filmlover

Mon. Sept. 25th, 1939

The Fifties - Part 1 The 1950s British movies started with a laugh but ended with an angry young man. In the real world, British film attendance was down, and getting worse as the decade began. As in America, TV was keeping people home. A number of cinemas closed. But the film industry kept plugging away, and in the reel world one studio was turning a number of comedies that remain classics today. *Ealing Studios* Ealing Studios was the first film studio in England that still was running at the start of the Fifties, having opened in 1902. It still operates today and per the studio's official website, "Ealing Studios is the oldest continuously working film studio in the world." But in 1955, it was bought by the BBC for TV production work, so ath that time film work mostly vanished. But, oh, those films they did produce from 1951-1955! Alec Guinness starred in a number of these comedy films, bringing his dexterity as an actor to great humorous parts. Think back to 1949's Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played several parts: *The Lavender Hill Mob* As a "by the way", in the opening scene a young lady approached him in a cafe... Yes, indeed, that is Audrey Hepburn at the start of a great career. Here are some behind-the photos... *The Man In The White Suit* More comedies from Ealing *Ealing also had a serious side during the early 1950s...* Not at Ealing, but over at Rank, a young physical comic graduated from TV to delight England's funnybone when he moved over to movies, Norman Wisdom. (And his work is still as funny when you see the films today. ) Other British comedies of the period Edited by: filmlover on Sep 25, 2011 7:27 PM to fix a few things

Just a quick note to make sure everyone watches *Evergreen* tonight with the marvelous *Jessie Matthews* Edited by: filmlover on Sep 24, 2011 10:32 PM to add a picture of a CD featuring a song, "Over the Shoulder", she has in this film. *(Note: Before I forget, if anyone is interested in learning more of Jessie Matthews after seeing the film, I did a post on her in this thread earlier, and you can find it at the following link (look for the post dated Sept. 6th at 9:36 pm):* http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6174/6179433397_92f682567a_b.jpg P.S. -- If you thought yesterday's post had a lot of posters in it, wait until you see the next two!! Here's a small sample to whet your appetite...

Sunday, Sept. 24th, 1939

> {quote:title= > > ugaarte wrote:}{quote} > > Whoa ... What Beautiful Posters you have here, Filmlover . . . and with such 'Luscious' Colors, too ... not to mention the Fabulous Artwork alone, such as in, > > > The 39 Steps, > The Woman Alone, > Secret Agent (with my favorite Peter Lorre), > Bland Balde Riddersman (great, great artwork), AKA When Knights Were Bold > and the endearing 'Brief Encounter', > and the stark reality of the Titanic in 'A Night to Remember' > > > Thank you so much for all your hard work in posting and sharing these > Awesome Pics and Posters. > > > Much Regards, > Ugaarte > Glad you liked it. Makes all the work worthwhile. : )

