Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48

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Routledge, Sep 2, 2003 - Performing Arts - 296 pages
With 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
Index of Film Titles
234
General Index
245

8 The Spiv Cycle
126
9 Morbid Burrowings
145

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