Editing Cinema of the United Kingdom (section)

===The early sound period===
Scottish solicitor [[John Maxwell (producer)|John Maxwell]] founded [[Associated British Picture Corporation|British International Pictures]] (BIP) in 1927. Based at the former [[British National Pictures Studios]] in Elstree, the facilities original owners, including producer-director [[Herbert Wilcox]], had run into financial difficulties.<ref>{{cite book|last=Warren|first=Patricia|title=British Film Studios: An Illustrated History|publisher=B. T. Batsford|location=London|year=2001|page=61}}</ref> One of the company's early films, [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[Blackmail (1929 film)|Blackmail]]'' (1929), is often regarded as the first British sound feature.<ref>{{cite book| first=Paul Matthew |last=St. Pierre | title = Music Hall Mimesis in British Film, 1895–1960: On the Hall on the Screen| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AvxgFdRJ66kC&pg=PA79| date =31 May 2009| publisher = Associated University Press| isbn = 978-0-8386-4191-0| page = 79 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| author = Richard Allen|author2=S. Ishii-Gonzalès| title = Hitchcock: Past and Future| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cFEYI_wNKAcC| year = 2004| publisher = Routledge| isbn = 978-0-415-27525-5 }}</ref> It was a part-talkie with a synchronised score and sound effects. Earlier in 1929, the first all-talking British feature, ''[[The Clue of the New Pin (1929 film)|The Clue of the New Pin]]'' was released. It was based on a novel by [[Edgar Wallace]], starring Donald Calthrop, Benita Home and Fred Raines, which was made by [[British Lion Film Corporation|British Lion]] at their [[Beaconsfield Film Studios|Beaconsfield Studios]]. John Maxwell's BIP became the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) in 1933.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Burton|first1=Alan|last2=Chibnall|first2=Steve|title=Historical Dictionary of British Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q8SRjwJqwukC&pg=PA43|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham, MD and Plymouth, England|year=2013|page=43|isbn=9780810880269}}</ref> ABPC's studios in Elstree came to be known as the "porridge factory", according to Lou Alexander, "for reasons more likely to do with the quantity of films that the company turned out, than their quality".<ref name="Alexander">{{cite web|last=Alexander|first=Lou|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/460815/|title=Associated British Picture Corporation (1933-70)|work=BFI screenonline|date=2003–2014|access-date=17 July 2015|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924121835/http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/460815/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Elstree]] (strictly speaking almost all the studios were in neighbouring [[Borehamwood]]) became the centre of the British film industry, with [[Elstree Studios|six film complexes]] over the years all in close proximity to each other.<ref>Warren (2001), pp. 57, 58.</ref>

By 1927, the largest cinema chains in the United Kingdom consisted of around 20 cinemas but the following year [[Gaumont-British]] expanded significantly to become the largest, controlling 180 cinemas by 1928 and up to 300 by 1929. Maxwell formed [[ABC Cinemas]] in 1927 which became a subsidiary of BIP and went on to become one of the largest in the country, together with [[Odeon Cinemas]], founded by [[Oscar Deutsch]], who opened his first cinema in 1928. By 1937, these three chains controlled almost a quarter of all cinemas in the country. A booking by one of these chains was indispensable for the success of any British film.<ref name=Times48>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Times]]|date=21 January 1948|title=The British Film Industry|page=5}}</ref>

With the advent of sound films, many foreign actors were in less demand, with English [[received pronunciation]] commonly used; for example, the voice of Czech actress [[Anny Ondra]] in ''Blackmail'' was substituted by an off-camera [[Joan Barry (British actress)|Joan Barry]] during Ondra's scenes.

Starting with [[John Grierson]]'s ''[[Drifters (1929 film)|Drifters]]'' (also 1929), the period saw the emergence of the school of realist [[Documentary Film Movement]], from 1933 associated with the [[GPO Film Unit]]. It was Grierson who coined the term "[[Documentary film|documentary]]" to describe a non-fiction film, and he produced the movement's most celebrated early films, ''[[Night Mail]]'' (1936), written and directed by [[Basil Wright]] and [[Harry Watt (director)|Harry Watt]], and incorporating the poem by [[W. H. Auden]] towards the end of the short.

[[Music hall]]s also proved influential in [[comedy films]] of this period, and a number of popular personalities emerged, including [[George Formby, Jr.|George Formby]], [[Gracie Fields]], [[Jessie Matthews]] and [[Will Hay]]. These stars often made several films a year, and their productions remained important for morale purposes during [[World War II]].