{font:Arial}{color:black}This is going to be a poster-heavy post (more than 30+ pictures!), so it may take a little extra to show. Be patient and enjoy. It is now time to talk about J. Arthur Rank, the most powerful man in the history of the British film industry. {font} It is almost impossible to describe how huge and important J. Arthur Rank and the Rank Organization were. There are some who believe he was the British film industry. Joseph Arthur Rank was born in 1888, the son of a flour magnate, who told his son that he was a dunce and would never amount to anything. And a few businesses he attempted did fail, so he went back to working for his father. But becoming involved with a religious film group, he developed an interest in making pictures that could be shown at Sunday school and to Methodists (Rank was a Methodist.) {color:black}His first film venture was making a 22-minute short. In the early Thirties, he worked out a deal with Gaumont British to make three spiritual-themed movies. His interest in movie-making increased enormously. In 1934, he formed British National Films. The first film to come out of the new company was an inexpensive film (£30,000), Turn of the Tide, which had Geraldine Fitzgerald in its supporting cast. {color:black}Though it was praised by the critics and won an award at the Venice Festival, it was still not marketed well by Gaumont British. When Rank tried to market it to the head of a cinema chain, the film was rejected by a partner of the chain who said he never heard of Rank and did not want to hear of him. {color:black}As Julia Roberts said in "Pretty Woman" to the Beverly Hills saleswoman who had refused to wait on her, “Big mistake. Huge." {font:Arial}{color:black}Charles Moss Woolf had been managing director of that particular cinema chain, and he was regarded as a great film salesman, but he quit over a disagreement. With the backing of Rank, he set up General Film Distributors. And a syndicate in the U.S. had been created about then to take over Universal Pictures, which was near bankruptcy. Woolf joined the syndicate, thereby arranging a distribution deal in England through GFD. {font} {font:Arial}{color:black}Rank had a new studio, Pinewood, and soon bought out Gaumont British (with a minority percentage still belonging to 20th Century Fox).{font} {font:Arial}{color:black}So now Rank had production abilities and a distribution company. In this game of Movie Monopoly, the next thing that was needed was a chain of theaters. Rank joined the board of the Odeon Theaters. When the head of Odeon died, his widow sold out to Rank.{font} {font:Arial}{color:black}By the mid-1940s, The Rank Organization owned five film studios, a distribution company, and over 650 movie theaters. Not even any of the U.S. studios could match that.{font} {font:Arial}{color:black}Rank attracted major filmmakers like Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger to his newly-formed Independent Producers company by allowing them complete creative control, with a guaranteed distribution of the final film.{font} {font:Arial}{color:black}He was making films like the studio system in America, and even had a Charm School, aka “Company of Youth,” where up-and-coming actors were given training. Students were paid a minimum of {font}{font:Verdana}£{font}{font:Arial}{color:black}20 per week, 52 weeks a year, whether they were working or not. Students included Joan Collins, Dirk Bogarde, Peter Finch, Christopher Lee, and Diana Dors. {font} {font:Arial}{color:black} (Speaking of youth, J. Arthur Rank once fired a young office worker for smoking in a Rank headquarters bathroom. The young man was Michael Caine.){font} {font:Arial}{color:black}And his Ealing studio was about to be the center of great British comedy in the 1950s. However, in 1952, Rank’s older brother died and Rank went back to the flour business, though he retained chairmanship of The Rank Organization until 1962. The company's management was turned over to John Davis, a tough ex-accountant who was not loved by the artistic side, to say the least.{font} {font:Arial}{color:black}J. Arthur Rank died in 1972 (but the organization carried on), and one can look back on thousands of movies that the Rank Organization financed. Movies that run the gamut from Hitchcock to The Carry On Gang to Merchant Ivory. {font} {font:Arial}{color:black} Now the difficulty in picking posters to showcase the Rank Organization would be like trying to find just two dozen or so that covered the entire history of Warner Bros or MGM. As long as you know that, here is just a tiny selection of the films that Rank and the Rank Organization financed through the various studios and partnerships... Sabotage When Knights Were Bold Major Barbara In Which We Serve The Red Shoes Saraband for Dead Lovers {font}

Saturday, September 23rd, 1939

> {quote:title=VP19 wrote:}{quote}Ingrid Bergman, the future Ilsa, making a film for Goebbels (and weeks after the invasion of Poland)? I didn't realize until I read this today that "Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS" must have been a sequel to "Casablanca."

It's a shocker, isn't it? I guess we will be seeing some tell-all book about how she was a German spy. That would be so ridiculous.

Fri., Sept. 22nd, 1939:

