Hitchcock’s Number Seventeen (1932) and the British Film Quota

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1 See John Russell Taylor, Hitch: The Life and Work of Alfred Hitchcock (London: Faber and Faber, 1978), 115–16; Donald Spoto, Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (London: Fredrick Muller, 1983), 129–30; and Patrick McGilligan, Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 146–8.2 François Truffaut, with Helen G. Scott, Hitchcock (London: Paladin, 1986), 102.3 Rodney Ackland, The Celluloid Mistress: or The Custard Pie of Dr Caligari (London: Allan Wingate, 1954), 36.4 ‘British International Pictures, Limited’, The Economist, 25 August 1930, 378.5 Rachael Low, The History of the British Film 1929-1939: Film-Making in 1930s Britain (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1985), 116–17.6 John Sedgwick, ‘Michael Balcon’s Close Encounter with the American Market, 1934-36’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 16, no. 3 (1996): 333–48.7 Raymond Durgnat, The Strange Case of Alfred Hitchcock; or The Plain Man’s Hitchcock (London: Faber and Faber, 1974), 120.8 Tom Ryall, Alfred Hitchcock and the British Cinema (London: Croom Helm, 1986), 101.9 Gene D. Phillips, Alfred Hitchcock (London: Columbus Books, 1986), 67.10 Steve Chibnall, Quota Quickies: The Birth of the British ‘B’ Film (London: British Film Institute, 2007), xii–xiii.11 For the contexts of the Quota Act, see Rachael Low, The History of the British Film 1918-1929 (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1971), 71–106; Margaret Dickinson and Sarah Street, Cinema and State: The Film Industry and the British Government, 1927-84 (London: British Film Institute, 1985), 5–33; and Chibnall, Quota Quickies, 1–17.12 Political and Economic Planning, The British Film Industry: A report on its history and present organisation, with special reference to the economic problems of British feature film production (London: Political and Economic Planning, 1952), 50.13 Truffaut, Hitchcock, 104.14 The ledger is referenced in Linda Wood, ‘Low-Budget Production: Twickenham Film Studios, 1927-1938’ (unpublished MPhil thesis, Polytechnic of Central London, 1989).15 The National Archives (TNA) BT 64/97: Particulars of British Films Acquired by Renters during Quota Year 1932-33. The ledger actually includes 159 films but one of those – Till the Bells Ring (1933) produced by British Sound Film Productions for independent distributor A. L. Bayley – has no cost data. The ledger includes Old Spanish Customers (1932) under MGM though in fact it was released by Wardour Films.16 This includes one film (Verdict of the Sea) where the production company is listed as Regina Film Productions: this film was shot at Elstree Studios with some overseas locations, and was to all intents and purposes a BIP film.17 Simon Rowson, ‘A Statistical Survey of the Cinema Industry in Great Britain in 1934’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 99, no. 1 (1936): 111.18 The average for the British & Dominions Film Corporation needs to be qualified in so far as it includes two distinct groups of film: 13 for British distributor W&F Film Service at an average statutory cost of £12,412 and six for American distributor Paramount at an average of £5,627.19 Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company Built By the Stars (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), 84.20 ‘British Studios Today’, The Bioscope, 12 February 1930, 23.21 Michael Powell, A Life in Movies: An Autobiography (London: William Heineman, 1986), 214.22 Adrian Brunel, Nice Work: The Story of Thirty Years in British Film Production (London: Forbes Robertson, 1949), 165–6.23 TNA BT 55/3: Association of Cine-Technicians: Evidence submitted to the Board of Trade Committee into the position of British Films, 13 May 1936.24 Kinematograph Weekly, 21 July 1932, 37.25 The Era, 20 July 1932, 8.26 The Manchester Guardian, 19 July 1932, 7.Additional informationNotes on contributorsJames ChapmanJames Chapman is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Leicester (UK) and editor of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.