ABSTRACT
There were some hundreds of film producers in Britain during the twenties. From the basic facts of their careers, from looking at those of their films which still survive, from things written and said about them and their associates both at the time and since, from meeting some of them or people who knew them, and from what many of them have written either then or later it is possible to estimate their positions in the production scene and see how this changed during the period. In general the picture is one of unfounded optimism after the war when the old guard of producer expected to return to much the same sort of production as before 1914, and a gradual decline from 1920 to 1924 or 1925 during which they were almost all forced out of business and a new, more modern, type of producer began to appear. The latter realized the need for bigger capital resources and better distribution, but found that British film production was only just economically viable. The quota legislation of 1927 designed to remedy this situation brought capital into the industry. As production expanded, not always wisely, it was further disrupted in 1929 by the arrival of commercial sound film production.
