Legitimate Cinema , livre ebook

LEGITIMATE CINEMA
‘By focusing on British stage actors as they interact with the cinema,
Jon Burrows has challenged long-standing conceptions about theatre in
the United Kingdom. Burrows combines stellar research with creative
historiographic insights and establishes his work as central to our
understanding of silent film.’
Charles Musser, Yale University
‘This study of theatre-film relationships and acting practices in the
teens offers a major contribution to British film history, rigorously
grounded in empirical research, compellingly argued and engagingly
written . . . It will make an invaluable contribution not only to
knowledge of the silent period of British filmmaking, but to the
increasing interchange between film and theatre scholarship.’
Christine Gledhill, Staffordshire University
‘This book is well researched and makes an important intervention in
the field. It will be of interest to theatre historians, film historians
and cultural historians interested in British audiences and popular
amusements in the early twentieth century.’
Lea Jacobs, University of Wisconsin-MadisonExeter Studies in Film History
General Editors: Richard Maltby and Duncan Petrie
Exeter Studies in Film History is devoted to publishing the best new scholarship on
the cultural, technical and aesthetic history of cinema. The aims of the series are
to reconsider established orthodoxies and to revise our understanding of cinema’s
past by shedding light on neglected areas in film history.
Published by University of Exeter Press in association with the Bill Douglas
Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture, the series includes
monographs and essay collections, translations of major works written in other
languages, and reprinted editions of important texts in cinema history. The series
editors are Richard Maltby, Associate Professor of Screen Studies, Flinders
University, Australia, and Duncan Petrie, Director of the Bill Douglas Centre for
the History of Cinema and Popular Culture, University of Exeter.
Parallel Tracks: The Railroad and Silent Cinema
Lynne Kirby (1997)
The World According to Hollywood, 1918–1939
Ruth Vasey (1997)
‘Film Europe’ and ‘Film America’: Cinema, Commerce and
Cultural Exchange 1920–1939
edited by Andrew Higson and Richard Maltby (1999)
A Paul Rotha Reader
edited by Duncan Petrie and Robert Kruger (1999)
A Chorus of Raspberries: British Film Comedy 1929–1939
David Sutton (2000)
The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema
Laurent Mannoni, translated by Richard Crangle (2000)
Popular Filmgoing in 1930s Britain: A Choice of Pleasures
John Sedgwick (2000)
Alternative Empires: European Modernist Cinemas and
Cultures of Imperialism
Martin Stollery (2000)
Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s: The Lost Trail
Peter Stanfield (2001)
Young and Innocent? The Cinema in Britain 1896–1930
edited by Andrew Higson (2002)
University of Exeter Press also publishes the celebrated five-volume series looking
at the early years of English cinema, The Beginnings of the Cinema in England,by
John Barnes.LEGITIMATE
CINEMA
Theatre Stars in Silent British
Films, 1908–1918
Jon BurrowsFirst published in 2003 by
University of Exeter Press
Reed Hall, Streatham Drive
Exeter, Devon EX4 4QR
UK
www.ex.ac.uk/uep/
© 2003 Jon Burrows
The right of Jon Burrows to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 85989 725 7
Typeset in 11/13pt Adobe Caslon by
Kestrel Data, Exeter, Devon
Printed in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, WiltshireContents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1. ‘Only in England is Such Characterisation Possible’:
Class, Taste, National Values and the Edwardian
Stage Actor 27
2. British ‘Films d’Art’:
Theatre Stars in Transitional Cinema, 1908–1911 43
3. Patterns of ‘Convergence’ in Pre-war Entertainment:
Legitimate Actors in Music Halls 90
4. Lost in the Translation:
The Troubled Reception of Forbes-Robertson’s
Hamlet (1913) 112
5. Transferable Skills:
The Edwardian Character Actor on the Screen 141
6. ‘The Whole English Stage To Be Seen For Sixpence’:
Ideal’s ‘High-Class’ Wartime Films 180
Conclusion 225
Notes 232
Bibliography 263
Index 273Illustrations
Plate 2.1 Advertisement for Gaumont’s 1908 Romeo and Juliet 46
Source: Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly,11 June 1908
Plate 2.2 All that remains of Henry VIII (1911) 64
Source: The Sketch, 1 March 1911
Plate 2.3 The burning of Henry VIII (1911) 69
Source: Valentia Steer, The Romance of the Cinema
(London: C. Arthur Pearson, 1913)
Plate 2.4 Cartoon of R.T. Jupp, managing director of PCT 74
Source: The Bioscope, 30 March 1911
Plate 2.5 Pantomime choreography 81
Source: frame stills from Richard III (1911)
Plate 3.1 Cartoon of stage actors enviously eyeing a wealthy cinema
actor 92
Source: The Bioscope, 21 December 1911
Plate 3.2 Detail from cartoon imagining ‘When Sir Herbert Succumbs
