British Films

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 23, 14 December 1934, Page 25

British Films

Britain Stuck The Distance America Got Well Away in the Film Race but England is Now Close on Her Heels | ;

Specially written for the "Radio Record"

by

Alan J.

Williamson

Australian and New Zealand

Representative jor Gaumont-britisn.

SOMEBODY has said that history is a processioti of paradoxes. There is certainly more than a flavour of paradox permeating the history of the British film industry. Commercially of. British birth, motion pictures. were so tardily developed in their homeland when they were very young that they fell behind in the race with their American cousins. .

But because they were British they did not relax their tenacity. They stuck the course forthe whole distance, which was 15 years long, gaining 4

little every year. At that juncture, in August, 1914, the whole British natiot: had some very urgent business on hand. and the personnel of its film industrs instantly answered the call, deferred at’ further consideration of its prisate industrial affairs to a much later date At the same time, it made a gesture . characteristically English. It recom mended that the British Government should facilitate continuance of supplies of American pictures for British theatres. To help to alleviate the strain

of war conditions at home was as innportant as contributing to the strength of the fighting army with an expert knowledge of chemistry, photography and electricity. , When the British studios were no longer needed as munition factories or military stores and garages, it was time

to re-establish the most strenuous year in the history of the trade; but by the dawn of 1920 British films were once more definitely in production, and their sponsors, most of them lately engaged in. warfare abroad, .were vigorously prosecuting. the new campaign in. the face of numerous difficulties, chief of

which was the system of block booking that, in th) course of years, has strongly entrenche pitself. The old Gaumont Company, whose English activities had begun in 1898, had once again taken the Jead among the surviving handful of British producers, and, far from giving ground, slowly but surely forged ahead until relief came with the Cinematoeraphie Act of 1927, which annihilated the block booking system and established the British quota. "In the meantime, for all that the industry was fighting grimly to regain lost ground, its laboratories were ‘conducting an _ additional campaign totally different in direction and highly technical. In England scientists had mastered the problem of photographing sound waves and for years had striven for a satisfactory means of projection and reprodu:tion on the screen. By 1926 some measure of success had rewarded the pioneers and two years later further improvements, originating in America, gave that country a brief lead in the production of talkies. Hngland, however, was very close on her heels. On the British public the reaction of the imported talkies was unfavourable owing ‘to the harsh res¢ hance of American speech-and it is interesting to note, in passing, that up. the present day the American studios have zealously played up to the desires of British audiences everywhere, by using Inglish — artists whenever possible, Serious production of English talkies also began in 1928, and with them came

for reasons quite apparent in the light of the foregoing, the real emancipation of the British film industry. In the six years that have elapsed since then,

the makers of British films have written the most spectacular chapter in modern industrial history. At their head stands the huge Gaumont-British Corporation, powerful descendant of that sturdy veteran, the old Gaumont Company,

which gave it its heritage of jJeadership. The enormous development, which has long become international in scope, and even now is wininng new laurels in the largest of all English-speaking markets, pamely, the United States, with the distinctiveness no ‘ess than the quality of its product. Gaumont-British alone has invested a Jarge amount of money in the dlistribution of its product throughout the United States, and reports to hand show that the company has broken records in the largest New York cinemas with each of its first three pictures, namely, "Little Friend," "Chu Chin Chow" and "Jew Suss."

Big British Talkie Successes The following list, taken over the past seven years, gives a very brief idea of British film successes since the talkies were introduced: 1928: "Atlantic." 1929: "Sally in Our Alley." 1930: "Rookery Nook." 1931: ‘‘The Middle Watch." 1932: "My Wife’s Family." 1933: "Sunshine Susie." . 1934: "Henry the Eighth." 1935: ‘‘Blossom Time."