Brief Outline- I am planning to base my dissertation on British war films made during the 1940’s, although I’ve not yet decided on a specific route I’m swaying towards the British perception of Germans during the second world war.
Murphy, Robert. 2001. British Cinema And The Second World War. London: Continuum.
I found this book by searching the library catalogue using a few key words. This book provides a wide range of British war films along with an analysis and reflections on how war was portrayed through films during the second world war. The broad spectrum covered by the book makes it easier to get a sense of the historiography of the period and topic. However, the book has been criticised by other historians in the field as it is such a comprehensive summary of British war films that it lacks in depth detailed analysis of individual films.
Poole, Julian. 1987. “British Cinema Attendance In War Time: Audience Preference At The Majestic, Macclesfield 1939-1946”. Historical Journal Of Film, Radio And Television 7 (1).
I found this journal article by searching the historical journal of film, radio and television. This article will be useful to me as one of the main difficulties when studying historical cinema is gauging cinema attendance and how the films shown were received by the audience at the time. The article provides the reader with 8 tables detailing the film title, production company and the number of admissions to see each film over the span of 8 years at the Majestic Cinema, Macclesfield. The figures shown allow us to make a suggestion on what cinema goers of the time preferred and avoided, helping to give an overall idea of how the British public consumed media about the second world war. Although the source only focuses on one cinema in Britain over a span of 8 years which is limited. However, the article was able to point me in the direction of sources of a similar nature which will also aid my research.
Hay, Will, and Dearden, Basil. 1942. The Goose Steps Out. Film. United Kingdom: Ealing Studios.
I found this source by searching the British Film institutes (BFI) website, this source is useful to me and my research as feature films from the 1940’s will make up a large proportion of my primary source material. The film focuses on a British school teacher who apparently looks exactly like a German spy and is sent to Germany undercover in hopes to gain plans of a secret weapon made by the Germans. This is the first film from the 1940’s I have ever seen therefore, it has gave me an introduction to feature films of the period and cinematic styles used in the 1940’s. Alongside an idea of how British people perceived Germans and Nazis during the second world war, especially since it is a British made film with British actors playing the role of Germans in 1942. The film has also introduced me to the works of actor and director Will Hay who was an important player in the second world war propaganda drive when concerning feature films as suggested by the BFI.
Very good to pinpoint the problem of identifying how films were received – most studies simply look at box office returns, critical reaction and much later audience responses. One needs to use a wide variety of sources to understand the impact that the war films had (and why some films like ‘A Canterbury Tale’ failed to find an audience and why ‘In Which We Serve’ succeeded despite its essentially conservative message about British society).
One of the most useful archives on Britain at war is the Mass Observation archive – a volunteer body who kept records on most aspects of the public’s response to the war, inc cinema: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/speccoll/collection_catalogues/tclists/tc17.html
Some of these records were used by Jeffrey Richards in a text (which luckily we have in the library): https://discoverlibrary-stir-ac-uk.ezproxy-s1.stir.ac.uk/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1055677?lang=eng
I’d make sure you really know what you want to find about the films’ reception – if it is film’s impact on morale, gender roles, attitudes towards the enemy – what you are looking for may well affect where you look – equally it might be worth identifying genre films (such as comedies like ‘The Goose Steps Out’) and seeing what material there is – don’t forget that many newspapers printed articles and reviews of films in the period.