Moor Larkin

It has been a constant in British industry that once they become very successful they try to break the American market . The film industry did it, the Banks have done it, Tesco is trying to do it. It is the British way.

I remember Hanson tried to make a virtue of it, as did British Airways. Once the Americans have sucked in the money, they fart the company back at us. You can't blame them for it, it's good business. They're no more interested in our writing than our own moguls are.

john audley

I always want the customer to be King (Queen) and a bit of rubbish is fine in its place
- I do enjoy that too! I enjoy some of our old Bs just for the fun of them. I just think scripts can be better.

'You should be kind to us normals, there are not many of us left you know'!

john audley

I know - America is a huge vacume cleaner sucking everything into it including our best actors over the past 60 years - great for them not so all the time for us.
One irritant is when they do make a film showing 'good old England' the place is invariably criticized whilst our films tend to pander too much to them.
One good example of 'American Britain' is Footsteps in the Fog with Simmons and Granger set in Victorian London where Granger goes out of his way to suggest that moving to America is so much better than living in London.

'You should be kind to us normals, there are not many of us left you know'!

Moor Larkin

Stewart should know.........

I watched the old British Disney "Dr. Syn" TV movie the other night again. The politics are totally bizarre. It's set in George III's reign.

There is an American who's being pursued for treason because he's on the side of the putative revolution. He gets hidden by Dr. Syn, the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow is smuggling all the booze into the country and sharing the profits with the local people, like some Robin Hood.

Then it gets really interesting. An Army General (Geoffrey Keen) is sent to quell the anarchy. He's a working class boy made good (presumably someone living the 'American' dream) and a ruthless soldier. The local toff (Michael Hordern) is very disapproving of the General because the General is determined to root out the bandits, even if it means hurting the people. Meanwhile this same toff is shafting all the peasants (local people) for their rent, so he can continue to live in his big house while the peasants live in wooden shacks. As Magistrate he is also quite prepared to hang some poor addled smuggler because 'it's the Law', until Dr. Syn plays a trick to get the oaf off the gibbet.................... Talk about the Americans giving us cake and then making us eat it.

The film is basically all about the cruel General being foiled by a criminal and his effective soldiering being thoroughly disapproved of by an apparently benign aristocracy. Meanwhile the Yank makes good his escape to further the revolutionary cause back in the Colonies.........

You would never think Powell & Pressburger had made Col. Blimp the way this 1964 movie works..................

The Americans are so successful because they know what side of the paper they're writing on............

Buffalo_Chuck

JohnA, I consider Hammer's demise to be a good illustration where they seemed to lazily give what money-men wanted without thinking about the long term best results - that of staying in business vs making quick money. Maybe Hammer's profiteeres were happy with their eventual downfall.

The marketing people may have done themselves a great service by disconnecting the creative people from the financing people, serving as some sick buffer that claims Business and Art are too treacherous to meet. If that's correct, what a shame.

I still believe creative ideas can be presented in provocative ways that will earn the investment needed for film production and good profits, but this discussion displays that many of us consider this attitude more wishful-thinking than we've seen proven on-screen.

Frankly, I don't see that THREE AND OUT is the worst of the offensive lot. And on the good news front, I am not certain we'll see THREE AND OUT 2, 6, 17, etc. SHAUN, however, I anticipate far worse news.

homeguard

Isn't it all about numbers of bums on seats? America is successful because of its huge population all speaking the same language. And their films are competing with each other there. So they can't afford to let too many of our films in. A good case in point would be the Indian film industry. It thrives because of a huge home audience. Our film industry seems to have moved to television, and there we can show America a thing or two - despite the 'penny-dreadful' soaps. But I agree with all members of this website - bring back a viable British film industry.
Regards,
HG

Moor Larkin

One of the things I support behind JohnA's points about writing is that it is a huge error to write for the American market, which the bums-on-seats logic inevitably leads the moguls to demand.

The secret of Danger Man all those years ago was precisely the opposite of what the mogul originally dreamed up. Lew Grade wanted Drake to be sassy and a gun-smith as he believed the Americans would want. Ralph Smart and Patrick McGoohan made him into their image and the Americans loved him because he was different......................

The Indian industry writes exclusively for itself and sometimes it might spill over into the American market, but mostly it doesn't and so far as I know it never attempts to do so. The Kung Fu genre is a case in point. They wrote for themselves and eventually the American market copied them. That's the way individual cultures should co-operate. America is always remaking Japanese movies for itself, just as they remake British television series for themselves.

The British error is trying to make films to appeal to whatever our perception of the American market is............ No doubt we know as much about them as Dick Van Dyke appeared to know about us

john audley

One should be a little weary of old Walt who supported Hitler! 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea portrayed the real 'most evil regime on earth' -as the script says -suggests that they were British soldiers wearing our old Victorian helmets! The subs crew clearly had Germanic uniforms!

Re your post. I also question the patriotism of our past and present leading actors who go along with our image destruction. Straw Dogs portrayed Cornwall as some
archaic backwater.
John

'You should be kind to us normals, there are not many of us left you know'!

john audley

To Moor Larkin and Homeguard

Lew Grade got it absolutely right most of the time. Good modern exciting formats with excellent scripts with across the world appeal. 'The Persuaders' was a great series with two great stars in Roger Moore and Tony Curtis.
America might speak the same language (most of the time!) but the general accent is moving away from good English in popular films (the sound is terrible) but with so many ethic languages in their country we should not follow their 'Americglish' trend.
They might think better of us with a pride in our own identity.

They are only five per cent of the planet

Bollywood:: They too receive American films but may edit out words or language unpalatable that we do not.

'You should be kind to us normals, there are not many of us left you know'!

MB

I want more films that are genuinely relevant to peoples lives and less that are about weddings or idiotic badlads (Sean of the Dead, Run Fat boy run..anything with Mr Pegg in it basically...)