British film era ends: Rank closes

Press, 9 June 1980, Page 9

British film era ends: Rank closes

NZPA-Reuter London Economic decline. . the most pernicious of British ailments, has killed off the most British of moviemakers, Rank Film Productions.

The Rank organisation, whose screen symbol of a muscleman beating a large gong was familiar to cinema fans throughout’ the world, has. announced that Britain’s high interest rates and soaring inflation had forced it to abandon film production.

Some critics said that in common with some other areas of British industry it

had also suffered in recent years from a lack of innovative ability. J." Arthur Rank, who became Britain’s closest equivalent of a Hollywood movie mogul, entered the film business in the 1930 s when he decided that the standard of films shown at| Methodist Sunday schools} was not good enough. A fervent Methodist and millionaire flour-miller, he used hiss, family, fortune and business l connections to launch, an era in British movies.

j He made the country’s < biggest films in the 19405, 11950 s and early 19605, m.akling international stars out of

British actors and actresses such as Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons. Dirk Bogarde, and James Mason. Rank's large-scale productions had by 1947 left him with losses amounting to about $l2 million, but he persevered with comedies front his Ealing studios, and I serious films such as Carol! Reed's masterpiece “Odd; Man Out.” David Lean’s “Brief Encounter’’ and; “Henrv V” and "Hamlet.”

Other big successes included “Oliver Twist.” “The Importance of Being Earnest." “Genevieve" and) “Great Expectations” and, later, the low-budget “Carry-, on" comedy series.