The Imperfect Woman: Femininity and British Cinema, 1945-1958
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Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Mash, Melinda (1996) The imperfect woman: femininity and British cinema, 1945-1958. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. [Thesis] Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/13594/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. 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See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy Middlesex University • London Middlesex University Research Repository: an open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Mash, Melinda, 1996. The imperfect woman: femininity and British cinema, 1945-1958. Available from Middlesex University's Research Repository. Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University's research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this thesislresearch project are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Any use of the thesislresearch project for private study or research must be properly acknowledged with reference to the work's full bibliographic details. This thesis/research project may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from it, or its content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address: [email protected] The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. The imperfect woman. Femininity and British Cinema, 1945-1958. A thesis submitted to Middlesex University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Melinda Mash Middlesex University January 1996. Abstract This thesis investigates the reconstruction of femininity in Britain in the post-war period (1945-1958). This is carried out through an examination of the socio economic and cultural formation of the period, contemporaneous cultural commentaries, contemporary critical writing about the cinema audience, and selected British films from the period, including a detailed study of Yield to the Night (1956). The thesis utilises a range oftheoretical approaches to these issues - film theory, feminist theory and epistemology, social and oral history, discourse theory and textual analysis. The methodological framework of the thesis reflects its feminist concerns and, in tum, engages with debates within feminist theory concerning questions of methodology and epistemology. Accordingly, the first chapter outlines the methodological framework of the thesis as well as situating it in relation to published work in similar areas. In addition, this chapter introduces the themes of the subsequent chapters and clarifies certain key terms used throughout. The second chapter concentrates on the socio-economic and cultural formation of the period 1945-1958 and argues that this period is marked by particular discursive formations - 'Austerity', 'Affluence' and' Americanisation'. These are then discussed in relation to the ways that they are gendered and thus promote prescribed forms of femininity and womanliness. Chapter three focuses on the presentation of the period in terms of women's experiences of the time. This is achieved through an analysis of the tensions between domesticity, women's entry into the labour market and the discursive pressures on women at this time. Chapter four extends the arguments presented in the previous chapters with reference to selected films from the period - Dance Hall (1950), Turn the Key Softly (1953) and Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), which is discussed with reference to Brief Encounter (1945). Chapter five analyses two film publications from the period - Penguin Film Review (1946-1949) and The Picturegoer (1931-1960) - in order to establish the discursive construction of the female cinema audience. Finally, Chapter six is an in-depth analysis of Yield to the Night (1956) with respect to critical and audience reception of the film and the issue of the construction of 'Affluent femininity. ' List of Contents List of Illustrations 11 Acknowledgements IV Title page 1 Chapter one: Introduction, Methodology and the process of research 2 Chapter two: Constructing the period 1945-1958 - Austerity, Affluence and Americanisation 40 Chapter three: Women and Social Context - 'Work' and 'the Home' 119 Chapter four: Imaging Femininity - Class and Consumption 152 Chapter five: Critical Discourse and the Female Audience 212 Chapter six: Yield to the Night - Consumption, Femininity and the Limits of Appropriate Womanliness 261 Conclusion: Sex, Class and the Unconscious 323 Appendix 338 Select Filmography 343 Bibliography 348 11 List of Illustrations Illustrations 1 to 7 are all reproduced from Osbert Lancaster: Signs o/the Times, 1961. Illustration 1 49 Illustration 2 51 Illustration 3 51 Illustration 4 71 Illustration 5 72 Illustration 6 73 Illustration 7 96 I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the British Film Institute Stills Library for their provision of Illustrations 8 to 27. Illustration 8: Jane Hylton in Dance Hall 156 Illustration 9: Diana Dors in Dance Hall 159 Illustration 10: 'The Chiswick Palais' in Dance Hall 163 Illustration 11: Yvonne Mitchell, Kathleen Harrison and Joan Collins in Turn the Key Softly 168 Illustration 12: Yvonne Mitchell, Kathleen Harrison and Joan Collins in Turn the Key Softly 169 Illustration 13: Yvonne Mitchell, Kathleen Harrison and Joan Collins in Turn the Key Softly 177 Illustration 14: Joan Collins in Turn the Key Softly 181 Illustration 15: Yvonne Mitchell, Anthony Quayle and Andrew Ray in Woman in a Dressing Gown 191 Illustration 16: Yvonne Mitchell and Anthony Quayle in Woman in a Dressing Gown 194 Illustration 17: Yvonne Mitchell, Anthony Quayle and Sylvia Syms in Woman in a Dressing Gown 197 Illustration 18: Yvonne Mitchell in Woman in a Dressing Gown 201 Illustration 19: Yvonne Mitchell in Woman in a Dressing Gown 202 Illustration 20: Diana Dors in Yield to the Night 253 Illustration 21: Film Poster for Yield to the Night 257 111 Illustration 22: Diana Dors in Yield to the Night 259 Illustration 23: Diana Dors in Yield to the Night 260 Illustration 24: Diana Dors and Michael Craig in Yield to the Night 266 Illustration 25: Diana Dors in Yield to the Night 295 Illustration 26: Diana Dors in Yield to the Night 309 Illustration 27: Diana Dors and Yvonne Mitchell in Yield to the Night 311 IV Acknowledgements This research was initially funded by a research grant from the British Academy (1988-1991) and subsequently has been supported by Middlesex University. I would like to acknowledge the support of both these institutions throughout the period 1988-1996. Colleagues at Middlesex University have contributed in different ways to this thesis, in particular I would like to thank Lon Fleming and Shiona McArthur for their encouragement, and for relieving the pressure of institutional demands at critical moments. My thanks also to Jon Bird for his helpful comments on draft material, and to Francis Mulhern for his patience and for generously giving his time. My Directors of Studies, Roy Armes and Barry Curtis, have, at different stages of this research, given me advice and a sense of urgency. To Lisa Tickner, who is both my Second Supervisor and (unknown to her) my most rigorous critic, I would like to express my deepest gratitude for her astute and perceptive readings of draft chapters, and for her kind thoughts and gentle, but persistent, encouragement over the years. This project would have been quite different if not for the support and interest of the women who responded to my questionnaire and letters back in 1989. Their willingness to answer endless questions provided an invaluable resource and a unique flavour of the times, for which I am deeply grateful. In a different context, I would like to thank Roberta McGrath who has been a constant friend, her reassurance and support are greatly valued; and Val Hill who has discussed all aspects of this work with me, her comments have been an inspiration and a rare pleasure. Finally, George Robertson has lived through this project also; his critical insight and clarity have been unfailing, his belief has kept me going - walk in the light. The imperfect woman. Femininity and British Cinema, 1945-1958. A thesis submitted to Middlesex University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.