The Man Who Ruined the British Film Industry
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- Опубликовано: 26 авг 2015
- Controversial profile of Sir John Davis (1906-1993), the fearsome managing director of the Rank Organisation in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was responsible for much of British film production and exhibition. Davis still had the power to intimidate many of the interviewees from beyond the grave. Produced and directed by John Ellis for Large Door and Channel 4, 1995
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My first Job in 1959 in the British Film Industry
was with Rank Screen Service a subsidiary of
the Rank Organisation and yes I remember
John Davis well and learnt over the years
his reputation within the Industry
The Rank HQ in South Street
just around the corner to the Rank HQ
Bill Annett was the MD of Rank Screen Service
I never got a good feeling about John Davis
and what he was doing for the British Industry
in 1977 the Rank Organisation made no films at
all a far cry from Pinewood 40 years on
God bless Betty Box !! For all she did for British Cinema.
In the late fifties audiences were declining mainly because of the influence of TV, commercial TV in particular.
People don't realise what a huge Organisation Rank was - they had a stake in Universal Pictures in Hollywood, and we had a successful distribution agreement with Ealing...No matter what they say we would never had had a Film Industry without the financial input of J.Arthur Rank and the accountancy skills of.....Sir John Davis
Yes. If all those critics of his had
put their money where there mouths were then things might
have been different .? Naturally
none of them were prepared to
risk their money . Apart from
Betty !!
Yes, you are absolutely right. To save the film industry, John Davis had to drive David Lean, Powell and Pressburger, Carol Reed and Sidney Gillat and Frank Launder out of Rank and into the hands of Sir Alexander Korda and others, who made 'The Third Man', 'Hobson's Choice', and other classics, whilst Rank knocked out product, The Doctor Series. The industry was built by Rank and destroyed by Davis.
@@bobbyjosson4663 In the best half-decade or so of the British cinema, from 1945, Rank distributed the films of Cineguild (Lean, Neame, Havelock-Allan) and the Archers, and Lean said they experienced very little interference from the big man. In fact the money spigot flowed too freely. On paper the Organisation was as big as MGM, but the talent and cost control went wild. Davis was determined to make every penny count; in 'Peeping Tom' he is caricatured as a studio boss who tells his underlings 'If you can see it and hear it, the first take's all right.'
His other fault was that in tackling the international market he could never decide whether to shoot blockbusters or arthouse product. Rank's occasional big projects usually fell between those two stools. An extra complication was that J Arthur refused on principle to put his name on X-rated material, although sex and horror (as shown by Hammer's success) was increasingly favored by moviegoers who found TV bland.
Two people voted it down -- probably John Davis' sons! (John Davis doesn't DESERVE the "Sir", Other people, like Sir Lawrence Olivier, do.)
couple of comments - this doc reminded me just what wonderful British actors we had then (and now of course). Secondly, saying this guy ruined the British film industry is a reach - if Rank was the only viable British film industry then the UK industry was in trouble to begin with - just one major film company? Sounds like he was not a nice guy to work for which is something altogether different. A hyperbolic title intended to get a TV audience.
Although " J Arthur Rank " still has a legacy in rhyming slang.
Very appropriate apparently. ?
One factor Denis Forman does not mention was the untimely death of Arthur Rank's brother, who was running the family milling business. J Arthur had to drop everything to save it, which he did- building it into Ranks Hovis McDougall, a huge combine. But movies, which he had gone into as an idealistic hobby, require full-time commitment, esp. if you are jousting with Hollywood. Rank had to delegate the day-to-day business of producing, releasing, screening and exporting pictures, and it was the unimaginative petty despot Davis who got the job.
The Rank Organisation, however, was a business, not a charity for 'creatives' nor a makework scheme for technicians nor the Arts Council. Its priority was profits for risk investors. Rank had been heavily attacked for overproducing during the 1948 crisis, using the real estate value of Odeon cinemas to collateralise risky films which lost so much. Davis cannot be blamed for derisking the slate... at a time when audiences were deserting in droves to stay home gawping at TV.
You can blame him for not backing commercial television from the getgo, but neither did most UK media groups. Rank's rival, Associated British, only came in when the original pick for its franchise collapsed; for the first two years ITV bled money, and Forman's Granada only survived through a secret revenue-pooling deal.
In short, the 1950s were a thoroughly perilous and confused period for all British mass media. It is doubtful if a few blockbuster hits from Rank, let alone more prestige product, would have turned the British 'industry' round. Davis's stake in Haloid, the photocopying company, did far more for the Organisation.
Thanks Esmee, this is a really valuable insight into Arthur Rank's involvement!
Thanks. It's a very interesting documentary.
In the en Rank became a gaming and a photocopy company.I wonder if there are many like him still in business
It would be a great feature film.
Showbiz. The emphasis is on the 'Biz' part.
You could say he pulled "Rank"! Ha Ha.
When they talk about "awful films" they show a scene from "Peeping Tom". I can and will not take this documentary seriously.
The clip from Peeping Tom is actually the scene where Michael Powell is mocking the penny-pinching attitude of John Davis in the thinly disguised character of studio head 'Don Jarvis'. He is showing why 'Don Jarvis' makes such awful films. Peeping Tom wasn't a Rank film, oddly enough!
@@largedoor5644 Thanks for the clarification, but the use of the clip at this point, without explaining as you have done, does mislead.
@@dabedwards Even _I_ knew what that clip represented in the film. It was Michael Powell taking a well deserved cheap shot at John Davis. It wasn't misleading at all; I seem to remember that there was acrimony between both of them.
It’s using a clip showing the shooting of “The Walls Are Closing In”, the film-within-a-film in “Peeping Tom”, to illustrate the point - not “Peeping Tom” itself. Carl Boehm’s character is working on this cheap movie, featuring a pretty hopeless lead actress.
@@dabedwards But it was explained.
Excuse me? How on earth didn't anyone boycott this man? Or box him in his head for railroading the spirit of imagination? This would have started a war in some countries. How were people so frightened then? British people talk up? I want to know how the belly of so many was so weak? Second world war syndrome perhaps?
Did anyone do that to Harvey Weinstein before 2017?
As stupid a comment as would elicit the equally stupid retort “Didn’t septics have the stomach for the first two years of the war?”
So I guess Ch. 4 likes John Davis.
No, they didn't -- why would they like him if they transmitted this documentary?
Easy to slag a man of once he's dead and buried , All the people saying he should have take more risk's would just have probably spat on his grave if he had bankrupted the film industry with artistically adventurous movies that counted for nothing but debt when the box office returns were counted up.
You'll find that he was slagged off at the time. Not to mention his violence to his wife Dinah Sheridan, the actress. Who also hated him. Those artistically adventurous films included 'Green for Danger', 'Great Expectations' and 'The Red Shoes', box office champions. The mechanical films he made, once he took over, have lost all value and aren't shown.
Were there no competing studios? How can one man ruin an industry with competing players? Interesting documentary, but obviously very alarmist. No wonder it was on Channel 4.
Rank Stupidity.