The beginning of the war in 1939 seemed to pose a threat to an already insecure British film industry, particularly following the general slump in home-grown British film production in 1937-8. Shepperton hadn't been used since 1937, Pinewood had been closed since 1938, and the new Amalgamated Studios at Elstree had been snapped up by competitors and then leased to the Government as a warehouse. But, in 1939, Britain's 4,8000 cinemas were definitely not closed, and there was considerable pressure on the British Film Industry to produce British films to supply the obvious need for films to show, partly for financial reasons (to prevent over-reliance in import costs for American films), but also to resist the cultural impact of unleavened Americanism. The Board of Trade, unlike the Treasury, was happy to rely on US imports, and US companies were legally required to handle a certain percentage of British films, until it was shown that British film-making could be profitable - Warners, MGM, Twentieth century Fox, Columbia and RKO were all involved in the production of British films at their British studios.
The key British studios - Ealing, British National and Gainsborough - which had emerged in the 1930s did survive and propser throughout the War, mainly because of wealthy patriotic backers. In 1938 Michael Balcon had become Head of Production at Ealing, and the company had the backing of the Courtauld family; Gainsborough, backed by the Jewish financier Isidore Ostreer, had contracts with MGM and Twentieth century Fox; British National (Rank), founded by flour millionaire J. Arthur Rank, later took over production at Elstree, revitalised by the presence of John Baxter.
The Ministry of Information had been planned in 1937, but the Ministry was not well organised, even until Lord Reith (from the BBC) joined, until his resignation in 1940. The Film Division, in the early War years, was headed by the Conservative Joseph Ball, who was reluctant to bring in the pre-War documentary film makers because of suspicion about their political allegiances. His successor, Kenneth Clark, formerly of the National Gallery, was more enlightened, and he brought documentarists such as the Italian Cavalcanti and Henry Watt into the fold. Clark, and his successor Jack Beddington, revitalised the Propaganda movement, and its input into popular films, including the making of Pressburger and Powell's 49th Parallel. Other notable films included London can Take It and Target for Tonight.
Across the spectrum of hum-drum Ministry of Information films
(with their mixture of informative, propagandist, flag-waving
tendencies), one figure stands out, Humphrey Jennings. Jennings
had been one of the organisers of the Mass Observation movement,
which was launched in 1937. He had also been involved in the documentary
film movement, then dominated by John Grierson, in 1934-5 and
from 1938 to 1945. Jennings also had an active interest in Modernist
Architecture, in surrealism, and in experimental film. In 1938
Jennings had been involved in the GPO film-making unit, but it
was the coming of War which allowed his talents to shine, and
provided him with a mobilising purpose. Whereas pre-War documentary
films had been invariably tied to sponsors such as the GPO or
the Gas Board (which meant that potentially radical subject matter
had to be toned down), the war freed him. Key films in which Jennings
was involved include Fires were Started, The Silent
Village (a Welsh village under hypothetical Nazi rule), Heart
of Britain, Words for Battle (1941; an assemblage of patriotic
verse), Listen to Britain, and A Diary for Timothy
(1945, scripted by E.M. Forster). More significant than these
was the film of Went the Day Well (1942), directed by Cavalcanti
and based on an idea by Graham Greene, a story of German agents
quietly taking control over an English village.
It is interesting to contrast the responses of the three major studios to the challenge of making Wartime films. Ealing, under Michael Balcon, vowed "to grasp with both hands the opportunity of putting every phase of the war on the screen". The equally-sized Gainsborough Studios, by contrast, vowed to go for escapism, "Good themes and good laughs".
Ealing: Ealing was dominated by the influence of Michael
Balcon, who had become head of production in 1938 (having worked
for Gaumont British, 1931-6). For the next thirty years he maintained
a commitment to 'British' films, often modestly budgeted. He also
brought with him a number of talented figures, including Charles
Frend, Charles Critchon, Robert Hamer, Basil Dearden, Cavalcanti
and Henry Watt. Key War-time films included The Big Blockade
(1941), The Foreman Went to war, Went the Day Well
(1942), San Demetrio-London, and In Which We Serve.
