Biopics And Politics: The Making And Unmaking Of The Rhodes Movies
In 1997 the British Broadcasting Corporation screened a six hour dramati zation of the life of the South African imperialist Cecil Rhodes. Titled sim ply Rhodes, the film was one of the most expensive and ambitious produc tions ever undertaken by the BBC, costing over £15 million and relying on support from American, Canadian, and South African public television. The final script was reportedly reviewed and approved by the Prime Ministers of South Africa and Zimbabwe. The program was eventually broadcast to countries throughout the world, including the United States, Australia, and Zimbabwe, the nation that had once been the colony of Rhodesia. The series was the first Rhodes biography to be filmed in over sixty years, and only the second in the history of the cinema. And yet, though only two Rhodes films have ever been produced, since 1916 at least seven similar projects have been attempted. Why has there been so much interest in producing a Rhodes movie, and why have so few of them actually been made? An analysis of the history of the Rhodes biopics reveals that all attempts to film his life have been affected by the enormous shadow he continues to cast over Southern African politics. Since his death in 1902 Rhodes has become the most potent icon of the peculiar form of imperial ism that took root in Southern Africa in the late nineteenth century, and eventually developed into the modern Apartheid state. Not surprisingly, politicians and administrators with a stake in the Rhodes legacy have influ enced every attempt to film his life. Most of the proposed Rhodes biopics foundered on the ambivalence or hostility of Southern African regimes that feared the political ramifications of bringing his life to the screen. The two Rhodes films actually made only came off because they enjoyed the support
Michael Balcon's Close Encounter with the American Market, 1934–1936
Michael Balcon is generally recognised for his stewardship of the Ealing Studios from 1939 and the portfolio of highly esteemed films which emerged over the decade 1942-52. Perhaps as a consequence of the critical preoccupation with those films, less attention has been given to his activities as Director of Production of what was Britain's largest film organisation during the 1930s: Gaumont British (G-B). Based upon archive material held by the British Film Institute, The Michael Balcon Special Collection (MBSC) and the US box-office information contained in Variety, this article sets out to redress partly this state of affairs by concentrating on the organisation's efforts, 1934-36, to become a major player in the world film industry; a rival in scale and output of the principal Hollywood studios.
The market for feature films in Britain, 1934: a viable national cinema
Simon Rowson was the leading academic figure within the British film industry during the late 1920s and 1930s. He regularly addressed the Cinematograph Exhibitors' Assodation Annual Conference and was noted for his statistical analysis of the industry. Rowson had access to the information collected by the Board of Trade in the course of administering the 1927 Cinematograph Act, from which he compiled a number of important papers, including one published by the Royal Statistical Society. According to Rowson's estimates, there were 963 million admissions to cinemas in Britain during 1934 generating gross box-office revenues of s This represents 22 visits per head of population.