ABSTRACT
The previous chapters hardly suggest a high level of artistic awareness in the British film industry during the twenties. There is considerable evidence that British films were generally felt to be bad even at the time. Production became accustomed to being called a Cinderella industry, and to such blistering attacks as this one from Joseph Schenck:
‘British producers … do not consider what the public requires. They do not produce good pictures. They have never produced good pictures. They simply produce pictures and shove them out into the world … you have no personalities to put on the screen. The stage actors and actresses are no good on the screen. Your effects are no good, and you do not spend nearly so much money.’ 1