{font:Arial}{color:black}When last we were talking about the history of British cinema, it was 1950 and the film industry were on the verge of collapse. The UK's Entertainment Tax was crushing producers and theaters. Just to recap, in 1948, boxoffice net receipts were {font}{font:Arial}£{color:black}70 million, but after taxes the producers saw {font}{font:Times New Roman}£7.5 {font}{font:Arial}{color:black}million. The trouble was that production costs were {font}{font:Times New Roman}£{font}{font:Arial}{color:black}14 million, so that was leading to bankruptcy. Plus, as you will recall, attendance had been dropping at an alarming rate of about 200 million tickets a year since 1946.{font} {font:Arial}{color:black}One reason put forward for this drop off was that after World War II came to an end, people picked the films they want to go see, as opposed to just going to see anything during the war. {font} {font:Arial}{color:black}And television was starting to catch on.{font} {font:Arial}{color:black}As a result of all this, studios were closing down. In 1949, where there had been 26 British studios, they were now only seven working. By 1950, the number of studio employees had decreased by almost half of what it was only a few years before. {font} {font:Arial}{color:black}In June 1950, the Entertainment Tax was adjusted by the Eady Plan, whereby it was meant to reduce taxes and also make available a total {font}{font:Times New Roman}£{font}{font:Arial}{color:black}3 million in reserve for film producers. {font} {font:Arial}{color:black}Movie theaters no longer had entertainment tax removed from tickets that cost up to sevenpence. And tiny cinemas were exempted if they made less than 125 pounds a week. {font} {font:Arial}{color:black}I am not going to go any further about taxes, because there were a lot of myriad details, but it is much too boring to discuss. What can be said is the plan didn't stop the losses. Exhibitors finally ended up increasing ticket admission prices. And a small percent of that went into a British Film Production Fund, which producer could call upon for the making of movies.{font} {font:Arial}{color:black}England{font}{font:Arial}{color:black} was still feeling the scars from the war. This had been a country that until recently had German bombs falling upon it on a regular basis. People needed a look at better times to come. Thus, the Festival of Britain was created, a World's Fair type of exhibition, for the summer of 1951 on the south bank of London. {font} {font:Arial}{color:black} One of the buildings created for the Festival was the Telekinema, a theater to showcase stereoscopic films viewed through Polaroid glasses. I mention the Festival and the Telekinema for only one reason: the British film industry joined together to make a special movie to play there. {font} {font:Arial}{color:black} The movie was The Magic Box (1951) and it has been mentioned earlier in this history. It was a story of a British inventor named William Friese-Greene, a man that some believe invented the first movie camera. The film starred Robert Donat, in a very touching performance as Friese-Greene, and in supporting roles were Laurence Olivier, Richard Attenborough, Leo Genn, Marius Goring, Peter Ustinov, Bessie Love, Glynis Johns, Sidney James, Eric Portman, Margaret Rutherford, Sybil Thorndike, Michael Redgrave, Dennis Price, Stanley Holloway, and many more.{font} {font:Arial}{color:black} With Robert Donat, that's Laurence Olivier as the policeman he shows his invention to. Closer on the pictures: The movie did get distribution in regular movie theaters, but didn’t do very well. (I still find a very enjoyable film if only for the performance of Robert and the other great stars of British cinema.) {font} {font:Arial}{color:black}The film was produced by Ronald Neame and distributed by J. Arthur Rank.{font} {font:Arial}{color:black}Speaking of which, I can no longer hold off on the subject of J. Arthur Rank, a producer like none other in the British film industry. And with that subject tomorrow will come: And many, many more glories of the British Cinema.{font} Edited by: filmlover on Sep 21, 2011 11:45 PM to fix typos

A special note: blu-ray.com has just listed their review of the new Blu Ben-Hur and gives it their highest recommendation, including a 5 out of 5 for both video and audio. http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Ben-Hur-Blu-ray/756/#Review

"See I don't count those others because to me they are insigtnificant." LOL, it might help avoid raised inflamed cries of "What, are you kidding?!" if you added the words "to me" to statements like "Cagney's last great film", such as "To me, Cagney's last great film." That way makes it a personal view, and not so much "so let it be written, so let it be done" "those are the facts and anything else you all think is wrong" kind of feeling that came across originally. (LOL, remember, arrogance is only a gift of the young because they don't know better.)

Oops, you're right about that.

Yikes! Racing the clock again before today runs out. Wed., Sept. 20th, 1939

Including when she was an extra in Quo Vadis. Sighhhhh. What can one say except, "Grazie mille, TCM!"

