Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48With themes ranging from passion and romance to murder and psychological disturbance, popular British film in the 1940s found little favour with the critics, but provided thrills and entertainment for millions of people during a time of austerity and danger. Realism and Tinsel looks beyond the established histories of Ealing Comedies and realist classics to excavate a rich but neglected tradition of melodrama, gangster films, morbid thrillers, and costume pictures. Discussing cinema in the context of the major social, economic, and political changes that were taking place, Robert Murphy examines the period's most popular films, including Madonna of the Seven Moons, The Way Ahead, and The Wicked Lady. The picture that emerges challenges the reassuring, cosy view of Britain presented in realist cinema, and throws new light on the British film industry of the time, and on our idea of the war era itself. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 Britain Alone | 3 |
2 War Culture | 15 |
3 Realism and Tinsel | 27 |
4 The Rank Empire | 51 |
5 Great Expectations | 64 |
6 Passionate Friends? | 84 |
7 Exotic Dreams | 103 |
10 Nothing to Laugh at at All | 165 |
11 Challenge to Hollywood | 189 |
Conclusion | 199 |
Cinema and Society in the Forties | 202 |
Notes | 214 |
Bibliography | 228 |
234 | |
245 | |
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American films Ann Todd Arthur Askey Asquith attempt audiences Bernard Miles black market box-office Brief Encounter Britain British cinema British film industry British National Cavalcanti characters Cities comedies commercial costume pictures crime critics cycle David death despite directed director documentary Ealing Ealing’s England English feature films film-makers film’s Frieda Gainsborough Gainsborough melodramas George Formby German girl Giudice Googie Withers Grey happy hero heroine Hollywood Huggett Jack James Mason Jean Kent Jeffrey Richards John Kinematograph Weekly Korda Labour Lady Launder and Gilliat lives London low-budget Margaret Lockwood marries melodrama Michael Balcon million murder Night Ostrer Passport to Pimlico people’s Phyllis Calvert play popular post-war Powell and Pressburger Powell and Pressburger’s production Rains on Sunday Randle Rank’s realism released Robert script Seventh Veil society sort spiv stars Stewart Granger story studio success Sydney Box Technicolor thirties thrillers underworld wartime woman women working-class young