Blackout: Reinventing Women for Wartime British Cinema

279 Pages·1991·52.64 MB·English

by  Antonia Caroline Lant

BLACKOUT

Reinvent iWngom efnor
Wartim Beriti shCinema
ANTON IALANT
PRINCET ON UNIVER SITY PRESS
PRINCET ON. NEW JERSEY
Copyright © 1991 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lant, Antonia
Blackout: reinventing women for wartime British cinema I
Antonia Lant.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-691-05540-8 — ISBN 0-691-00828-0 (pbk.)
1. Women in motion pictures. 2. World War, 1939-1945—Motion
pictures and the war. 3. Motion pictures—Great Britain—History.
4. Sex role in motion pictures. 5. Feminism and motion pictures.
6. National characteristics, British, in motion pictures.
7. Motion pictures—Social aspects—Great Britain. I. Title.
PN1995.9.W6L36 1991
791.43'652042—dc20 90-25290
This book has been composed in Linotron Times Roman
Princeton University Press books are printed on
acid-free paper, and meet the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Committee on Production
Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources
Printed in the United States of America by
Princeton University Press,
Princeton, New Jersey
2 4 68 10 9 7 5 31
(Pbk.)
2 4 68 10 9 7 5 31
For
B. S.,T.P.R.,
and
R.P.D.

CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS XV
INTRODUCTION Cinema in Extremis 3
CHAPTER 1 Projecting National Identity 19
CHAPTER 2 The Mobile Woman: Femininity in Wartime Cinema 59
CHAPTER 3 The Blackout 114
CHAPTER 4 Processing History: The Timing of a Brief Encounter 153
CONCLUSION From Mufti to Civvies: A Canterbury Tale 197
APPENDIX I Bogart or Bacon: The British Film Industry during
World War II 221
APPENDIX II British Box Office Information, 1940-1950 231
SELECT FILMOGRAPHY 235
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 243
INDEX 253

LIST OF I L L U S T R A T I O NS
1.1 Blitzed BFI Doorway, Sight and Sound 9, no. 35 (Autumn 1940), front
cover. 27
1.2 Cartoon on the impermanence of wartime's shifted class boundaries,
Everybody's Weekly, 3 February 1945, p. 13. 42
1.3 Macleans toothpaste advertisement, Picture Post, 20 June 1942. 54
1.4 Ministry of Food information bulletin, Time and Tide, 20 November 1943,
p. 957. 55
1.5 Advertisement for Weetabix, Picture Post, 6 June 1942. 56
1.6 Hollywood femininity, cartoon, Colliers, 5 March 1949, p. 18. 58
2.1 Advertisement for Clarks shoes, Picture Post, 17 February 1940, p. 3. 64
2.2 "Will She Have a Chance to Wear It?" Picture Post, 6 January 1945,
front cover. 67
2.3 Fougasse cartoon, "Joan and John," Punch, 2 September 1942, p. 183. 70
2.4 "Keep Mum, She's Not So Dumb!" Wartime poster, courtesy of the
Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London. 71
2.5 G. Lacoste poster, "Don't Tell Aunty and Uncle," courtesy of the
Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London. 77
2.6 Reginald Mount anti-VD poster, 1943-44, courtesy of the
Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London. 78
2.7 Poster artwork for Next of Kin (1942), courtesy of the Museum of Modern
Art, New York. 79
2.8 Advertisement for Evan Williams shampoo, Picture Post, 16 December
1939. 80
2.9 Advertisement for Palmolive soap, Picture Post, 18 April 1942. 81
2.10 Advertisement for Potter and Moore's Powder-Cream, Picture Post, 19
October 1940. 82
2.11 Advertisement for Kemt hair spray, Picture Post, 2 March 1940. 82
2.12 "La Donna e Mobile," cartoon in Time and Tide, 16 October 1943, p.
841. 87
2.13 Howard looks down from the parapet. Frame enlargement from The
Gentle Sex, courtesy of the National Film Archive, London. 91
2.14 First title image from The Gentle Sex. Frame enlargement, courtesy of
the National Film Archive, London. 95
2.15 Title image from The Gentle Sex. Frame enlargement, courtesy of the
National Film Archive, London. 95
2.16 Title image from The Gentle Sex. Frame enlargement, courtesy of the
National Film Archive, London. 95
2.17 Cartoon, Everybody's Weekly, 20 March 1943, p. 13. 98
2.18 Cartoon by John, Everybody's Weekly, 24 July 1943, p. 13. 99
ix