Evaluating the importance of the Crown Film Unit, 1940 – 1952 Alan James Harding A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Nottingham Trent University and Southampton Solent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2017 1 This work is the intellectual property of Alan James Harding. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the owner(s) of the Intellectual Property Rights. 2 Abstract The Crown Film Unit (CFU) was the British Government’s principal in-house film production facility during the years 1940 to 1952. Over this period it produced around 225 films of different types and lengths ranging from short five minute Public Information Films to feature length cinema exhibited pictures. A very few of the latter, such as Target for Tonight (1941) or Fires Were Started (1943) have become iconic representations of both the bomber offensive and the Blitz during the Second World War. Although these films only represented a very small percentage of the CFU’s entire catalogue they have, in the main, dominated academic discourse about the Unit. This research has sought to explore the full production canon of the CFU and, in particular, to examine its importance and legacy. In doing so it has also engaged with the debates about the role of film propaganda especially as it impacted upon the self-image and morale of the British people during and after the War. It also examines the role and position of the Unit in the development and history of the Documentary Movement. To achieve these research aims the Crown Film Unit is first situated in its historical context and the influences of its predecessors over the previous forty or so years are examined. Subsequently a new classification paradigm is developed which allows the films themselves to be reviewed according to theme. Locating each of the films in a particular dynamic framework enables them to be evaluated from the appropriate social, economic, political or military perspectives. The films are also considered in the context of their reception which, in the case of the CFU was not just cinematic exhibition but also a substantial non-theatrical audience watching, not only in the UK, but across the world. The penultimate chapter examines the legacy of the CFU demonstrating that it had an important impact upon British and overseas feature film making in the 1950s, but it also made a currently undervalued contribution to the subsequent development of both Public Information, training, advertising and instructional films. The research concludes that although perhaps still best described as a Documentary Film Unit the role of the CFU was far more nuanced. 3 Acknowledgements The completion of this research project has been longer and more tortuous than I originally anticipated. The reasons for the delay were many and complex sometimes outside of my control and sometimes, regrettably, within. The result of nearly two decade of research, admittedly not consistent, have meant that many people have been involved and I have received support, encouragement and help from a variety of people in many institutions and organisations for which a blanket thank you is inadequate but is, for reasons of brevity, a necessity. There are, however, some individuals who must be identified and thanked for their contribution because, without them, it would never have been completed. It is impossible to quantify the importance and value of their support so, in chronological order, rather than anything else, I wish to place on record my sincere gratitude for the help, support and enthusiasm I have received. The seed of the idea for the project was planted by the late Frank ‘Jonah’ Jones, cameraman of the Crown Film Unit. It was established as a viable project by the late Prof John Ramsden of Queen Mary, University of London. Its early development was in the hands of Dr Mark Glancy, also of Queen Mary, University of London. After a long hibernation it was revived by Prof Karen Randell, now of the University of Bedfordshire, and brought to fruition by Drs Mark Aldridge and Claire Hines of Southampton Solent University. Any project such as this which has had a lengthy gestation period requires the help and support of close family members. In this I have been extremely, perhaps exceptionally, fortunate. From my late father, James, I hope I have inherited his objectivity and analytical skills and from my mother, Kathleen, the enthusiasm and love of history. However, the person I have to thank most profoundly is my wife, Mo. Without her support both in this project and in my life generally I am sure I would have abandoned it ages ago. It is therefore with both love and thanks that this project is dedicated to her. 4 Contents Page Preface 7 Chapter 1 Introduction 9 Chapter 2 Government use of Film: The Antecedents of the Crown Film 43 Unit Chapter 3 A Thematic Examination of the Crown Film Unit’s Wartime 72 Productions, 1940 – 1945 Chapter 4 Post-War Production Themes, 1946 - 1952 110 Chapter 5 Exhibition and Audiences for Crown Film Unit Films 148 Chapter 6 The Legacy of the Crown Film Unit 190 Chapter 7 Conclusion 219 Illustrations Figure 1 Roving Cinema van in Bermondsey 153 Figure 2 Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Daylight 153 Cinema van Figure 3 Novel Mobile Cinema van 154 Figure 4 Conservative Party Mobile Cinema van 154 Figure 5 Target for Tonight – American Cinema Poster 176 Figure 6 Western Approaches – Cinema Poster 176 Tables Table 1 Ministry of Information Film Audiences 1940 - 1944 157 Table 2 Central Office of Information Productions on Cinema 171 Exhibitor Association Scheme 1950 Bibliography 230 Appendices A Note on CFU Film Listings 253 5 Appendix 1 Crown Film Unit Films – Wartime Themes 1940 - 1945 256 Appendix 2 Crown Film Unit Films – Credits, etc., 1940 - 1945 263 Appendix 3 Crown Film Unit Films – Post-War Themes 1946 - 1952 272 Appendix 4 Crown Film Unit Films – Credits, etc., 1946 - 1952 289 Appendix 5 Crown Film Unit Annual record of Completed Films and 306 Running Times: 1940 - 1952 Appendix 6 A Review of Film Classification taxonomies as previously 308 applied to CFU productions Appendix 7 A Brief Note on contemporary short film Production 311 Companies Appendix 8 A sketch diagram of the Crown Film Unit’s Studios at 319 Beaconsfield Appendix 9 Staffing Establishment of the Crown Film Unit 1941 – 1950 321 6 Preface A Personal Perspective My interest in the Crown Film Unit (CFU) came about as a result of a coincidence of two themes, one in my academic life and the other in my personal life. I have always been interested in the role played by the visual media. During my Post-Graduate Education course at the University of Leicester in 1971 my Special Study was on the educational role of film and television. My supervisor for this project was the late Prof James Halloran, at the newly opened Centre for Mass Communication Studies. It always seemed to me strange that, at that time, visual images were as often as not rejected or at least relegated to a very subordinate role by many historians. As Christopher Roads had written in the Journal of Archivists in 1965; I feel the value and use of film as historical evidence can be appreciated only if the prospective user has a broad grasp of the circumstances surrounding its creation, preservation and accessibility, and therefore, its relationship with other classes of records… Film is an awkward, inconvenient, expensive, vulnerable and inaccessible medium (p.183). However, even before the digitisation of images and the development of on-line streaming, the existing visual record appeared to me to be as equally a valid source requiring, of course, the same degree of caution and qualification as to provenance as any written material. History is essentially a record of human events in the past and, for more than a century now that record has existed on film and more recently on videotape, disk and microchip. This particular perspective was endorsed during my Master’s course at Queen Mary College, University of London where my supervisor the late Prof John Ramsden introduced his students to such seminal film works as Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935) and Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925). I now understand that at the time this was seen as both quite subversive by the senior management of the Department of History at Queen Mary and contrary to departmental policy. It is difficult to believe, forty years later, that there is not 7 a history course from GCSE to Post-Graduate level which does not include at least a reference to Riefenstahl’s film when discussing Nazi Germany. The moving visual image gave reality, however vicarious, to events and personalities. This academic interest coincided with a piece of family history which began my interest in the CFU in particular. My wife’s uncle was Frank (Jonah) Jones who, along with H. E. ‘Chick’ Fowle and Fred Gamage, was a senior cameraman at the CFU. Before his premature death in 1973 Frank would regularly regale family gatherings with tales of the early years of the film industry especially, in his view, its contribution to the war effort. Occasionally his younger sister Iris (my mother in law), had been included in visits to studios and locations where she met some of the luminaries of the time such as Humphrey Jennings, Harry Watt and Jack Holmes.