The Lion Had Wings: The Invention of British Cinema, 1895-1939 Paul Moody A thesis submitted to the Department of International History of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, March 2013. The Lion Had Wings: The Invention of British Cinema, 1895-1939 1 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 81,237 words. The Lion Had Wings: The Invention of British Cinema, 1895-1939 2 Abstract Studies of the relationship between British cinema and national identity have tended to focus on the subjects and themes of a select number of films, part of a canon generally agreed to represent the qualities of the British ‘character’. Yet several authors have identified limitations to this approach, and presented a range of theoretical and empirical obstacles to the concept of ‘British cinema’. This problem of provenance has been the mainstay of critical debate about the British film industry since its inception, but in prioritising textual analysis, this interpretation often ignores the additional factors involved in the development of notions of ‘Britishness’. In contrast, this thesis focuses on how the concept of what became known as ‘British cinema’, was created during the early twentieth century, addressing the contextual elements of the cinema experience, and arguing that they were extremely important in determining what ‘British cinema’ would come to represent. Using a range of private papers, government records and marketing materials, I chart the development of the link between ‘British’ cinema and national identity, and the various ways that this concept was presented to the public both in Britain and across the globe. Rather than conceive of this as a definitive form ab initio, I argue that it was a complex process of invention, a myth augmented over time and which was so potent it could accommodate a divergent range of films and filmmakers. Thus, this thesis is not a critique of what British cinema represented, but how it came to represent it. The Lion Had Wings: The Invention of British Cinema, 1895-1939 3 Acknowledgements This dissertation has benefitted from the help and support of a number of people, each of whom offered their time and advice on numerous occasions. The wisdom, guidance and, most importantly, good humour of my supervisor, Professor Alan Sked, were vital to the formation of this work and helped me navigate the inevitable pitfalls of a doctoral degree. Likewise, the constructive criticism of my two examiners, Professor Julian Petley and Professor Ian Christie, was essential to the successful completion of this thesis and I owe these three scholars a great debt of gratitude. To write a piece of work of this length over several years also requires more than just academic input, and the support of my friends, work colleagues and family have been equally important. Their willingness to listen to me discuss the intricacies of British cinema has been a constant delight (for me, if not always them). Most importantly, my partner Helen has helped at every stage of the process, offering advice, correcting typos, and encouraging me to persevere when encountering difficulty. As with most other aspects of my life, this thesis would not have been possible without her love and kindness. The Lion Had Wings: The Invention of British Cinema, 1895-1939 4 Table of Contents Declaration .............................................................................................................2 Abstract ..................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................4 Preface: Images of Communion .........................................................................7 Part One: Building a ‘National’ Cinema Chapter One: The Beginning of a ‘British’ Cinema, 1895-1909 .............................22 Chapter Two: Exhibiting ‘Britishness’, 1909-18 ......................................................48 Chapter Three: Marketing ‘Britishness’, 1909-18 ...................................................67 Part Two: The Response to Hollywood Chapter Four: The Post-First World War British Film Industry ...............................89 Chapter Five: Anti-Americanism in the Interwar British Film Industry ....................106 Chapter Six: ‘Trade Follows the Film’ – Cinema and Empire, 1924-28 .................121 Chapter Seven: ‘Films That Lower Our Prestige in India’ ......................................142 Chapter Eight: The Cinematograph Films Act, 1927 .............................................161 Chapter Nine: ‘Our Language in Our Country’ .......................................................171 Chapter Ten: ‘British Rubbish’: The Post-Quota Twenties .....................................184 Part Three: ‘Foreign Pictures With English-Speaking Characters’ Chapter Eleven: ‘British’ Film Production in the Early Thirties ...............................194 Chapter Twelve: Anti-Foreign Sentiment in the 1930s British Film Industry ...........210 Chapter Thirteen: Actions to ‘Maintain and Establish the Industry’ ........................235 Chapter Fourteen: British Cinema Exhibition in the Late Thirties ..........................253 Chapter Fifteen: ‘The Lion Had Wings’, 1936-39 ...................................................265 Conclusion: The Invention of British Cinema .........................................................288 Bibliography ............................................................................................................293 The Lion Had Wings: The Invention of British Cinema, 1895-1939 5 Illustrations and Tables Figure 1: The Logo for the Charles Urban Trading Company ................................32 Figure 2: Cartoon Depicting the Crisis Engulfing the Industry ................................43 Figure 3: Films Passed by the BBFC in the Twelve Months Ended August 1925 ..122 Figure 4: Percentage of British Films Shown in Countries Offering a Tariff Preference, c. 1925 ................................................................................................123 Figure 5: Films Released in the UK by Selected Countries, 1927-1931 ................190 Figure 6: American Distributors of British Films, 1929 and 1932 ...........................192 Figure 7: Employment of Foreign Technicians in the British Film Industry .............222 The Lion Had Wings: The Invention of British Cinema, 1895-1939 6 Preface: Images of Communion In 2006 the UK Film Council produced Stories We Tell Ourselves, a study of the cultural impact of UK film which sought to identify how films addressed issues of national identity and, therefore, how they spoke to the public about the values and interests of the United Kingdom. The framework for assessing cultural impact included marking each film ‘according to whether it predominantly reinforced, challenged, modernised or satirised UK identities, traditions and values.’1 These ‘British values’, based on speeches by the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and the Minister of State for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism, Margaret Hodge, comprised: tolerance, fair play, decency, honesty, reticence (e.g. about contentious issues such as politics, religion, sexuality) to which might be added understated patriotism, and gallantry or self-sacrifice (in war and in extremis).2 In so doing, the UK Film Council was developing a debate about the nature of what constitutes a ‘British’ film, a discussion that has a lineage stretching back at least as far as the 1927 Cinematograph Films Act, the first official attempt at defining ‘Britishness’ with regard to the cinema. By creating two samples, the first consisting of 200 ‘intuitive’ films (i.e. those most often regarded as part of the British cinema ‘canon’) and the second comprising 200 selected at random, the report’s authors 1 UK Film Council (2009), Stories We Tell Ourselves: The Cultural Impact of UK Film 1946-2006, London: UK Film Council, p. 5. 2 UK Film Council (2009), p. 22. The Lion Had Wings: The Invention of British Cinema, 1895-1939 7 were able to measure to what extent these British films either challenged or reinforced these ‘British values’, and by extension, whether there was a disparity between the commonly held assumptions of what British cinema represents, and what British films actually portrayed. It concluded that the ‘intuitive’ sample tended to challenge ‘British values’, while the random sample favoured reinforcing them. As Stories We Tell Ourselves argued: This suggests that the UK films which have been most highly regarded by critics are those which have challenged and satirised traditional British values, while films that espouse more conventional values have found less critical favour.3 What is most interesting about this finding is that, aside from highlighting