By the early 1950s there was a feeling in the British film industry that the worst of the crisis had passed and that the first green shoots of recovery could be glimpsed. In June 1950 Kine editor A. L. Carter intimated that ‘we are likely to ignore the signs – small yet unmistakable – that our industry may possibly be emerging from the slough in which British producers have been floundering for one reason or another since the Dalton duties’. At the end of a year in which 74 British features were made – 62 first features and 12 second features – the Kine Year Book noted the paradox that ‘in a year when almost everyone in the industry (with some factual justification) has been metaphorically buying crepe for the funeral, British production has actually achieved a series of good quality films that have been successful’. This verdict was confirmed by the Kine's chief reviewer R. H. ‘Josh’ Billings, who reported that ‘British films have done much better during recent months. I am thinking in particular of The Blue Lamp, Odette, The Wooden Horse, Seven Days to Noon and, of course, Her Favourite Husband.’ And in January 1951 the Kine's City editor V. L. Burtt, reporting that share values across the industry as a whole had risen by £6 million over the last year, sounded an optimistic note about its prospects: ‘There is a general feeling in the City that the industry is rebuilding on a much sounder foundation than hitherto. This, in time, will boost up patronage again, and thus complete the circle and the basis for a real revival.’

To a large extent this impression of recovery is borne out by the statistical evidence. For one thing the number of feature films being produced was on an upward curve during the 1950s: there were 67 British features released in 1951, 79 in 1952, 86 in 1953, 93 in 1954, 82 in 1955, 81 in 1956 and 96 in 1957.