British Movies of the 1940's

In the early 1940’s the movies being released were slow mainly due to the constraints imposed by World War II. After the Cinematographic Films Act of 1927 expired it was replaced by the Cinematographic Films Act of 1938,this caused low budget, quickie films to disappeared and cleared the way for higher quality films to be produced.

The London Films through its founder Alexander Zorka led the way to producing British quality films. British film makers used their documentary skills to make more realistic films, these contributed to the popular image of Britain at war. Among these popular movies were In Which We Serve (1942), Went the Day Well (1942), Millions Like Us (1943) and The Way Ahead (1944). Gainsborough Pictures which was founded by Michael Balcon and was operational between 1924 and 1951 in the later war years made very popular and critically acclaimed dramas such as The Man in Grey (1943) and the Wicked Lady (1945). These movies of the 1940’s launched a new generation of British movie stars such as Stewart Granger, Margaret Lockwood and James Mason.

In 1936 Balcon moved to MGM and in 1941 and the majority stockholder sold to J. Arthur Rank. In 1944 the Rank Organization was able to consolidate all its properties and became a dominant force behind British movie making. It produced many of Alfred Hitchcock’s film classics, along with popular movies such as Brief Encounter (1945), Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948) British movies of the 1940’s gained further momentum with the release of the highly successful The Red Shoes (1948), this was the most successful film of its year in the U.S., followed by Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet, this was the first non American movie to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.

One of the most successful movies of the 1940’s produced by Gainsborough was The Man in Grey made in 1943. A melodrama, it received bad reviews by critics but it caught the mood of the times and was well received by the viewing public.

The Wicked Lady was another melodrama released in December 1946. It tells of a story where a lady runs away with the man her best friend is about to marry. Again considered by movie critics as a bad movie, it was a big box office hit. Some say the success of the film was due more to the highwayman costume of the leading lady, Margaret Lockwood and her physical attributes. During this period many new British movie stars were launched. They were able to land in many film roles. Errol Flynn, Madeleine Carroll, Rex Harrison, Eric Portman and a host of others who were immensely popular during these times. Many of them were so popular that they also graced the movie cards which were inserted in cigarette packs.

In as much as Hollywood dominated the film scene, movies such as Hamlet and its success at the Academy Award placed british movie making of the 1940’s on the map and showed that the British were a force to be reckoned with.