KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT the craft of film-making, I am hesitant
about intervening in the contest of experts between the Boulting Brothers and Nicholas Davenport; but a couple of questions suggest themselves which I have yet to see answered. One concerns the Englishness (or Scottishness, or whatever it may be) of the home product. Is it not true that whenever the industry here has appeared to be on the verge of flourish- ing, it has always been because somebody has struck a home theme, such as the early Ealings did? It has not been because some American star has been imported, and the cast chosen with an ear for mid-Atlantic : some films made in this way have indeed been profitable, but they have seen sterile, begetting nothing; the Ealings by con- sast ran on—far too long, it can be argued, but profitably enough. The, second is on salaries. I know the stock argument, that if you do not pay competitive rates Hollywood will snap the star up. But it simply is not true: for in fact actors and Actresses here can all too easily be caught by a long-term contract, which would keep them in this country. Where there has been a failure, surely, is in finding young actors and actresses of potential star quality. Those who have made-good in Hollywood have frequently been rejects from London agencies; and of those who have been groomed for stardom here, how many have reached it? What has happened, for instance, to all Mr. Rank's charm scholar's? PHAROS
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