Description
Book SynopsisThe first book to deal exclusively with the British musical film from the very beginning of talking pictures in the late 1920s through the Depression of the 1930s up to the end of World War II. Cheer Up! is the first book to deal exclusively with the British musical film from the very beginning of talking pictures in the late 1920s through the Depression of the 1930s up to the end of World War II. The upsurge in production at British studios from 1929 onwards marked the real birth of a genre whose principal purpose was to entertain the British public. This endeavour was deeply affected by the very many emigres escaping Nazi Germany, who flooded into the British film industry during this decade, as the genre tried to establish itself. The British musical film in the 1930s reflects a richness of interest. Studios initially flirted with filming what were essentially stage productions plucked from the West End theatre but soon learned that importing a foreign star was a box-office boost. Major musical stars including Jessie Matthews, Richard Tauber and George Formby established themselves during this period. From its beginning, the British musical film captured some of the most notable music-hall performers on screen, and its obsession with music-hall persisted throughout the war years. Other films married popular and classical music with social issues of poverty and unemployment, a message of social integration that long preceded the efforts of the Ealing studios to encourage a sense of social cohesion in post-war Britain. The treatmentof the films discussed is linear, each film dealt with in order of its release date, and allowing for an engaging narrative packed with encyclopaedic information.
Trade ReviewAdrian Wright's excellent book is devoted to an area of British film history that has sometimes been loftily dismissed or simply fallen through the cracks...in a time of pandemic, reading a book entitled Cheer Up! about films which were themselves produced during the Depression and then the second world war is oddly uplifting. Wright's deep knowledge of and obvious affection for his subject does not blind him to the shortcomings of some of what was on offer, and one of the chief pleasures here is his deadpan dismissal of those found wanting. * SPECTATOR *
Adrian Wright's 379 page tome has certainly cheered me up. It is a book which, since it arrived, I have been continually been dipping into, and once dipped, have continued reading for hours followed by watching one of the films I have read about, or searching out recordings of the various songs. It is invaluable for anyone who has an interest in films, musicals and operetta, and the research which must have been undertaken is very commendable.Very highly recommended - especially at the modest asking price of £30.00! * OPERETTA RESEARCH CENTER *
Table of Contents1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Notes to the Text Select Bibliography Index of Film Titles
