ABSTRACT
On 22 July 1969, British film star Anna Neagle was invested as Dame Commander of the British Empire. This occasion marks an institutionalised recognition of the outstanding commercial success and popular acclaim that she enjoyed from the 1930s through to the mid-1950s. Her box-office appeal is registered in the BFI Ultimate Chart in which four Neagle productions appear in the top fifty: Spring in Park Lane (1948; 20.5 million admissions) at no. 5, The Courtneys of Curzon Street (1947; 15.9 million) at no. 17; Piccadilly Incident (1946; 11.5 million) at no. 42 and I Live in Grosvenor Square (1945; 10.3 million) at no. 49. This prominent chart position translates into numerous awards received by Neagle, the most notable being the Gold Cup at the Venice Film Festival for Victoria the Great (1937). Between the years 1948 and 1951 the exhibitors’ journal, Motion Picture Herald, acclaimed her as top International Box Office Star and best British Box-Office Star in 1941, 1947 and 1952. In 1938, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951, a poll of Picturegoer readers awarded the Gold Medal for best picture respectively to Victoria the Great, Piccadilly Incident, The Courtneys of Curzon Street, Spring in Park Lane and Odette (1950).1 The latter two films also won the Daily Mail National Film Awards while Odette was also singled out for the Kinematograph Weekly’s Josh Billings Award for individual acting. Neagle’s final ‘trade’ accolade arrived in 1966 in the guise of a Variety Club Special Award. Loved by millions Neagle is now recognised as ‘possibly the most successful cinema actress in British film history’.2
