- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Routledge; New edition edition (15 Sep 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0415117119
- ISBN-13: 978-0415117111
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 814,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Presiding over the "golden era" of the British Film Industry from the mid to late 1940s, J. Arthur Rank financed movies such as Oliver Twist, The Red Shoes, Brief Encounter, Caesar and Cleopatra and Black Narcissus. Never before, and never since, has the industry risen to such heights.
J. Arthur Rank charts every aspect of the robust film culture that Rank helped to create. Having started out with relatively little knowledge of the cinema, Rank's sponsorship was to bring about astounding progress within the industry, and by establishing an organization comparable in size to any of the major Hollywood studios, Rank briefly managed to reconcile and consolidate the competing demands of "art" and "business" - an achievement very much absent from today's diminished and fragmented film industry.
Macnab goes on to explain the eventual collapse of the Rank experiment amidst the economic and political maelstrom of post-war Britain, highlighting the problems still facing the industry today. By meshing archival research with interviews with Rank's contemporaries and members of his family, this definitive study firmly restores Rank to his rightful place at the hub of British film history.
J. Arthur Rank charts every aspect of the robust film culture that Rank helped to create. Having started out with relatively little knowledge of the cinema, Rank's sponsorship was to bring about astounding progress within the industry, and by establishing an organization comparable in size to any of the major Hollywood studios, Rank briefly managed to reconcile and consolidate the competing demands of "art" and "business" - an achievement very much absent from today's diminished and fragmented film industry.
Macnab goes on to explain the eventual collapse of the Rank experiment amidst the economic and political maelstrom of post-war Britain, highlighting the problems still facing the industry today. By meshing archival research with interviews with Rank's contemporaries and members of his family, this definitive study firmly restores Rank to his rightful place at the hub of British film history.
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First Sentence
In April 1946, when it held its first, grandly styled 'World Film Convention'1 at the Dorchester Hotel in London, the Rank Organization was huge, even by Hollywood standards: it could boast five studios, two newsreels, a great many production companies, making everything from feature films to cartoons and educational shorts, and close to 650 cinemas in Britain alone. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
In April 1946, when it held its first, grandly styled 'World Film Convention'1 at the Dorchester Hotel in London, the Rank Organization was huge, even by Hollywood standards: it could boast five studios, two newsreels, a great many production companies, making everything from feature films to cartoons and educational shorts, and close to 650 cinemas in Britain alone. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hero or villain,
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This review is from: J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry (Cinema and Society) (Paperback)
I have read many biographies of leading personalities of the era all with their own view of Rank.I have also seen many files to do with Rank athe National Archives.What i have had to date is therefore a crossword puzzle impression of this era with some of the vital pieces missing.This book gives the full picture.It has explained to me how he attained his position of eminence and what lead to his downfall.It has to be said that whatever your view on the man he really did have a go at trying to set up a self sustaining British film industry.However the fates were against him and it all went pear shaped.What i would say that what is not really made apparent here was how slowly it became apparent to those in charge,particularly John Davis,that the film industry had a full scale crisis on its hands linked to the rise of tv.That there only remedy was to shut more cinemas and lay off more workers.In the end they were merely number crunchers not ideas men.This book is a great read for anybody interested in this era
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