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269 pages

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This book sheds new light on the under-researched period of early British cinema through an in-depth history of the British and Colonial Kinematograph Company—also known as ‘B&C’—in the years 1908–1916, the period when it became one of Britain’s leading film producers. It provides an account of its films and personalities, and explores its production methods, business practices and policy changes.

Gerry Turvey examines the range of short film genres B&C manufactured, including newsworthy topicals and comics, and series dramas, and how they often drew on the resources of urban Britain’s existing popular culture—from cheap reading matter to East End melodramas. He discusses B&C’s first open-air studio in East Finchley, its extensive use of location filming, and its large, state-of-the-art studio at Walthamstow. He also investigates how the films were photographed and ‘staged’, their developing formal properties, and how the choice of genres shifted radically over time in an attempt to seek new audiences.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47788/SGOE1157

List of Figures

List of Tables

INTRODUCTION

Rediscovering British and Colonial

PART I: BRITISH AND COLONIAL—A COMPANY HISTORY, 1908–1918

The Bloomfield Years: Period One at B&C, 1908–1912

McDowell in Charge: Period Two at B&C, 1913–1918

PART II: PLANT, STUDIOS AND THE PRODUCTION PROCESS

Making Films at East Finchley and on Location, 1911–1914

The Endell Street Plant and the Walthamstow Studio, 1913–1917

PART III: PERSONALITIES AND THEIR BIOGRAPHIES

On Screen: Performers and Picture-Personalities

Behind the Screen: Policy-Makers, Directors and Writers

PART IV: THE B&C FILM

Comics, Dramas and Series Films: The B&C Film in Period One

Spectacle, Sensation and Narrative: The B&C Film in Period Two

PART V: DISTRIBUTION, PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY

From the Open Market to the Exclusives System

Promoting B&C and its Films

CONCLUSION

Godal, Aspiration and Bankruptcy: Period Three at B&C, 1918–1924

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

Informations

Publié par	University of Exeter Press
Date de parution	23 août 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781905816651
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0005€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The B&C Kinematograph Company and British Cinema
This book sheds new light on the under-researched subject that is early British cinema through an in-depth history of the British and Colonial Kinematograph Company—also known as B&C—in the years 1908–1916, the period of its foundation and rapid growth, when it became one of Britain’s leading film producers. It examines the company’s development; changing production policies and practice; the genres produced; how the biographies of its personnel contributed to the material; ‘staging’ and the films’ formal properties; as well as methods of distribution and publicity.
Gerry Turvey has been involved in film education since the 1960s, including a Principal Lectureship in Film Studies at Kingston University, and a long association with the Phoenix Cinema Trust in North London. He continues to research early film.
Exeter Studies in Film History
Series Editors:
Richard Maltby , Matthew Flinders Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Screen Studies, Flinders University Helen Hanson , Associate Professor in Film History at the University of Exeter and Academic Director of the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum Joe Kember , Professor in Film Studies at the University of Exeter
Exeter Studies in Film History is devoted to publishing the best new scholarship on the cultural, technical and aesthetic history of cinema. The aims of the series are to reconsider established orthodoxies and to revise our understanding of cinema’s past by shedding light on neglected areas in film history.
Published by University of Exeter Press in association with the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture, the series includes monographs and essay collections, translations of major works written in other languages, and reprinted editions of important texts in cinema history.
Previously published titles in the series are listed at the back of this volume
The B&C Kinematograph Company and British Cinema
Early Twentieth-Century Spectacle and Melodrama
GERRY TURVEY
First published in 2021 by
University of Exeter Press
Reed Hall, Streatham Drive
Exeter EX4 4QR
UK
www.exeterpress.co.uk
Copyright © Stewart Gerald Turvey 2021
The right of Stewart Gerald Turvey to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Exeter Studies in Film History
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
Hbk 978-1-905816-64-4
ePub 978-1-905816-65-1
PDF 978-1-905816-66-8
This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format, for non-commercial purposes only. If others remix, adapt, or build upon the material, they may not distribute the modified material.
Further details about Creative Commons licences are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
Any third-party material in this book is published under the book’s Creative Commons licence unless indicated otherwise in the credit line to the material. If you would like to reuse any third-party material not covered by the book’s Creative Commons licence, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
https://doi.org/10.47788/SGOE1157
Cover image: still from B&C film The Battle of Waterloo. The Pictures , June 1913. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LON 330
Typeset in Adobe Caslon Pro by Palimpsest Book Production Ltd, Falkirk, Stirlingshire
For Hazel, with love

Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
1. Introduction: Rediscovering British and Colonial
Part I: British and Colonial—A Company History, 1908–1918
2. The Bloomfield Years: Period One at B&C, 1908–1912
3. McDowell in Charge: Period Two at B&C, 1913–1918
Part II: Plant, Studios and the Production Process
4. Making Films at East Finchley and On Location, 1911–1914
5. The Endell Street Plant and the Walthamstow Studio, 1913–1917
Part III: Personalities and Their Biographies
6. On Screen: Performers and Picture Personalities
7. Behind the Screen: Policy-makers, Directors and Writers
Part IV: The B&C Film
8. Comics, Dramas and Series Films: The B&C Film in Period One
9. Spectacle, Sensation and Narrative: The B&C Film in Period Two
Part V: Distribution, Promotion and Publicity
10. From the Open Market to the Exclusives System
11. Promoting B&C and Its Films
12. Conclusion: Godal, Aspiration and Bankruptcy—Period Three at B&C, 1918–1924
Notes
Bibliography
British and Colonial Films Held at the BFI National Archives
Index
Figures
2.1 Cartoon of B&C’s John Benjamin McDowell and Albert Henry Bloomfield
The Bioscope , 5 October 1911. British Library: Shelfmark HUI.LON 278
2.2 Three-Fingered Kate encounters danger in The Case of the Chemical Fumes
The Pictures , 17 August 1912. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LON 330
2.3 Advertisement for B&C’s 1913 Cup Final topical
The Cinema , 9 April 1913. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LD 181
3.1 Lillian Wiggins in James Youngdeer’s sensational The Water Rats of London
The Cinema , 28 May 1914. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LD 181
3.2 Advertisement for Dicky Dee’s Cartoons
The Cinema , 26 August 1915. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LD 181
3.3 B&C promotes its services to the industry in November 1915
The Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly , 25 November 1915. British Library: Shelfmark MFM.MLD 94
4.1 The B&C organization: ‘A Leading British Film Company’
The Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly , 21 September 1911. British Library: Shelfmark MFM.MLD 94
4.2 Destruction at the East Finchley studio after James Youngdeer’s explosion for The Black Cross Gang
Pictures and the Picturegoer , 4 July 1914. British Library: Shelfmark MFM.MFICHE 5
4.3 A B&C company touring North Wales in spring 1912
The Pictures , 11 May 1912. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LON 330
4.4 A B&C location film: The Battle of Waterloo
Illustrated Film Monthly , October 1913. British Library: Shelfmark P.P. 1912ff
5.1 Interior of B&C’s studio at Hoe Street, Walthamstow
Pictures and the Picturegoer , 27 June 1914. British Library: Shelfmark MFM.MFICHE 5
5.2 Elizabeth Risdon in Florence Nightingale filmed at Hoe Street
The Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly , 1 April 1915. British Library: Shelfmark MFM.MLD 94
5.3 Jimmy , one of B&C’s last wartime films made at Hoe Street
The Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly , 24 February 1916. British Library: Shelfmark MFM.MLD 94
5.4 A studio interior for The Life of Shakespeare (1914)
Collection of Sally Freytag
6.1 B&C publicity postcard for Ivy Martinek
Collection of Sally Freytag
6.2 B &C publicity postcard for Gladstone Haley or ‘Snorky’
Author’s collection
6.3 B &C publicity postcard for Percy Moran as Lieutenant Daring
Author’s collection
6.4 B&C publicity postcard for Dorothy Foster
Author’s collection
6.5 Dorothy Batley, B&C’s leading child performer
The Pictures , 29 November 1913. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LON 330
6.6 B&C publicity postcard for Elizabeth Risdon
Author’s collection
7.1 John Benjamin McDowell, Managing Director of B&C, in uniform as a war cinematographer
Collection of Sally Freytag
7.2 Ernest Batley as Napoleon in The Battle of Waterloo
Illustrated Film Monthly , October 1913. British Library: Shelfmark P.P. 1912ffg
7.3 Advertisement for Maurice Elvey’s The Bells of Rheims
Moving Picture Offered List, 17 April 1915. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LON 386
7.4 Advertisement for Harold Weston’s Shadows
The Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly , 6 May 1915. British Library: Shelfmark MFM.MLD 94
8.1 Lieutenant Daring in trouble in Lieutenant Daring and the Ship’s Mascot
The Pictures , 27 April 1912. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LON 330
8.2 Percy Moran and Ernest Trimmingham in The Adventures of Dick Turpin No.3: Two Hundred Guineas Reward
The Pictures , 14 September 1912. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LON 330
8.3 Charles Raymond as Don Q with the author Hesketh Pritchard
The Bioscope , 5 October 1911. British Library: Shelfmark HUI.LON 278
9.1 Dramatic studio lighting in Maurice Elvey’s Florence Nightingale
The Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly , 1 April 1915. British Library: Shelfmark MFM.MLD94
9.2 Spectacle in The Battle of Waterloo
The Pictures , June 1913. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LON 330
9.3 A B&C melodrama: poster for Her Nameless (?) Child
The Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly , 24 June 1915. British Library: Shelfmark MFM.MLT94
10.1 A Motion Picture Sales Agency poster for Dick Turpin No.4: A Deadly Foe, A Pack of Hounds and Some Merry Monks
The Top-Line Indicator , 18 December 1912. British Library
10.2 Davison’s Film Sales Agency advertisement for The Broken Chisel
Moving Picture Offered List, 6 September 1913. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LON 620
10.3 Advertisement for Maurice Elvey’s It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary
The Cinema , 3 December 1914. British Library: Shelfmark LOU.LD 181
11.1 B&C promotes itself
The Kinematograph Year Book 1914 . Author’s collection
11.2 Percy Moran promoting Lieutenant Daring outside B&C’s headquarters in Endell Street
The Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly , 21 December 1911. British Library: Shelfmark MFM.MLD 94
Tables
1.1: Annual Output of New Film at B&C, 1909–1917
2.1: British Companies Releasing Ten or More Fiction Films in 1910
3.1: British Companies Releasing Ten or More Fiction Films in 1915 (plus Davidson)
3.2: Companies Specializing in Longer Films in 1915
7.1: B&C Directors and Fiction Films, 1909–1917
8.1: B&C’s Fiction, Actuality and Animated Films, 1909–1917
8.2: B&C’s Comics, Dramas, Series Films and Exclusives, 1909–1917
8.3: Average Duration of B&C’s Comics, Dramas, Series Films and Exclusives, 1909–1917
10.1: Ideal’s Exclu