- British National Films Company
In 1934 the British National Films Company was formed in
England byJ. Arthur Rank ,Lady Annie Henrietta Yule ofBricket Wood and producer John Corefield.Origin of the company
Joseph Arthur Rank was a devout member of the
Methodist Church and the son of a millionaire flour miller. On the first day of the week he was aSunday School teacher and he discovered that if he screened religious films instead of lecturing his class, he got a positive response.His idea spread to other classes held by other churches and in 1933, this motivated J. Arthur Rank to form a Religious Film Society to distribute the films that he wanted to show to other Sunday Schools.
Following distribution, J. Arthur Rank then decided to go into the business of producing religious films. "Mastership" was his first religious film production. It was a twenty minutes film made at Merton Park Studios at a cost of £2,700. "Mastership" was never shown commercially, because it was merely intended as a form of evangelism and shown within other churches. Rank was pleased with the results and other films went into production in
Elstree at the better equipped Rock Studios, which were later renamed British National.Press challenge
In the 1930s the "
Methodist Times "newspaper in England began attacking the low moral standards exhibited byBritish films and byAmerican films shown in Britain. In response, theLondon "Evening News " answered the "Methodist Times" by suggesting that if theMethodist Church was so concerned about the effect that thefilm industry was having upon family life in Britain, that it should start producting its own family-friendly films. It was this exchange that motivated J. Arthur Rank to expand his movie interests into the commercial market.Lady Yule
A young producer named John Corefield introduced J. Arthur Rank to
Lady Annie Henrietta Yule ofBricket Wood , who was both extremely wealthy and extremely bored with life. In order to fill her life with activity she engaged inbig game hunting and breedingArabian horse s with a degree of success and lasting fame. Upon meeting J. Arthur Rank she decided to add the making of films to her list. However, when it came to the business side of film production, Lady Yule did not share the same ideas as J. Arthur Rank with regards to the making and distributing films to improve society, because she did not believe in giving discounts to religiously motivated film productions. She thought that films were an interesting hobby and similar to her financial interests inArabian horse breeding.Formation of the Company
In 1934 J. Arthur Rank, Lady Yule and John Corefield formed the British National Films Company and went into production in answer to the challenge by the "Evening News" to the "Methodist Times".
In 1935 British National commenced production of their first feature film called "Turn of the Tide". The script was based upon a 1932 novel by
Leo Walmsley called "Three Fevers". The setting, which Rank knew from childhood, wasRobin Hood 's Bay on the north coast ofYorkshire ,England . Having read the book, Rank decided that it would mamake an excellent family-friendly British film in answer to theHollywood -style movies thatAlexander Korda was making at theDenham Film Studios .Although "Turn of the Tide" was well made and featured a good cast, British National could not get wide distribution for the film and when he did, it was as the second half of a double feature. The company struggled to recoup its costs and Rank knew that for British National to make a profit, he had to create a commercial version of his Religious Film Society in order to control distribution and exhibition.
Pinewood Film Studios
In 1934
Charles Boot had undertaken to construct a new film studio in the village ofIver Heath inBuckinghamshire . His location was set among the Pine trees on the estate grounds of a mansion called Heatherden Hall that Charles Boot had recently bought at auction. The complex was namedPinewood Film Studios and it was completed within a year. By 1935 Charles Boot had approached British National about taking over ownership and management of the new studios and a contract was entered into. John Corfield eventually resigned from the board ofPinewood Film Studios and Lady Yule sold her shares to J. Arthur Rank.Film Distribution
The problems that British National experienced in distributing "Turn of the Tide", were eventually solved by
J. Arthur Rank and that episode belongs to his life story.
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