British Cinemas and Their Audiences Book

Text extracted from opening pages of book: British inemas and their Audiences Sociological Studies by J. P. Mayer London DENNIS DOBSON LTD From Ivan the Terrible ( see Introduction page 9) First published in Great Britain in 1948 by Dennis Dobson Ltd., 12 Park Place, St. James's, London, S. W. i. All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain by Whitehill ( Printers) Ltd., Birmingham i 4 i/ R CONTENTS Preface I Chapter I. Introduction 3 Chapter II. Films and the Pattern of Life 1. Preliminary 13 2. Documents 15 3. An Appreciation 143 Chapter III. A Study in Film Preferences 153 1. Introductory 153 2. Documents 156 3. An Interpretation 239 Chapter IV. Retrospect 245 Appendices: I. THE CINEMA AUDIENCE. An Inquiry made by the Wartime Social Survey for the Ministry of Informa tion by Louis Moss and Kathleen Box 250 II. Seneca: On Roman Games 276 Bibliography 278 Index 280 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS From Ivan the Terrible Frontispiece Courtesy Soviet Film Agency Jean-Louis Barrault in Les Enfants du Paradis facing page 40 Courtesy British Lion From Les Enfants du Paradis 41 Courtesy British Lion From The Last Chance 57 Courtesy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer From The Last Chance 57 Courtesy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer From La Belle et la Bite 56 Courtesy London Film Productions From La Belle et la Bite 88 Courtesy London Film Productions From The Mummy's Curse 89 Courtesy General Film Distributors From Dr Renault's Secret 1 05 Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox From Shock 104 Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Tyrone Power in The Razor's Edge 120 Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Errol Flynn in Never say Goodbye 1 2 1 Courtesy Warner Brothers From Mrs Miniver 184 Courtesy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer From A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 184 Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox From The Overlanders 185 Courtesy General Film Distributors From The Overlanders 185 Courtesy General Film Distributors From Dead of Night 200 Courtesy General Film Distributors From Dead of Night 200 Courtesy General Film Distributors Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity 201 Courtesy Paramount Pictures Inc. Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity 201 Courtesy Paramount Pictures Inc. Miss Lauren Bacall in To Have and to Have Not 216 Courtesy Warner Brothers From To Have and to Have Not 2 1 7 Courtesy Warner Brothers ' It has always been with me a test of the sense and candour of any one belonging to the opposite party, whether he allowed Burke to be a great man . . . The simple clue to all his reasonings on politics is, I think, as follows. He did not agree with some writers that that mode of government is necessarily the best which is the cheapest. He saw in the construction of society other principles at work, and other capacities of fulfilling the desires, and perfecting the nature of man, besides those of securing the equal enjoyment of the means of animal life, and doing this at as little expense as possible. He thought that the wants and happiness of men were not to be provided for, as we provided for those of a herd of cattle, merely by attending to their physical necessities. He thought more nobly of his fellows. He knew that man had affections and passions and powers of imagination, as well as hunger and thirst, and the sense of heat and cold. He took his idea of political society from the pattern of private life, wishing, as he himself expresses it, to in corporate the domestic charities with the orders of the state, and to blend them together. He strove to establish an analogy between the compact which binds together the community at large, and that which binds together the several families that compose it. He knew that the [ rules that form the basis of private morality are not founded in reason, that is, in the abstract properties of those things which arc the subjects of them, but in the nature of man, and his capacity of being affected by certain things from habit, from imagination, and sentiment, as well as from reason.' WILLIAM HAZLITT, On the Character of Burke. To B PREFACE THE FOLLOWING STUDIES ANDRead More