The British Film Industry: Audiences and Producers

Abstract

Between 1933 and 1937 the average output of the British film industry was approximately 150 feature films (films of 60 minutes or longer) a year; during the war years it was only 42. The industry had suffered a serious slump in 1937, resulting in numerous bankruptcies, severe cutbacks and a considerable reduction in the number of films made. But there was another reason for the decline in output. The 1927 Films Act had imposed on the American companies which dominated the British market an obligation to supply a percentage of British films. By 1933, of the 168 British feature films released, 97 were commissioned by American companies. They included a handful of bigger-budget films, such as Alexander Korda’s The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), but the great majority were ‘quota quickies’ — very low-budget films with little entertainment value. The 1938 Films Act killed the ‘quota quickie’ by introducing a minimum cost provision and by allowing a double or triple quota qualification for films which cost more than the minimum. This made it possible for American companies to carry out their obligations by making fewer, but more expensive, films. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), for example, which had been responsible for some of the worst of the ‘quota quickies’, redeemed its reputation with a series of big-budget quality productions such as A Yank at Oxford (1938), The Citadel (1938) and Goodbye, Mr Chips (1939).