ABSTRACT
Few could have supposed during the first two years of the war that the renaissance of the British cinematograph industry was at hand. Members of the documentary movement, and particularly those who were (or had been) members of the GPO Film Unit, raged in their impotence. They could find no way round the official disinclination to use their services or, indeed, the services of anyone else connected with the cinema. Apparently the risk of halls being bombed during air raids made it necessary for the British public to shut themselves up during the evenings listening to the radio. Picture houses were compulsorily closed at the outbreak of war and were not allowed to reopen until factory managers had made strong representations to the Government about the effect on morale of this pathetically negative attitude.
