The Unknown Thirties: An Alternative History of the British cinema, 1929-1939

Jeffrey Richards (ed)
The Unknown Thirties: An Alternative History of the British cinema, 1929-1939
London: I.B. Taurus, 1998
ISBN 186064 303 5
pp. 276

Uploaded 15 September 1998

In his introduction to The Unknown Thirties, editor Jeffrey Richards states that the book aims to chart a “new map” of British cinema, revising established histories’ emphasis on particular producers, directors, stars and genres. Rather than chart a completely new course, however, this excellent book builds on previous scholarship and takes British film history forward in a productive and exciting direction. Its eleven chapters embrace many previously under-researched areas on British cinema history, including the quality and popularity of “quota quickies”, acting styles/star analyses and the contribution of the melodramatic tradition to British cinema. The authors employ a range of approaches, including the application of quantitative methods to the analysis of box-office figures. The book’s attention to producers, directors, stars and genres which have been noted in previous books as tantalising footnotes or as “areas worthy of further research” will make this book a major contribution to the significant amount of work currently being undertaken on British cinema.

The Unknown Thirties contains many important qualifications to the “established” view. British films emerge as more popular, more varied and interesting than a cursory examination would suggest. Drawing on primary sources in US archives Glancy’s chapter on MGM’s “British” quota pictures provides ample evidence of their quality and popularity, adding the crucial proviso that MGM’s interest in making films in Britain was to a large extent determined by financial dependence on the British market. Sedgwick’s work on box-office records, utilizing the “POPSTAT” statistical formula, reveals that in the 1930s the British film industry was fast-recovering from the slump of the 1920s and that it had profited from state protective legislation enacted in 1927. Regarding the structure of the industry by the end of the decade, however, there would appear to be a contradiction between Sedgwick’s thesis that “there is no evidence that the chain operated uncommercially by consistently favouring unpopular ‘in house’ films where more popular alternatives were available” (p. 5) and Linda Wood’s chapter on independent producer Julius Hagen who, she argues, produced quality films but was mercilessly edged-out of the film business towards the end of the 1930s by the fast-developing combine, the Rank Organisation. This points to the need for more research into the industry’s distribution tactics to fully explain the relationship between independent producers and the British “majors”.

The book includes a welcome attention to under-researched actors, including Tod Slaughter (chapter by Richards), a notable figure whose acting style represented continuities with 19th-century stage melodrama. Neglected genres are also highlighted, most importantly the musical (chapter by Guy) and types of thriller, what Chapman terms ‘celluloid shockers’ which displayed a variety of styles and formulas whose origins are deeply rooted in popular literature. Also presented are “forgotten” directors who demonstrate the considerable degree of European influence in British cinema: Berthold Viertel (Chapter by Gough-Yates) and Bernard Vorhaus (chapter by Brown). These chapters draw attention to the need for British cinema to be analysed in relation to European traditions, embracing a fluid, non-exclusive concept of “British” cinema.

Harper’s chapter on Conrad Veidt pays meticulous attention to his acting style, succeeding in describing its particularity in an accomplished example of film performance analysis, all too rare in British cinema studies. MacFarlane’s work on director Robert Stevenson sheds light on his pre-Hollywood films, ascertaining auteurist traits in his 1930s British films which recurred across several genres. A welcome attention to discussion of the role of women in the film industry appears in Aldgate’s chapter which considers the work of Adrienne Allen (actress) and Marjorie Gaffney (writer, assistant-director) as key participants in the development of the “society drama” of the 1930s. Again, this points the way forward to further research into the role of women in the British film industry, an area barely touched upon in previous histories.

The Unknown Thirties is undoubtedly an invaluable addition to the growing literature on British cinema. In their anxiety to appear to be offering a “new” picture of British cinema, however, some of the authors are guilty of perhaps overstating their case and underestimating the extent to which previous histories pointed the way to the “gaps” in our knowledge. Rachel Low’s multiple-volume History of the British Film is subject to particular criticism in this regard but deserves a closer reading and appreciation of her considerable scholarship and provision of film lists at a time when good books on British cinema were very few and far between. It should be taken as given that like all histories her volumes betray their own context, in particular the dominant notions of film criticism of past decades which sought to discover the essence of “quality” cinema, when notions of “the popular” received little academic attention and when British cinema was overshadowed by both Hollywood and European ‘art’ cinema. Like all revisionist histories The Unknown Thirties expands our knowledge, broadens the canvass, suggests some new approaches, providing another set of traditions and data which in turn will inspire future film historians to qualify, revise and expand.

Sarah Street,
University of Bristol, UK

About the Author

Sarah Street

About the Author


Sarah Street

Sarah Street teaches film and television studies in the Department of Drama, University of Bristol. Her publications include (co-authored with Margaret Dickinson) Cinema and state (BFI, 1985) and British national cinema (Routledge, 1997). Her current research is on the distribution and reception of British films in America.View all posts by Sarah Street →