By 1944, however, Ealing was aware that the British audiences
were tiring of war films, and Ealing had to respond to the new
movement for popular social change.
Gainsborough: In the first three ways of the war Gainsborough
enjoyed modest success with a diet of Arthur Askey comedies, and
more prestigious films such as Kipps. At the end of 1941
Rank took over the whole of Gaumont-British (of which Gainsborough
was a part), but allowed Gainsborough a semi-autonomous status.
By 1943 the studio had got into its stride, producing films including
We Dive At Dawn, Millions Like Us and the Man
in Grey. Later films included Fanny by Gaslight, The
Wicked Lady and Love Story, all very popular melodramas.
Rank: Rank's involvement in film production began in 1933, via the religious film Society, and in 1935 Rank led bids for a new studio, Pinewood, and a film distribution company, General Film Distributors. In 1938 Rank bought Elstree and Denham, followed by Gaumont- British in 1941, and also became chairman of the Odeon group of cinema circuits. His most notable wartime role was his overseeing of 'The Archers' (Powell and Pressburger), but more significantly his emergence as the dominant influence in film production and distribution. His other achievements included In Which We Serve, Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, Henry V, Oliver Twist and The Way to the Stars. By 1947 Rank's influence had extended to America, and his involvement in multi-national film-making and distribution led the way to the internationalisation of the British film industry.
The period of the Phoney War, 1939-40, was marked by films which
either avoided wartime subjects, or skirted gently around them:
Band Waggon (Arthur Askey, Gainsborough); Let George
Do It (1940, George Formby, Ealing); Gasbags (1940,
Crazy Gang, Gainsborough); Also a prevalence of comic thrillers
about spies and fifth columnists. There were, however, more serious
attempts to deal with the early war years, including the emergence
of The Archers (Powell and Pressburger), and Paster Hall,
dealing with German concentration camps (John and Ray Boulting).
One trend in the period was the Resistance Film, important because the projection of an occupied Europe ready to rise up against tyrannical oppressors was a ready means of legitimating the War. "Adventure, secrecy, the threat of torture and death, dare-devil missions... beautiful and mysterious women", these were ideal subject matter for popular films, the most popular and best of them being Powell and Pressburger's One of our Aircraft is Missing.
One feature of the war was the emergence of a "War culture", "populist, strident, sentimental, insistent on immediate answers to the Big Questions, tempered by the awareness of the suddenness of death". This was linked to a wider Wartime popular culture, associated with figures such as George Formby, Vera Lynn and Tommy Handley.
The American version of populist film had been Mrs. Miniver
(1942), America's idealised Hollywood version of England at War,
with Greer Garson doing her bit at the village flower show whilst
husband Walter Pigeon brings the British army home from Dunkirk.
Like Gone With the Wind MGM's Mrs. Miniver was immensely
popular in Britain, but also popular was Powell and Pressburger's
A Canterbury Tale (1944), dealing with the impact of American
GIs in England.
Throughout the 1930s the British Board of Film Censors had exerted
strict moral and political censorship of British films, and this
influence was supplemented in wartime by the influence of the
Ministry of Information. With the Labour Party involved in the
wartime coalition it was left to outsiders amongst the liberal
and left-of-centre intelligentsia to voice popular forms of social
dissent. Wartime, it might be remembered, also saw the publication
of the Beveridge Report (1942) with its blueprint of the
Welfare State) and the emergence of a new party, Common Weal,
committed to social justice and the doctrine of welfarism and
nationalisation. Beyond this there was the wider climate of opinion
which led to the Labour Government's election of 1945, with its
programme of widespread social and economic reform. Within this
context it is worth noting the impact on British film in the period.
One example was the making of Love on the Dole: attempts
to film it had been vetoed by the BBFC until 1941, when the War
had put an end to unemployment, and British national were given
the go-ahead to make the film, with John Baxter as director. Another
indication of the sea-change in attitudes was seen at the close
of a film like Millions Like Us: whilst the film concentrates
on the wartime experience, it ends with a prophetic anticipation
of the need for new social attitudes when the War is finally over,
and the call for no return to the misery and unemployment of the
1930s.