ABSTRACT
In the 1930s, Hollywood made so many films about the British Empire that British directors and producers making empire films complained that Americans were taking all the good subjects. What are now called empire films, 1 films focusing on and heroizing the British Empire (see Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s essay in this volume), were very popular on both sides of the Atlantic. In Lives of a Bengal Lancer (Hathaway, 1935) British actors played older British officers, and American actors played younger officers, metaphorically figuring the passing of the imperial “white man’s burden” from Britain to America. 2