[[File:Alexander-Korda-1936.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Alexander Korda]]
Many of the British films with larger budgets during the 1930s were produced by [[London Films]], founded by [[Hungary|Hungarian]] ''emigre'' [[Alexander Korda]]. The success of ''[[The Private Life of Henry VIII]]'' (1933), made at [[British and Dominions Elstree Studios]], persuaded [[United Artists]] and [[Prudential plc|The Prudential]] to invest in Korda's [[Denham Film Studios]], which opened in May 1936, but both investors suffered losses as a result.<ref>Warren (2001), pp. 26, 28.</ref> Korda's films before the war included ''[[Things to Come]]'', ''[[Rembrandt (1936 film)|Rembrandt]]'' (both 1936) and ''[[Knight Without Armour]]'' (1937), as well as the early [[Technicolor|Technicolour]] films ''[[The Drum (1938 film)|The Drum]]'' (1938) and ''[[The Four Feathers (1939 film)|The Four Feathers]]'' (1939). These had followed closely on from ''[[Wings of the Morning (1937 film)|Wings of the Morning]]'' (1937), the UK's first three-strip Technicolour feature film, made by the local offshoot of [[20th Century Fox]]. Although some of Korda's films indulged in "unrelenting pro-Empire flag waving", those featuring [[Sabu Dastagir|Sabu]] turned him into "a huge international star";<ref>Mark Duguid, [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/445836/index.html "Korda and Empuire"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120927163953/http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/445836/index.html |date=27 September 2012 }}, BFI screenonline.</ref> "for many years" he had the highest profile of any actor of Indian origin.<ref>Michael Brooke, [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/459165/index.html "Sabu (1924–1963)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120808162056/http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/459165/index.html |date=8 August 2012 }}, BFI screenonline.</ref> [[Paul Robeson]] was also cast in leading roles when "there were hardly any opportunities" for African Americans "to play challenging roles" in their own country's productions.<ref>[[Stephen Bourne (writer)|Stephen Bourne]], [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/446731/index.html "Robeson, Paul (1898–1976)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120808152040/http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/446731/index.html |date=8 August 2012 }}, BFI screenonline.</ref>

In 1933, the [[British Film Institute]] was established as the lead organisation for film in the UK.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/british-film-institute |title=British Film Institute – GOV.UK |date=31 March 2022 |publisher=Government of the United Kingdom |access-date=18 April 2022 |archive-date=18 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130118150317/https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/british-film-institute |url-status=live }}</ref> They set up the [[National Film Library]] in 1935 (now known as the BFI National Archive), with [[Ernest Lindgren]] as its curator.

In 1934, [[J. Arthur Rank]] became a co-founder of [[British National Films Company]] and they helped create [[Pinewood Studios]], which opened in 1936. Also in 1936, Rank took over [[General Film Distributors]] and in 1937, Rank founded [[The Rank Organisation]]. In 1938, General Film Distributors became affiliated with Odeon Cinemas.

[[File:Pygmalion-1938.jpg|thumb|[[Scott Sunderland (actor)|Scott Sunderland]], [[Leslie Howard]] and [[Wendy Hiller]] in ''[[Pygmalion (1938 film)|Pygmalion]]'' (1938)]]
Rising expenditure and over-optimistic expectations of expansion into the American market caused a financial crisis in 1937,<ref>Sarah Street ''British National Cinema'', London: Routledge, 2009, p. 12.</ref> after an all-time high of 192 films were released in 1936. Of the 640 British production companies registered between 1925 and 1936, only 20 were still active in 1937. Moreover, the 1927 Films Act was up for renewal. The replacement Cinematograph Films Act 1938 provided incentives, via a "[[Cinematograph Films Council|quality test]]", for UK companies to make fewer films, but of higher quality, and to eliminate the "quota quickies". Influenced by world politics, it encouraged American investment and imports. One result was the creation of [[MGM-British Studios|MGM-British]], an English subsidiary of the largest American studio, which produced four films before the war, including ''[[Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)|Goodbye, Mr. Chips]]'' (1939).

The new venture was initially based at Denham Studios. Korda himself lost control of the facility in 1939 to the Rank Organisation.<ref>Warren (2001), pp. 29, 119.</ref> Circumstances forced Korda's ''[[The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film)|The Thief of Bagdad]]'' (1940), a spectacular fantasy film, to be completed in California, where Korda continued his film career during the war.

By now contracted to Gaumont British, Alfred Hitchcock had settled on the thriller genre by the mid-1930s with ''[[The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 film)|The Man Who Knew Too Much]]'' (1934), ''[[The 39 Steps (1935 film)|The 39 Steps]]'' (1935) and ''[[The Lady Vanishes (1938 film)|The Lady Vanishes]]'' (1938). Lauded in Britain where he was dubbed "Alfred the Great" by ''[[Picturegoer]]'' magazine, Hitchcock's reputation was beginning to develop overseas, with a ''[[New York Times]]'' feature writer asserting; "Three unique and valuable institutions the British have that we in America have not. [[Magna Carta]], the [[Tower Bridge]] and Alfred Hitchcock, the greatest director of screen melodramas in the world."<ref>Leff, Leonard J., ''The Rich and Strange Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick in Hollywood''. University of California Press, 1999, p. 16.</ref> Hitchcock was then signed up to a seven-year contract by Selznick and moved to [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]].