Just a note to those of us in the Los Angeles area. The Egyptian Theater in Hollywood is going to have a salute to the films of Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. 9/21 at 7:30 PM: A Canterbury Tale 9/25 at 7:30 PM: The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus 9/28 at 7:30 PM: Peeping Tom 9/29 at 7:30 PM: Gone to Earth and A Matter of Life and Death

*James Mason* James Mason was one of the greatest actors to emerge from the UK. He had a career there in the 1940s that was remarkable, to say the least, and then again in Hollywood in the 1950s. Mason made a number of B pictures in England when he started out, films such as Late Extra (1936), Twice Branded (1936), and Troubled Waters (1936). In 1937, he appeared in an unbilled role of a traitor in the Laurence Olivier-Vivien Leigh film Fire Over England. This was an Alexander Korda production, and for the second time Korda had not recognized the star quality of James Mason, having previously hired him for a role in The Private Life Of Don Juan, but then let him go before filming started. Mason went on to appear in films such as I Met A Murderer (1939), Alibi (1942), Thunder Rock (1942), as well as The Bells Go Down (1943) as the head of a fire station. With Deborah Kerr in Hatter's Castle (1941) As mentioned yesterday, it was The Man In Grey in 1943 that made him a superstar in England. He was the most popular male star in Great Britain. In Fanny By Gaslight, he was a bad guy again and, of course, the ladies loved him. And even more remarkable, in a film called The Seventh Veil (1945), he was so upset with one woman in the film playing the piano, he slammed his walking stick across her fingers while she was playing. In cinema history, it may be among the most violent and appalling moments against a woman . But when the time came later, even after this brutal act, she still chose him over other suitors because she loved him. Fanny By Gaslight American-titled poster for Fanny By Gaslight Other great performances followed: The WIcked Lady (1945) They Were Sisters (1945) Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1947) Odd Man Out (1947) had an amazing performance, as an Irish terrorist on the run. It wasn't long after that Mason got offers from Hollywood, but due to contract obligations he had to remain in England a while longer. Of course, he did make it to America, and those films you know. (Oddly enough, one of those Hollywood films, The Prisoner of Zenda (1952), had Stewart Granger with top billing, a reversal of their situation in England.) Love this photo. (Battling over billing for The Prisoner of Zenda?) James Mason was a wonderful actor, no matter what continent he was on, and he was excellent in whatever he appeared. You can see some of his earliest films here: I Met A Murderer (1939) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Iyr62IeFO4 Hatter’s Castle (1941): Though the following picture is from an American film, The Last of Sheila, I wanted to include it because it is one of my favorite movies. And people who have seen it will understand the significance of this photo. Edited by: filmlover on Sep 19, 2011 11:21 AM to fix some typos

Tuesday, Sept. 19th, 1939 Before I list today's articles and ads, take a look at this photo from the war news on the reverse side of the page Okay, now on to the entertainment news

