Rank's Retreat

The movie empire which Britain's Cinemogul J. Arthur Rank put together in 14 years was in the midst of its own austerity program. Up for sale this week at public auction will go his studios at Shepherd's Bush and Islington. Rank, who could use the money, hopes that they will be knocked down for not less than -L-250,000, possibly to BBC's television division. (The studios are too antiquated to interest U.S. moviemakers in England.) Of the four studios which will be left to Rank, two are shut tight and two are operating at only half their capacity. Last week, Rank and his subsidiaries had just four productions before the cameras, compared with ten a year ago. An actor at liberty summed it up with an old Hollywood gag: "Out at the Rank studios it's so quiet you can hear an option drop."

No Time for Comedy. But the tight fix of Rank, who turns out 50% of all British films, is no joke to Britons. In the last twelve months, he has fired nearly 1,800 production workers (about 35% of his staff) and kept step with other British moviemakers by cutting the pay of most of those left by 10 to 20%. The drop in movie production was so sharp that Labor

M.P. Tom O'Brien complained: "We are not making enough films this year to keep open one quarter of our cinemas and the prospects . . . next year are worse . . . That is a ghastly fact."

The ghastly fact had already been clear to British investors, who are taking a steadily dimmer view of Rank's future as a movie magnate. His producing enterprises have been in trouble before (in 1946 they lost -L-474,777), but those were the hopeful days when Rank was talking of making 60 pictures a year and beating Hollywood at its own game of mass production. How badly he had flopped was shown by the prices of stocks in his two top companies, both at their eight-year lows. Gaumont-British common, which hit a high of 18s. last year, was down to 4s. 6d. last week. Odeon Theatres common, which had been up to 453., was down to 8. Commented the London Evening Standard: "In view of the gloomy estimates [of] the past year's results . . . shareholders must be prepared for shocks as far as dividends are concerned."

Art Pad Off. Rank's troubles were caused by the fact that he had grown too big too fast. After he had won critical huzzahs and made money on such pictures as Henry V, he had attempted to increase his annual output of pictures from 25 to 60. Directors like Sydney Box (The Seventh Veil), who had been turning out five good films a year, were told to make 20. There was not enough moviemaking talent for all the pictures and the result was a dreary parade of box-office flops which cut into the profits of Rank's theaters, the moneymaking end of his business.

To some extent, Rank was forced into this disastrous policy by the British government's dollar-saving quota slapped on U.S. movies in 1947 (40% of the pictures shown in British theaters must be British made). He was also hit when Hollywood retaliated by refusing to show U.S. pictures on the same bill with British films. Since Rank owns 60% of Britain's theaters, he was under heavy government pressure to step up his picture-making activities.

Rank has decided that the only way out of his difficulties is to return to his old policy of fewer and better pictures. Next year he plans to make only about twelve features. But that will leave Rank the theater-owner out on a limb unless Britain relaxes the quota law. Even that will not solve all of Rank's problems or get him the capital he needs to go on making pictures. Last week one gloomy film executive saw nationalization ahead. Said he: "A nation like Britain has got to have a movie industry ... If private enterprise can't provide [it], government will."

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