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‘Blocked’ currency, runaway production in britain and captain horatio hornblower (1951)

2008; Routledge; Volume: 28; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01439680802230886

1465-3451

Jonathan Stubbs,

Cultural Industries and Urban Development

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgement I would like to thank Andrew Higson and Peter Krämer, University of East Anglia, for their valuable feedback on various drafts of this article. Notes Notes 1 Darryl F. Zanuck, Shoot it where you find it!, Journal of the Screen Producers Guild, 6(7) (1960), 31. 2 Film Chief Raps Hollywood Invasion of British History, Los Angeles Times, 23 April 1950. 3 See H. Mark Glancy, Hollywood and Britain: MGM and the British ‘quota’ legislation, in Jeffrey Richards (ed.) The Unknown 1930s (London, IB Tauris, 1998), 57–72. 4 Sue Harper and Vincent Porter, British Cinema in the 1950s: the decline of deference (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003), 114; Ginette Vincendeau (ed.) The Encyclopedia of European Cinema (London, Cassell, 1995), 464. 5 Robert Murphy, Sixties British Cinema (London, BFI, 1992), 258. 6 See Sarah Street, British National Cinema (London, Routledge, 1997), 16; Harper and Porter, British Cinema in the 1950s, 22–25. 7 Irving Bernstein, Hollywood at the Crossroads: an economic study of the motion picture industry (Los Angeles, CA, Hollywood Association of Film Labor, 1957), 1 and 12. 8 Sock Overseas B.O. for U.S. Film, Variety, 13 June 1951, 3. 9 Yank's Heaviest Foreign Coin, Variety, 5 September 1951, 3. 10 Quoted in Rudy Behlmer (ed.) Memo From Darryl F. Zanuck: the golden years at 20th Century-Fox (New York, Grove Press, 1993), 243. 11 Japan New No. 1 Market For U.S. Films, Variety, 11 July 1979, 1. 12 Vincendeau (ed.), Encyclopedia of European Cinema, 466. 13 Red Kann (ed.) The International Motion Picture Almanac, 1951–52 (New York, Quigley Publications, 1951), x. 14 Adapted from data in Bernstein, Hollywood at the Crossroads, 54–55. 15 Street, British National Cinema, 13. 16 Ibid., 14–15. 17 Harper and Porter, British Cinema in the 1950s, 5. 18 Ian Jarvie, Hollywood's Overseas Campaign: the North Atlantic movie trade, 1920–1950 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992), 187–188. 19 Great Britain: Board of Trade, Memorandum of Agreement between Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Motion Picture Industry of the United States of America, dated 11th March 1948 (London, HMSO, 1948), 3. 20 Revision of the Anglo-American Film Agreement, Draft Memorandum by the President of the Board of Trade, 1953. Board of Trade (hereafter BT) 64/4460, National Archives, Kew. 21 Great Britain: Board of Trade, Memorandum of Agreement Between Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Motion Picture Industry of the United States of America, dated 1st October 1950 (London, HMSO, 1950), 7–8. 22 Street, British National Cinema, 15. 23 Letter from David Cunynghame to R.A. Butler, 16 June 1955. Treasury 231/773, National Archives. 24 ‘Confiscation’ of Frozen Film Coin? Variety, 9 November 1949, 1. 25 Pells, Richard, Not Like Us: how Europeans have loved, hated, and transformed American culture since World War II (New York, Basic Books, 1997), 214. 26 Adapted from data in Anglo-American Film Agreement, Table I—General Summary, 1957. BT 258/857, National Archives. The document does not mention who these ‘major companies’ are. Figures were listed in sterling in the original, but for the sake of uniformity, I have converted them into US dollars using the historical exchange rate (£1=$2.8). See Lawrence H. Officer, Exchange Rate Between the United States Dollar and the British Pound, 1791–2005, www.eh.net/hmit/exchangerates/pound.php (accessed 22 June 2007). 27 Anglo-American Film Agreement, Table II—Payment from Unremittable Sterling by Major Companies, 1957. BT 258/857, National Archives. 28 Great Britain: Board of Trade (1948), 5–7. 29 Thomas Guback, The International Film Industry: Western Europe and America since 1945 (Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press, 1969), 122. 30 Quoted in Guback, International Film Industry, 121. 31 How Hollywood Helps Build Super Oil Tankers, Wall Street Journal, 19 December 1955. 32 Letter from A. Ronald Thornton (Director of Information, MPAA), The Times, 18 November 1948, 5. 33 Harper and Porter, British Cinema in the 1950s, 74. See also Vincent Porter, All Change at Elstree: Warner Bros., ABPC and British Film Policy, 1945-61, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 21(1) (2001), 5–35. 34 Guback, International Film Industry, 167. 35 Kann (ed.) International Motion Picture Almanac, 754–781. 36 Cinematograph Films Act, 1938 (London: HMSO, 1938), 25–26. See also Harper and Porter, 114. 37 Cinematograph Films Act, 1938, 25–26 38 For full data, see Top Grossers of 1950, Variety, 3 January 1951, 58; Top Grossers of 1951, Variety, 2 January 1952, 70; Top Grossers of 1952, Variety, 7 January 1953, 61; Top Grossers of 1953, Variety, 13 January 1954, 10; 1954 Box Office Champs, Variety, 5 January 1955, 59. 