half per cent, required by the Quota Act, and they are not screening them because they have to, but because audiences are asking for them ; their success is registered at the box oflfice.
I am not only talking of the outstanding productions such as The Private Tife of Henry Hill, Channel Crossing, Catherine the Great, The Constant Nymph, and Jew Suss, but of what may aptly be termed the “bread and butter” pictures which go to make up the ordinary programme.
The Ralph Lynn-Tom Walls comedies still continue on their triumphant course. They present a type of comedy which is essentially English and appeals strongly to the English mentality.
American comedies may contain vastly more wisecracks and their action may be speeded up considerably more, but their appeal to the British sense of humour is not, I venture to think, nearly so strong.
{(Continued on page 8)
,P)klTfllN NEEDS NO Quota .Pyimvat’ks
WHEN Britain a few years back was struggling to regain the position in the film world, which some people are apt to forget she held before the War, the quota system was introduced to help her against the weight of money and experience which America had accumulated during the war period.
It was at best a makeshift and led to various abuses in that there was no quality clause, so that American companies could take any old junk that came along to fulfil their necessary quota commitments.
Unfortunately, it was not so easy for the exhibitor. He had to show a percentage of British pictures and quality obviously was a matter of the utmost importance to him.
It was during this early period of recovery that British films began to get a none too enviable
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