Editing Pinewood Studios (section)

===1940s===
{{Commons category|No. 5 Army Film and Photographic Unit}}
During the [[World War II|Second World War]], Pinewood was requisitioned, and the [[Crown Film Unit]], No. 5 [[Army Film and Photographic Unit]], [[Royal Air Force Film Production Unit]], and Polish Air Force Film Unit were based there. The Crown Film Unit completed many classic wartime documentaries, and [[Roy Boulting]]'s ''[[Desert Victory]]'', [[Humphrey Jennings]]' ''[[Fires Were Started]]'', ''[[Coastal Command (film)|Coastal Command]]'' and [[Pat Jackson]]'s ''[[Western Approaches (film)|Western Approaches]]'' (all 1943) were filmed there during that period. As well as its use by the armed forces, the [[Royal Mint]] and [[Lloyd's of London]] were installed on sound stages at Pinewood, and were open for business for the duration of the war.

[[The Company of Youth]], the Rank Organisation acting school, which launched several film careers, was founded in 1945. The next year, Pinewood re-opened for (non-war-related) business.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Two significant films produced at Pinewood were released within two months of each other in 1948: ''[[Oliver Twist (1948 film)|Oliver Twist]]'', directed by [[David Lean]], and [[Powell and Pressburger]]'s ''[[The Red Shoes (1948 film)|The Red Shoes]]''. Due to a shortfall in funds, brought about by financial overspends the previous year, Rank did not have enough money to market ''The Red Shoes'' sufficiently at first in the US, but it became Rank's biggest earner up to that point, grossing over £1&nbsp;million by 1951 (the equivalent of £{{Format price|{{Inflation|UK-GDP|1000000|1951}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK-GDP}} terms).<ref name="Wood">{{cite web |last=Wood |first=Alan |date= 23 February 1952 | title=The Inside Story of Mr. Rank | work=Everybody's Weekly | url=http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/Rank/Everybodys.html | access-date=1 January 2008}}</ref>

In the same year, [[John Davis (British businessman)|John Davis]] was appointed managing director.<ref name="Clement">John Clement [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sir-john-davis-1482174.html Obituary: Sir John Davis], ''The Independent'', 1 July 1993</ref> By the following year, [[Rank Organisation|Rank]] had run up an overdraft of £16&nbsp;million<ref name="Warren">Patricia Warren ''British Fiklm Studios: An Illusrtrated History'', London: B. T. Batsford, 2001, p.120</ref> (the equivalent of £{{Format price|{{Inflation|UK-GDP|16000000|1949}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK-GDP}}), and announced a loss of £3.5 million,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18474161 |title=Film Industry Slipping Out of the Big Money. |newspaper=[[The Sunday Herald (Sydney)|The Sunday Herald]] |location=Sydney |date=1 January 1950 |access-date=7 July 2012 |page=7 Supplement: Features |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> mainly due to big budget flops. One of the largest of these had been ''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (film)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]'' (1945), which was originally budgeted at £250,000, but which eventually cost £1,278,000 (the equivalent of £{{Format price|{{Inflation|UK-GDP|1278000|1945}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK-GDP}}).<ref name="Wood"/>