to the ‘‘Halls’’ ’ 99
Source: The Throne and Country, 15 March 1911
Plate 3.3 Cartoon showing music hall stars watching visitors from the
legitimate stage 105
Source: Punch, 24 April 1912
Plate 4.1 Souvenir magazine issues 117
Source: Play Pictorial 129 (March 1913) and The Theatre,
22 March 1913
Plate 4.2 Souvenir vignettes 119
Source: frame stills from Hamlet (1913)
Plate 4.3 Shallow staging in the 1913 Drury Lane Theatre production
of Hamlet 121
Source: The Sketch, 2 April 1913Plate 4.4 Deep staging in the film adaptation 122
Source: frame stills from Hamlet (1913)
Plate 4.5 Forbes-Robertson’s oral fixation 125
Source: frame stills from Hamlet (1913)
Plate 4.6 The book of the film 130
Source: Anon., Shakespeare’s Hamlet: The Story of the Play
Concisely Told (London: Stanley Paul & Co., 1913)
Plate 4.7 Forbes-Robertson’s listlessness 132
Source: frame still from Hamlet (1913)
Plate 4.8 A cinema fit for Shakespeare lovers: the New Gallery 138
Source: The Cinema, 8 January 1913
Plate 5.1 The character actor’s mastery of make-up 148
Source: Black and White, 3 June 1911 and The Sketch,
26 January 1916
Plate 5.2 Gestures repeated from stage to screen 158
Source: publicity photograph from the 1895 Haymarket
Theatre production of Trilby and frame still from the 1914 film
Plate 5.3 The gestures of a connoisseur and a vulgarian 161
Source: frame stills from Trilby (1914)
Plate 5.4 Addressing the audience 166
Source: frame still from Trilby (1914)
Plate 5.5 A Hebraic ‘shrug’ 175
Source: production still from The Merchant of Venice (1916)
Plate 6.1 Heritage settings in The Gay Lord Quex (1917) 189
Source: Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly,26 July1917
and 30 August 1917
Plate 6.2 Mrs Erlynne begs a favour 199
Source: frame still from Lady Windermere’s Fan (1916)
Plate 6.3 Cartoon showing respectable housewife begging for sugar 200
Source: London Opinion, 19 May 1917
Plate 6.4 The gestural symmetry of mother and daughter 202
Source: frame stills from Lady Windermere’s Fan (1916)
Plate 6.5 Advertisement for Lady Windermere’s Fan (1916) 203
Source: Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly, 18 May 1916
Plate 6.6 Corporate publicity for the British Actors Film Company 210
Source: The Bioscope, 31 January 1918Acknowledgements
Among the many accommodating staff I was helped by at a number of
excellent libraries and archives, I would particularly like to thank Sarah
Morris, Keeper of the University of Bristol’s Theatre Collections,
Charles Silver at the Museum of Modern Art and Rosemary Hanes
and Madeline Matz at the Library of Congress. Any scholar focusing
on early British cinema is naturally dependent upon the resources of
the British Film Institute and particularly the National Film and
Television Archive; I am especially grateful to Elaine Burrows, Luke
McKernan, Kathleen Dickson, Steve Tollervey, Ian O’Sullivan and
Bryony Dixon among current and former employees. Bryony
and Laraine Porter have provided a fantastic forum for the detailed
exploration and discussion of issues in this field of study at the five
British Silent Cinema weekends that have been held at the Broadway
Media Centre in Nottingham while I’ve been working on this project,
and therefore deserve a special mention. Amongst the growing
convivial community of fellow researchers with similar interests to
myself who have provided stimulating conversation and advice, I must
single out Kaveh Askari, Judith Buchanan, Mike Hammond, Lawrence
Napper, Emma Smith and Leila Wimmer for various forms of help,
advice and/or making unpublished papers available to me.
This book began life as a PhD undertaken at the University of East
Anglia with the financial aid of the Arts and Humanities Research
Board. The Film and Television Studies sector at UEA proved to be a
brilliantly congenial environment for pursuing a piece of work like this.
Staff and students alike gave me a lot of enthusiastic backing, but I
must single out the following for heartfelt thanks. Peter Krämer took
the trouble to read an early version of the thesis and provided me with
several hours’ worth of invaluable feedback. His generosity with histime and knowledge has not been forgotten. Andrew Higson was
immensely supportive of this project at every stage of its journey from
the first draft chapter to the book proposal, and gave excellent advice
at every turn. Charles Barr supervised the thesis with exceptional
diligence; his faith in my abilities has been as vital as his friendship has
been enjoyable.
More recently, the text has benefited quite substantially from the
expert criticisms of Roberta Pearson in her capacity as my PhD
examiner, and Christine Gledhill and Lea Jacobs in their readers’
reports. Lea also put me straight regarding some more fundamental
principles of good scholarship and I hope the benefits of this are
evident. I’ve been very grateful for, and flattered by, Charlie Musser’s
encouragement in the latter stages of the pro