Excessive Americanisms: Hollywood in the British Empire, 1918–1930

Abstract

This article analyses debates about American movies in the British Empire during the inter-war era. These had a different tone than similar public discussions within Britain, where critics emphasised the dangers cinema posed to ‘white prestige’ and public order. In the colonies, movies were widely perceived to pose a threat to the cultural bonds that linked the periphery to the metropole. As the post-war empire struggled to redefine the relationship between ruler and ruled, critics of Hollywood – many of them British expatriates – feared American movies would attenuate their connection to the mother country. Movies popularized American history, American institutions and American slang among imperial subjects, thereby diminishing their enthusiasm for the British alternative. The advent of sound films after 1928 injected a further sense of urgency into this debate. The colonial reaction to Hollywood reveals the particularly fragile state of imperial identity formation during the inter-war era.