Transatlantic Crossings British Feature Films in the United States

by Street, Sarah

• ISBN13: 9781474290678
• ISBN10: 1474290671
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-10-06
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Transatlantic Crossings is a major study of the distribution and exhibition of British films in the USA. Charting the cross-cultural reception of many British films, Sarah Street draws on a wide range of sources including studio records, film posters, press books and statistics. While the power of Hollywood made it difficult for films that crossed the Atlantic, Street's research demonstrates that some strategies were more successful than others. She considers which British films made an impact and analyzes conditions that facilitated a positive reception from critics, censors, exhibitors and audiences. Case studies include Nell Gwyn (1926), The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), The Ghost Goes West (1935), Henry V (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), Ealing comedies, The Horror of Dracula (1958), Tom Jones (1963), A Hard Day's Night (1964), Goldfinger (1964), The Remains of the Day (1993), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and Trainspotting (1996). Against a background of the economic history of the British and Hollywood film industries, Transatlantic Crossings considers the many fascinating questions surrounding the history of British films in the USA, their relevance to wider issues of Anglo-American relations and to notions of "Britishness" on screen.

Author Biography

Sarah Street is Professor of Film at the University of Bristol, UK.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Hollywood Jabberwocky
Introduction
1. The 1920s: British Silent Films in the United States
2. The 1930s: Exportable Texts and Stars – Alexander Korda and United Artists
3. The 1930s: Exportable Texts and Stars – Herbert Wilcox, Michael Balcon and Reciprocity
4. The 1940s: Prestige, History and Shakespeare
5. Questions of censorship and Ideology
6. The 1950s: British Films as Art and Entertainment
7. The 1960s: New Money, New Identities
8. The 1970s to 2000: British Films and the 'New' Hollywood
Conclusion
A. Films Imported into the United States, 1927-1968
B. British Feature Films Imported by the United States, 1927-1967: Film Daily Year Book Listings
Archival Sources and Bibliography
Index