Delivering Dreams

A Century of British Film Distribution

Geoffrey Macnab

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781784534899
• eBook ISBN: 9780857729514
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Film & Video
• Index: Social Sciences

Film Distributors are the unsung heroes of cinema. Without them, the film industry would grind to a halt. Drawing on the archives of the Film Distributors' Association (FDA), as well as on interviews with leading British distributors of today, Delivering Dreams tells the, largely unacknowledged, story of how films were, and are, brought to British cinema-goers. It profiles some of the most flamboyant and controversial figures involved in UK distribution over the last 100 years, ranging from the founders of huge companies to visionaries who have launched small art house labels. Geoffrey MacNab also explores how the sector has reacted to a rapidly changing market and technological environment, from the transition to sound in the late 1920s to the spectre of TV in the 1950s and the move to digital in the 2000s. Ranging from the films of Charlie Chaplin to The King's Speech, and published to coincide with the centenary of the FDA's creation in December 1915, this book highlights the crucial role that distributors have played in maintaining the solid foundations of the British film industry.

GEOFFREY MACNAB is a journalist and critic. His previous books include Ingmar Bergman: The Life and Films of the Last Great European Director (I.B.Tauris); The Making of Taxi Driver; Searching for Stars; Stardom and Screen Acting in British Cinema and J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry.

‘Geoffrey Macnab’s book provides an insight into how the real business of film has evolved and works today. It should be required reading for anyone with an interest in the world of film or working in the industry.’

NIK POWELL
Director of the National Film & Television School

Published in 2016 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London • New York
www.ibtauris.com

Copyright © 2016 Film Distributors’ Association Ltd

The right of Film Distributors’ Association Ltd to be identified as the copyright holder of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.

References to websites were correct at the time of writing.

ISBN: 978 1 78453 489 9
eISBN: 978 0 85772 951 4

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

Typesetting and eBook by Tetragon

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Contents

• LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
• FOREWORD
  Unsung heroes by David Puttnam
• PREFACE
  Presidents of Film Distributors’ Association, 1915–2015
• INTRODUCTION
• 1 The Tramp
• 2 Blackmail
• 3 The Private Life of Henry VIII
• 4 The Third Man
• 5 Trouble in Store
• 6 Dr No
• 7 Star Wars
• 8 Chariots of Fire
• 9 Trainspotting
• 10 Billy Elliot
• 11 The King’s Speech
• POSTSCRIPT
  You ain’t seen nothing yet!
• NOTES
• SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

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‌List of Illustrations

‌1. Lord Puttnam, president of Film Distributors’ Association. Photography by Ian Gavan (Getty Images/FDA).

‌2. Percy Livingstone. Photograph courtesy of Variety, the Children’s Charity.

3. The Sound of Music, which set new all-time box-office records. Photograph courtesy of Variety, the Children’s Charity.

‌4. James Higgins. Photograph courtesy of Variety, the Children’s Charity.

5. The handwritten minutes of the inaugural KRS Council (board) meeting. Photography by Tim Whitby (Getty Images/FDA).

‌6. The hire department at the Walturdaw company. Source: Walturdaw Knowledge: The House of Cinema, a trade catalogue, reproduced by kind permission of Ivan Sharpe, Edward Turner’s great-grandson. Photography by Tim Whitby (Getty Images/FDA).

7. Flicker Alley. Photography by Tim Whitby (Getty Images/FDA).

‌8. Hitchcock thriller Blackmail. Source: Getty Images/Movie Poster Image Art.

‌9. The Private Life of Henry VIII. Film still and poster with Robert Donat – source: Getty Images/Archive Photos; (colour) poster – source: BFI Stills © ITV Global Entertainment.

10. The Third Man. Film poster – source: Getty Images/Movie Poster Image Art © StudioCanal UK Ltd; photograph – source: BFI Stills.

‌11. The UK release poster for Trouble in Store, and an on-set photograph of Norman Wisdom with co-star Margaret Rutherford. Poster – source: BFI Stills; photograph by Bert Hardy – source: Getty Images.

12. Dr No. Source: Dr No original UK release materials reproduced by kind permission of Eon Productions Ltd. Dr No © 1962 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved. 007 Gun Symbol Logo © 1962 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved. Image photography by Tim Whitby (Getty Images/FDA).

‌13. Film distributor Monty Morton and Richard Lester attending a film awards ceremony in 1965. Photograph courtesy of Variety, the Children’s Charity.

‌14. Kenneth Rive. Photograph courtesy of Variety, the Children’s Charity.

15. Queues outside American cinemas when Star Wars opened. Photograph – source: Getty Images/Paul Slade. Star Wars™ & © Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.

‌16. Chariots of Fire. Poster – source: BFI Stills. UK release by Twentieth Century Fox; photograph – source: Getty Images/Central Press.

17. Trainspotting. Poster – source: BFI Stills © Channel Four International/DNA Films.

‌18. Billy Elliot and lead Jamie Bell. Poster – source: BFI Stills © UIP/Universal/Working Title Films; photograph – source: Getty Images/Dave Hogan. The iconic BAFTA mask was designed in 1955 by the New York-born sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe (1918–2006).

‌19. Cast photograph of The King’s Speech. Photograph by Dave Hogan – source: Getty Images.

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‌Foreword

Unsung heroes by David Puttnam

1. Film industry champion: Lord Puttnam has been president of Film Distributors’ Association since 2008, adding to his roster of parliamentary, educational and media duties.

Photography by Ian Gavan (Getty Images/FDA)

Amid the seemingly incessant media coverage that the film industry inspires, it’s inevitable that actors and film-makers will occupy most of the limelight. Yet it’s widely acknowledged that, behind the scenes, a film director is supported by a skilled crew of artists and technicians, sometimes running into hundreds on any given production.

Even this, however, is only part of the picture. During and after a film’s production phase, another quite unheralded though utterly vital branch of the industry comes into focus. It is distribution, which, despite its name conjuring up images of lorries and warehouses, is in fact the highly risky and multi-faceted business of connecting films with audiences.

Human beings retain an unquenchable thirst for wonderful stories; and as a means of slaking that thirst, I believe movies are without equal. But self-evidently movies can only realise their extraordinary power to thrill, surprise, move and amuse when they are experienced and shared by us – the audience.

As a child in North London, I adored going to the cinema, as often as I could. It was only when working at an advertising agency in the 1960s that I began to appreciate just what was involved in motivating audiences – and how costly it was to cut through the blizzard of messages, let alone other entertainment options, competing constantly for attention. I became fascinated by the process; and later, during my career as a film producer, I was always keen to start work with each film’s distributor as early as possible. I found that distributors could offer extremely valuable opinions on a variety of productio...

Table of contents

• List of Illustrations