Declining Involvement in The Film Industry
From the 1950s fewer adventurous films were attempted and solidly commercial ventures, largely aimed at the family market, were made instead. These include the popular Norman Wisdom comedies, the Doctor films series and later on, the Carry On films. However some films of note were produced during this era including Carve Her Name with Pride, Sapphire and Victim, as well as a clutch of prestige topics such as the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and filmed performances by The Royal Ballet.
During the 1950s the British photographer Cornel Lucas set up the Pool Studio at Pinewood Studios where he photographed many of the movie stars of this era of cinema, such as Marlene Dietrich and David Niven.
From 1959 to 1969: the company made over 500 weekly short cinema films in a series entitled Look At Life, each film depicting an area of British life.
From 1971 to 1976 Rank only invested around £1.5 million a year into film production. In 1977 they appointed Anthony Williams head of production and made a number of movies worth £10 million. Few of these performed well at the box office, losing £1.5 million. In 1980 Rank withdrew from production. The following year they reported a record pre-tax profit of £102 million.
In 1995, The Rank Group acquired all the outstanding shares of The Rank Organisation.
Read more about this topic: Rank Organisation
Famous quotes containing the words declining, involvement, film and/or industry:
“In the declining day the thoughts make haste to rest in darkness, and hardly look forward to the ensuing morning. The thoughts of the old prepare for night and slumber. The same hopes and prospects are not for him who stands upon the rosy mountain-tops of life, and him who expects the setting of his earthly day.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Juggling produces both practical and psychological benefits.... A woman’s involvement in one role can enhance her functioning in another. Being a wife can make it easier to work outside the home. Being a mother can facilitate the activities and foster the skills of the efficient wife or of the effective worker. And employment outside the home can contribute in substantial, practical ways to how one works within the home, as a spouse and as a parent.”
—Faye J. Crosby (20th century)
“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)
“Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)