ON TCM today, a British film you must see: The Red Shoes

{font:}Before I return to where I left off in the history of British cinema (1950), I want to have a special post look at one particular film that elevated four actors to stardom in the UK during the during the 1940s. {font} {font:}The film was "The Man in Grey" (1943)...{font} {font:}...and the actors were James Mason, Stewart Granger, Margaret Lockwood, and Phyllis Calvert.{font} {font:}{font} {font:}Each had appeared in films before then (most notably, Margaret Lockwood played the young heroine in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" (1938)), but this film increased the popularity of two stars, and made superstars in the UK of the other two.{font} {font:}The movie begins in modern day England duruing WWII, with Granger, in a dual role, at an auction, looking to purchase a family heirloom, and meets lovely Phyllis Calvert (also in a dual role in the film). Time flashes back on the item in question and we see the history of intense relationships...between a man of many trades, but primarily actor (Granger), and the beautiful young, sweet woman he comes to fall in love with, played by Calvert. The problem is complicated because she is married to a brooding, aloof, and dangerously violent lord (Mason), who in turn is having an affair with a woman (Lockwood) that happens to be the wife’s best friend. And the woman will do anything to remove the wife from the scene. {font} {font:}SPOILER MOVIE ENDING ALERT: The wife comes down with pneumonia and her supposed best friend sits with her in the bedroom. Lockwood's character hears conflicting voices in her head, at times the kind friendliness of Calvert, other times the voice of the Lord telling her to leave forever. She tears the blankets off the wife, and opens the window to the storm outside. The wife dies and her "friend" thinks she now will be able to marry the Lord. However, he learns of her guilt and throws her on the floor, then gets a riding cane and whips her to death. Returning to the present day, the descendants of each family miss bidding on the auction time but they have found each other and walk off happily. (Note: It is believed the beginning and ending with the modern-day auction setting were tacked because they couldn't just end it on the violence that took place in the past. ) END OF SPOILER {font} {font:}Stewart Granger and Phyllis Calvert’s popularity increased because of this film...but Mason and Lockwood became box office champions. {font} {font:}Time Magazine said of Mason: "Swaggering through the title role, sneering like a lot, barking like Gable and frowning like Laurence Olivier on a dark night, he is likely to pick up many a feminine fan." That proved to be an understatement. Women loved him! Again proving nice guys do finish last in a woman's heart when there is a bad boy around. The worse he treated women in subsequent films, the more they wanted him. {font} {font:}Lots more of James Mason tomorrow, but for now here are a whole bunch of images from this movie. {font} {font:} {font} {font:}{font} {font:}Granger and Calvert during a happier moment in the film.{font} {font:}{font} {font:}James Mason's brooding lord made Pride and Prejudice's Mr. Darcy look giddy by comparison.{font} {font:}{font} {font:}{font} {font:}Having an affair with his wife's best friend (Lockwood)...{font} {font:}{font} {font:}...and then telling her they are through. Which leads her to...(see SPOILER above) {font} {font:}{font} {font:}He discovers she did it and shows her how he knows...which leads...{font} {font:}{font} {font:}...to him delivering her punishment.{font} {font:} {font} {font:}Some of the great posters for the film:{font} {font:}{font} {font:}{font} {font:}{font} Edited by: filmlover on Sep 18, 2011 9:11 PM

Thanks, ugaarte! Really appreciate reading what you had to say. I am a great fan of Brief Encounter, too. Thinking about it, that was a film in which sound played so important a part. Anyway, back I go to doing today's post. I hope you will like it.

johnbabe wrote: who cares about British cinema, everyone of the stars and some directors too, came to Hollywood where they really made films! A few days ago in this same thread you wrote: BRITISH FILMS ARE NOTORIOUSLY BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 WHO WANTS TO SEE THESE FILMS, WHEN WE HAVE SO MANY GEMS OF OUR OWN! I was kind then and replied: "One of the great pleasures of being a movie fan is seeing something new. In America, we have seen so many -- if not all -- of the great American movie classics. We can watch them again and again, yes, but each time we know what is coming. We don't get that wonderment that comes from seeing a film we haven't before and possibly getting swept up by it. With British films, it basically is a film library unexplored, a library with thousands of unseen movies featuring stars that many-a-time came to America! Such as James Mason, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Stewart Granger, Charles Laughton, Margaret Rutherford, Leslie Howard, Alec Guinness, and Peter Sellers. Plus talent equal to our own that never came across the Atlantic. It would be kind of like you passing up any Garbo films before she came to America." Others also commented nicely to you their thoughts about British films not being boring. However, since you have returned to start what appears to be a fight here, I will simply report your post to the mod to have it removed.

Monday, Sept. 18th, 1939

cinemafan, really glad you like the ones shown. There were a few more after this that would be okay for TCM viewing but after that there are too many that have contents that would be way out of place here. But if you can get ahold of a multi-region DVD player, Amazon.UK has a complete set of Carry On films (well, except for Carry On Columbus, made 14 years afer the last one in the original series, but Columbus was a film that C.O.fans consider so bad they don't count it as part of the Carry On films). http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carry-Ultimate-Collection-DVD/dp/B001CWLFJ0/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1316354462&sr=1-2 I have a set and prints are excellent.