39 See Kinematograph Weekly, 14 December 1950, 8; 20 December 1951, 5; 18 December 1952, 9. 40 Pan Berman Oral History, Conducted and prepared by Mike Steen, completed 4 August 1972. Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study, Los Angeles. 41 Charles H. Schneer, A confidential memo, Journal of the Screen Producer's Guild (December 1959), 15. 42 Schneer, A confidential memo, 15; Pandro S. Berman, Making Ivanhoe in England: the Pleasures and the Pitfalls, New York Herald Tribune, 11 October 1951. 43 Various memos, ‘Captain Horatio Hornblower’ Collection, USC Warner Bros. Archives, School of Cinema–Television, Los Angeles. 44 Memo from Gerald Blattner to Steve Trilling, 2 December 1949, Steve Trilling Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. A perusal of Peck's personal correspondence reveals that he arranged for packages of ham and candy to be sent to 33 British crewmembers on Hornblower once production had wrapped. Gregory Peck Collection, Folder 179, Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study, Los Angeles. 45 Screencomber, Close-Ups, Kinematograph Weekly, 16 February 1950, 5; Berman, Making Ivanhoe in England. 46 Scheer, A confidential memo, 15. 47 Memo from Arthur Abeles to Steve Trilling, 27 April 1950, Steve Trilling Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 48 Memo from Jack Warner to Gerald Blattner, 18 January 1950, Production Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 49 Long Shots, Kinematograph Weekly, 16 February 1950, 5. 50 Memo from Jack Warner to Gerald Blattner, 18 January 1950; memo from Eric Fletcher to Jack Warner 19 January 1950, Production Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 51 Louis Berg, Blondes Across the Sea, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 1950. 52 Reagan Answers British Blast at Dunne's ‘Victoria’ Role, Hollywood Reporter, 4 April 1950. 53 Parliamentary Reports: House of Commons, Vol. 472, 23 March 1950 (London, HMSO, 1950), 129–130, written answers. 54 Byron Haskin: a director's guild of America oral history, interviewed by Joe Adamson (New Jersey, Scarecrow Press, 1984), 175; Boy Film Actor Fined, The Times, 28 September 1949, 6. 55 British Sustain Disney Kid Fine, Variety, 26 October 1949. 56 Dilys Powell, The Mudlark, Sunday Times, 12 November 1950. 57 Leonard Mosley, The Mudlark, Daily Express, 13 October 1950. 58 Paul Holt, Ivanhoe, Daily Herald, 13 June 1952. 59 Roy Nash, Captain Horatio Hornblower, R.N., Star, 10 April 1951; Paul Holt, Captain Horatio Hornblower, R.N., Daily Herald, 13 April 1951. 60 Letter from Mrs E.D. Wormwood, Evening News, 10 October 1951. 61 Annotation on press cutting, Steve Trilling Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 62 Books—Authors, New York Times, 14 December 1939, 25. 63 Memo from Deakin to Walter MacEwan, 17 July 1939; Memo from Aeneas Mackenzie to Walter MacEwan, 30 January 1940, Production Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 64 Douglas W. Churchill, Screen News Here and in Hollywood, New York Times, 5 March 1940, 24. 65 Nicholas Cull, Selling War: the British propaganda campaign against American ‘neutrality’ in World War II (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995), 51–52. 66 Temporary Complete Screenplay, 29 July 1940, Script Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 67 Undated story outline (probably 1940), Script Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 68 Cull, Selling War, 52. 69 Memo from Raoul Walsh to Steve Trilling, 25 October 1949; memo from Steve Trilling to Gerald Blattner, 26 December 1949, Steve Trilling Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 70 Memo from R.T Obringer to Gregory Peck, 6 December 1949, Steve Trilling Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 71 Captain Horatio Hornblower cost breakdown, undated, Production Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 72 Memo from Gerry Blattner to Jack Warner, 18 November 1949, Production Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 73 Memo from Raoul Walsh to Steve Trilling, 25 October 1949, Steve Trilling Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 74 Memo from Gerald Blattner to Steve Trilling, 30 November 1949, Steve Trilling Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 75 Memo from Steve Trilling to Gerald Blattner, 9 May 1950, Steve Trilling Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 76 Notes on telephone conversation between Walsh, Blattner and Barndollar, 14 April 1950, Steve Trilling Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 77 Memo from Steve Trilling to Gerald Blattner, 23 April 1950, Steve Trilling Files, ‘Hornblower’ Collection. 78 Mark Glancy (ed.) The William Schaefer ledger, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 15(1) (1995), microfiche supplement. 79 Ibid. 80 Foreign Freeze Lined With Coin, Variety, 21 May 1952, 5. 81 Sock Overseas B.O. for U.S. Film, Variety, 13 June 1951, 3.