Melanie Bell
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780252043871
- eISBN:
- 9780252052774
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043871.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines how the Second World War had a significant impact on the British film industry. It continues the theme of secondary status by examining how this played out in the 1940s, a ...
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This chapter examines how the Second World War had a significant impact on the British film industry. It continues the theme of secondary status by examining how this played out in the 1940s, a decade dominated by the Second World War and an official address to women to join the workforce as reserve labor. In the service film units, the chapter shows how women “free[d] a man for the fleet” by taking over roles in editing, projection, photography, and animation, while their work as assistants in art departments kept the “back room” of Britain's film studios functioning. It also draws on the experience of women in documentary directing to introduce the concept of the episodic-interrupted career as a defining characteristic of women's employment. The chapter uses the concept to illuminate the multifaceted nature of women's occupational profiles and, in doing so, disrupt the dominant, male-defined narrative of the continuous work history as the key indicator of career success.Less
This chapter examines how the Second World War had a significant impact on the British film industry. It continues the theme of secondary status by examining how this played out in the 1940s, a decade dominated by the Second World War and an official address to women to join the workforce as reserve labor. In the service film units, the chapter shows how women “free[d] a man for the fleet” by taking over roles in editing, projection, photography, and animation, while their work as assistants in art departments kept the “back room” of Britain's film studios functioning. It also draws on the experience of women in documentary directing to introduce the concept of the episodic-interrupted career as a defining characteristic of women's employment. The chapter uses the concept to illuminate the multifaceted nature of women's occupational profiles and, in doing so, disrupt the dominant, male-defined narrative of the continuous work history as the key indicator of career success.
Bryan Turnock
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781911325895
- eISBN:
- 9781800342460
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781911325895.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter evaluates the British horror film industry. Given the country's input in the success of the Hollywood horror films of the 1930s, in terms of source material as well as technicians and ...
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This chapter evaluates the British horror film industry. Given the country's input in the success of the Hollywood horror films of the 1930s, in terms of source material as well as technicians and actors, horror film production in Britain was remarkably slow to emerge. This was due in no small part to the stringent censorship rules of the British Board of Film Censorship/Classification (BBFC), who did their best to dissuade British studios from making such films. The chapter investigates how one studio took up the reins of the genre and went on to dominate it for almost two decades. Matched only by the golden age of Universal in the 1930s and 1940s, Hammer Films produced some of the genre's most iconic images and characters through dozens of productions, while breaking box-office records around the world. The chapter looks at Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), the company's first foray into the genre, one which would lay the foundations for their success and set the template for the English Gothic horror film as it flourished into the 1960s and 1970s.Less
This chapter evaluates the British horror film industry. Given the country's input in the success of the Hollywood horror films of the 1930s, in terms of source material as well as technicians and actors, horror film production in Britain was remarkably slow to emerge. This was due in no small part to the stringent censorship rules of the British Board of Film Censorship/Classification (BBFC), who did their best to dissuade British studios from making such films. The chapter investigates how one studio took up the reins of the genre and went on to dominate it for almost two decades. Matched only by the golden age of Universal in the 1930s and 1940s, Hammer Films produced some of the genre's most iconic images and characters through dozens of productions, while breaking box-office records around the world. The chapter looks at Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), the company's first foray into the genre, one which would lay the foundations for their success and set the template for the English Gothic horror film as it flourished into the 1960s and 1970s.
Nick Riddle
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781911325529
- eISBN:
- 9781800342330
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781911325529.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The Damned (1963) is the most intriguing of director Joseph Losey's British “journeyman” films. A sci-fi film by a director who hated sci-fi; a Hammer production that sat on the shelf for over two ...
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The Damned (1963) is the most intriguing of director Joseph Losey's British “journeyman” films. A sci-fi film by a director who hated sci-fi; a Hammer production that sat on the shelf for over two years before being released with almost no publicity as the second half of a double bill. Losey was a director vocal in his dislike of depictions of physical violence, but he often made films that radiate an energy produced by a violent clash of elements. The Damned catches a series of collisions — some of them inadvertent — and traps them as if in amber. Its volatile elements include Losey, the blacklisted director; Hammer, the erratic British studio, Oliver Reed, the 'dangerous' young actor, and radioactive children. This book concentrates on historical and cultural context, place, genre, and other themes in order to try to make sense of a fascinating, underappreciated film.Less
The Damned (1963) is the most intriguing of director Joseph Losey's British “journeyman” films. A sci-fi film by a director who hated sci-fi; a Hammer production that sat on the shelf for over two years before being released with almost no publicity as the second half of a double bill. Losey was a director vocal in his dislike of depictions of physical violence, but he often made films that radiate an energy produced by a violent clash of elements. The Damned catches a series of collisions — some of them inadvertent — and traps them as if in amber. Its volatile elements include Losey, the blacklisted director; Hammer, the erratic British studio, Oliver Reed, the 'dangerous' young actor, and radioactive children. This book concentrates on historical and cultural context, place, genre, and other themes in order to try to make sense of a fascinating, underappreciated film.
