A Yank In Britain

Memoirs of documentary film producer Charles Urban who was one of the most important figures in the film industry prior to the First World War.

Denis Lipman left London’s East End for Washington, DC more than 20 years ago, but made an annual pilgrimage year after year to visit aging parents, a pair of cantankerous, real-life Cockneys. He endured the visits as best he could. Enter an American wife. Not content with a grin-and-bear-it attitude, she declares that since each year’s trip to England was inevitable, it was to be enjoyed: see the sites, taste the culture, go places! Against his will, our expat becomes a tourist in his homeland and comes to discover it’s not so bad after all. Through new eyes, England is certainly better than he remembered! Enjoy a travel memoir more carbolic than bucolic. Discover a place where the sun rarely shines, where electricity is coin-operated, and where canned beans on toast is a cornerstone of cuisine. Taste the real East End and tour with a colorful, combative and fundamentally affectionate family as they rent cottages, host outrageous relatives, meet the locals and discover the English countryside.

Based on original research from Charles Urban’s own papers, this is the first biography of this influential film maker and innovator. It is also a historical study of the development of the non-fiction film in Britain and America in the early years of cinema, told through the experiences of the leading pioneer of the form. Charles Urban was a renowned figure in his time, and he has remained a name in film history chiefly for his development of Kinemacolor, the world’s first successful natural colour moving picture system. He was also a pioneer in the filming of war, science, travel, actuality and news, a fervent advocate of the value of film as an educative force, and a controversial but important innovator of film propaganda in wartime. The book uses Urban’s story as a means of showing how the non-fiction film developed in the period 1897-1925, and the dilemmas that it faced within a cinema culture in which the entertainment fiction film was dominant. Urban’s solutions – some successful, some less so – illustrate the groundwork that led to the development of documentary film. The book considers the roles of film as informer, educator and generator of propaganda, and the social and aesthetic function of colour in the years when cinema was still working out what it was capable of and how best to reach audiences. Luke McKernan also curates a web resource on Charles Urban at www.charlesurban.com Winner of the Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award 2014.

This new, updated edition of The Battle of Britain on Screen examines in depth the origins, development and reception of the major dramatic screen representations of 'The Few' in the Battle of Britain produced over the past 75 years. Paul MacKenzie explores both continuity and change in the presentation of a wartime event that acquired and retains near-mythical dimensions in popular consciousness and has been represented many times in feature films and television dramas. Alongside relevant technical developments, the book also examines the social, cultural, and political changes occurring in the second half of the 20th century and first decade of current century that helped shape how the battle came to be framed dramatically. This edition contains a new chapter looking at the portrayal of the Battle of Britain at the time of its 70th anniversary. Through its perceptive demonstration of how our memory of the battle has been constantly reshaped through film and television, The Battle of Britain on Screen provides students of the Second World War, 20th-century Britain and film history with a thorough and complex understanding of an iconic historical event.

The essays which appear in this book for the most part originated as papers delivered at a conference on Britain and the cinema in the Second World War held in London in May 1985.

This is the first collection of original critical essays devoted to exploring the misunderstood, neglected and frequently caricatured role played by the film producer. The editors' introduction provides a conceptual and methodological overview, arguing that the producer's complex and multifaceted role is crucial to a film's success or failure. The collection is divided into three sections where detailed individual essays explore a broad range of contrasting producers working in different historical, geographical, generic and industrial contexts. Rather than suggest there is a single type of producer, the collection analyses the rich variety of roles producers play, providing fascinating and informative insights into how the film industry actually works. This groundbreaking collection challenges several of the conventional orthodoxies of film studies, providing a new approach that will become required reading for scholars and students.

This book comprises a selection of articles from the (British) Army Bureau of Current Affairs' WAR and CURRENT AFFAIRS pamphlets, all relating to America and, more particularly, to the relationship between the British and Americans during the Second World War. Much of the fascination of the pieces lies in the fact that they were originally published between 1941 and 1944 when there was still a great deal of uncertainty as to what the future would hold. Most deal with the issue of social and cultural variations between the two countries and it is evident that both the American and British authorities had concerns over potential frictions caused by those differences. Although the articles have been grouped under the subtitle of "British Views on America," there are also contributions from Americans who had been given the remit to explain to a British readership why their countrymen are the way they are and how their behaviour is often misunderstood and misinterpreted abroad. Apart from the material dealing with Anglo-American relations, there is an eyewitness account of "The Epic of Bataan," an article on presidential elections (with special reference to that of 1944), and another on U.S. foreign policy. The sensitive issue of race discrimination, i.e. the position of black Americans at home and in the army, is also tentatively addressed in "The Colour Problem." On the authors, several articles are by Captains Ernest Watkins and Anthony Cotterell who were regular contributors to ABCA. Cotterell was taken prisoner by the Germans at Arnhem in 1944 and is reported to have died in an attempted escape. Among the other contributors are the English novelist, Phyllis Bentley, the American anthropologist, Margaret Mead, and the journalist and historian, Herbert Agar. The informative and very accessible contributions in this collection were written with the express purpose of improving the estimation of Americans among the ordinary rank and file of the British services. W. J. Hinton in "Meet the Americans" puts it in this way: "Our enemies are trying to make trouble between the British and the Americans during the war; they are certain to try it after they have been defeated, in the hope of escaping once more from the consequences of their crimes against humanity. It is our business to understand and work with the United States now and in peace-time; that means for us all at least to like and understand the Americans we meet." "Yanks" has been issued as a companion volume to the previously published "Japs" (978-1-910375-44-0) and "Nazis" (978-1910375-45-7). CONTENTS The Army of the U.S.A. - Major E. M. Llewellyn Life of a Recruit - Captain Anthony Cotterell The Epic of Bataan - Lieut-Colonel Warren J. Clear A Day with an American Unit - Captain Anthony Cotterell Full power to levy war - Captain Ernest Watkins Meet the Americans - W. J Hinton Here Are the Americans - Phyllis Bentley and H. G. Nicholas The Colour Problem as the American Sees It - Anonymous Transatlantic Soundings - Herbert Agar You and the Americans - Frank Darvall The Yank in Britain - Margaret Mead Electing the President - D. W. Brogan U.S. Foreign Policy - (Walter Lippman)