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THE BRITISH FILM its judgment until it should see the product of this studio
* Not only this, but producers lack the courage of their own convictions. When the dialogue film swept mto England by way of the American-owned theatres in London, several directors mftM studios were just beginning to grasp the rudimentary principles of film construction. They were groping and slowly ^STwhS themselves some ideas on the theory of the cinema. But the whole studio organisation of this country was thrown into chaos by the American revolution of the dialogue film. If only one firm had remained level-headed when the tidal wave came I am convinced that the best intelligences in British studios would have stood with it and would have acted independently of the dialogue innovation If one company had been content with small profits and a gradual increase of its output, developing its knowledge of the silent film there would have been some tendency, some initiative, some independence in the British cinema of which to write. As it was the studios tried to transform their inadequate knowledge of film-making into 'the new technique,' and continued with their slavish imitation of the American cinema.
The importation of foreign talent did not have the same influence in British studios as it did at an earlier date in Hollywood. It will be remembered that the work of Lubitsch, von Stroheim, Pommer, and Seastrom had serious effect on the minds of the younger school of American directors. But in England, Arthur Robison, E. A. Dupont, and Henrik Galeen, three directors of talent, have had no effect on the British school. On the contrary, their ideas were totally misunderstood and unappreciated in our studios. Foreign directors failed to discover in England the collectivism and team-work so vital to film production. They were unable to understand our idea of picture-sense and we were at a loss to interpret their filmic outlook. (E.g., Robison's The Informer and Galeen s After the Verdict; yet these directors had earlier been responsible for Manon Lescaut and The Student of Prague. The conclusion to be drawn is obvious.) Dupont alone attained to some measure of success in Piccadilly, but only because he employed a German cameraman and architect. The importation of foreign talent was due to the eternal craze for a picture of international appeal. Producers were convinced that the inclusion of a foreign star would
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