Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I An Industry in Crisis: 1945–1950
- Part II A Fragile Stability: 1951–1969
- Part III Crises and Contraction: 1970–1985
- Conclusion
- Appendix I Production Costs and Revenues of Selected Feature Films in the Late 1940s
- Appendix II National Film Trustee Company: Production Costs and Receipts
- Appendix III Budgets and Costs of Selected British First Features Guaranteed by Film Finances
- Appendix IV National Film Finance Corporation: Accounts, 1950–1985
- Appendix V Feature Films supported by the National Film Finance Corporation, 1949–1985
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - The British Lion Film Corporation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I An Industry in Crisis: 1945–1950
- Part II A Fragile Stability: 1951–1969
- Part III Crises and Contraction: 1970–1985
- Conclusion
- Appendix I Production Costs and Revenues of Selected Feature Films in the Late 1940s
- Appendix II National Film Trustee Company: Production Costs and Receipts
- Appendix III Budgets and Costs of Selected British First Features Guaranteed by Film Finances
- Appendix IV National Film Finance Corporation: Accounts, 1950–1985
- Appendix V Feature Films supported by the National Film Finance Corporation, 1949–1985
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The ‘City’ has never been excited about a British film industry. All that Whitehall should realise is that when they destroy British Lion, they admit their failure to maintain a film industry in the UK. (Bank of England)
The case of the British Lion Film Corporation merits special consideration in the history of film finance. In the late 1940s British Lion had been the principal beneficiary of the state loans for production available through the National Film Finance Corporation. In 1948–9 the NFFC loaned British Lion a total of £3 million to support its production programme. What amounted in effect to a government bailout of British Lion had been an emergency measure to ensure that the company – the second-largest in Britain in terms of production output – was able to continue operating. However, the bailout had longer-term consequences: British Lion ‘became a central player in debates about state control and cinematic creativity’. Indeed, the histories of British Lion and the NFFC were so closely linked that it is difficult at times to separate them: British Lion owed its continued existence to the NFFC's support and had to determine its production strategy within a framework approved by the corporation, while the NFFC found that its overall policy was influenced to a very large extent by the state of affairs at British Lion at any given time. There were also conflicting pressures from official quarters. The Board of Trade was concerned that British Lion should operate as efficiently as possible in order to provide a viable alternative to the Rank/ABPC duopoly, while the Treasury's only interest was to reclaim as much of the £3 million as it could. It might even be argued that one of the reasons for the decision to extend the statutory life of the NFFC was down to the government holding out the hope that the British Lion loan might be repaid.
The argument always advanced by the NFFC to defend both its initial loan to British Lion and its ongoing support for the company was that British Lion was the major supporter of independent production: it provided an alternative source of distributor finance for those producers and directors who baulked against either the draconian managerialism of John Davis at the Rank Organisation or the budgetary parsimony of ABPC.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Money Behind the ScreenA History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985, pp. 128 - 142Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2022