Minutes of evidence taken before the Departmental Committee on Cinematograph Films (1936)

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE 89 26 May, 1936.] Mr. T. H. Fligelstone and Mr. W. R. Fuller. {Continued. 787. Would it not be right to say that the only part of Scotland is Glasgow and neighbourhood? — No, practically all our Scottish members complain. (Mr. Fuller) : And I think it is admitted by the British producers that they have difficulties there. 788. The Scots have a natural preference for foreign made films? — (Mr. Fligelstone) : They have a natural resentment to British films, let us put it in that way. 789. What parts of London ?— (Mr. Fuller) : The East End is one. 790. Whitechapel ?— Yes. 791. Stepney, Limehouse, Mile End?— (Mr. Fligelstone): Yes, and Walthamstow and Leyton. 792. And Hackney?— Yes. (Mr. Fuller) : There are one or two other parts, but I am not sure which they are, where they do not go. 793. Clapton? — Practically all the industrial poorer neighbourhoods of London they are not liked. 794. How far would it be right to say that it is the foreign and Jewish elements in these parts of London which are mainly responsible for that particular feeling? — That is not so. I have a theatre at Walthamstow. I believe that the population at Walthamstow is practically 99 per cent. non-Jewish; and they resent British films there. 795. Is it fairly accurate to say that most Jews in all branches of the film industry here and abroad trace their origin to a common mid-iEuropean bloc, and they have a natural antipathy to the British outlook as represented in the films? — (Mr. Fuller): No, the British films, a good many of them," are produced by those people. 796. It has been alleged to us in evidence that there has been a tendency of certain elements in this country, alien elements, deliberately to go to West End theatres and to barrack British films as such? — (Mr. Fligelstone) : Well, I think, my Lord, that this matter should be cleared up definitely. The proportion of the Jewish population of London is very small. 797. How many? — I cannot give you the exact figure, but it must be very little. How many thousand Jews are there in the country altogether? 798. There are about 370,000, I think, in London alone? — And what is 370,000 amongst the population of London, and as I have told you, in my own theatre in Walthamstow, where there are no Jews present, there is still the same antipathy. I do not agree that there is any section of this country who go to cinemas to barrack films or to make a fuss. They just do not like British films. 799. To what extent is the prejudice shown against the British film made by the American companies as against the British film made by the British companies? — Nil. If I may say so, when the public see a British film they do not know whether it is made by a British company or an American company, they just go in the same way, as I might suggest you and I do, to see these films. I see these " credit titles," but I do not remember the names of the cameramen, scenario writers or other technicians, and I see film after film. 800. In paragraph 10 (4) do you mean that the good British shorts are not produced in sufficient numbers? — All British shorts are not produced in sufficient numbers. 801. Could not exhibitors have given more encouragement to the producers of documentary interest films to make up for this shortage? — So far as the documentary film is concerned — are you coming on to the documentary film? 802. I am dealing with it, it is not mentioned in your evidence, but it is a short film? — Well, I am not quite certain what the documentary film is. I happened to hear Mr. Guedella the other day giving a definition of a documentary film; he said, "if machinery was photographed upside clown that would be a documentary film," but all we come in contact with is entertainment, and we do not say : 36452 " Is this educational, is this documentary, or is this scenic "? It is just what we see and how is it going to take? 803. You have read Paul Rotha's book " Documentary " ? — I have not. 804. That would give you a fairly good definition of the word? — I will make a note of that. 805. I am thinking of the film " Shipyard," for example, or films like " The Drifters " ?— And " The Voice of Britain." 800. Yes ? — Let me tell you what happened to a film of this kind. I saw such a film myself, and I said to myself, " This is not a bad British film and if it was cut down to about half I would book it." Well, it was booked against me fortunately, and the experience that the opposition had who played it was unfortunate. The public would not have it and will not have it, and I believe that happened right throughout the country; and, furthermore, I believe that the Association in their Report gave very good marks to that film. What I am getting at is this, the public come into our cinemas to be amused, not educated. If their amusement can be so guided that it is educational, that is all right, but they will not come in to be educated, and that goes back to the time when I handled myself a series of films called " Marvels of the Universe." That is going back perhaps ten or fifteen years ago, and still they will not have educational films as such. 807. Will you carry your mind back to the Empire Marketing Board days? — Yes. 808. Did you have any success with their films? — No. 809. Will you carry your mind back to " Drifters", the " Post Office " and the like, did you get any change out of them? — No. (Mr. Fuller): "Drifters", I think, is the only one of those that did any good. No documentary film, in order to get it in its right aspect, has ever set the Thames on fire. I spent a weekend looking through to see what the results were of something I said to our viewers. We have a number of viewers who produce a full report each week, and that is sent to our members, and I think it is accepted everywhere as more or less a standard report. Well, I think about twelve months ago I said to our viewers, who were constantly bringing to me various invitations to attend educational films, " You had better cover all these things in future and treat them all kindly ", as most of them were dealt with by the small firms, and I spent this week-end looking through the results of last year, and with the kindest of treatment they are a very, very ordinary lot from an entertainment point of view. (Mr. Fligelstone) : From an entertainment point of view, we do not say from an educational point of view. (.1/;-. Fuller) : I believe you can say from the educational point of view. We do not want to discuss the affairs of the British Film Institute here, but we have looked at them very closely on the educational side, and I do not want anybody to think we are opposed to them, because it has been the exact opposite. When you look through them there is very little which you can take hold of, they are a bunch of half and halfers, they are not good education and they are not good entertainment. I think that sums them up 810. In sub-paragraph (4) of paragraph 10 you referred to long British films. Do you mean full length first or second features as opposed to supers? — (Mr. Fligelstone) : No, just long British films. 811. Is it not a fact that there are a good many exhibitors in the circuits who woidd prefer to bill an American second feature above a British first feature even on equal quality? — In those districts where the public resent British films definitely yes, but normally the exhibitor will display his most attractive goods, in the same way as the grocer or the greengrocer displays his best goods in the window. The exhibitor docs exactly the same. We have got to attract the public into our cinemas and we put on top what we think is the best attraction. M