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The British film industry was subject to international influences right from the beginning. In the very early days when films were silent there was no language barrier and films from the European continent were able to screen in Britain without problems. When talkies began the links between Britain and other English language film making countries such as the USA became more important. The alliance between Britain and the USA in WW2 reinforced the cultural links.
For a while, British films had a ready-made audience in the British Empire and later the Commonwealth. However attempts to keep British cinema British were counter-productive and the inherently international nature of cinema proved increasingly to be the way to succeed. In America, Hollywood studios were having great success by hiring talent from Britain, Germany, France, Ireland, Canada, Italy, Japan or anywhere. Hollywood consequently were able to assemble a line-up of great acting, directing and technical talent to beat any country's insular nationalistic cinema.
While British actors and directors were achieving great things in Hollywood, American financial investment in British cinema was dominating production and distribution.
In the 1960s British studios began to claw back some success by making striking genre films such as Hammer Horror, James Bond and Carry On comedies.
In the 1970s and 1980s British studios established a reputation for great special effects in films such as Superman and Star Wars. This reputation has continued through the 1990s and into the 21st century with films such as the James Bond series, Gladiator and Harry Potter.
Some of the most famous British movie actors:
The 39 Steps (1935) [1]
The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936) [1]
The Lady Vanishes (1938) [1]
Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941) [1]
The Goose Steps Out (1942) [1]
The First of the Few (1942) [1]
The Sky's the Limit (1943) [1]
My Learned Friend (1943) [1]
A Canterbury Tale (1944) [1]
Blithe Spirit (1945) [1]
Dead of Night (1945) [1]
A Matter of Life and Death (U.S. alternative title: Stairway to Heaven (1946) [1]
Brief Encounter (1946) [1]
Great Expectations (1946) [1]
Brighton Rock (1947) [1]
Black Narcissus (1947) [1]
The Red Shoes (1948) [1]
The Guinea Pig (1948) [1]
London Belongs to Me (1948) [1]
Oliver Twist (1948) [1]
Whisky Galore (1949) [1]
The Third Man (1949) [1]
Passport to Pimlico (1949) [1]
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) [1]
The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) [1]
The Wooden Horse (1950) [1]
No Highway (1951) [1]
Laughter in Paradise (1951) [1]
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) [1]
The Man in the White Suit (1951) [1]
The African Queen (1951) [1]
The Million Pound Note (1953) [1]
Genevieve (1953) [1]
Doctor in the House (1954) [1]
The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954) (St Trinian's School)[1]
The Ladykillers (1955) [1]
The Man Who Never Was (1956) [1]
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) [1]
Carry On Sergeant (1958) [1]
Our Man in Havana (1959) [1]
The Mouse That Roared (1959) [1]
I'm All Right Jack (1959) [1]
Village of the Damned (1960) [1]
The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) [1]
Peeping Tom (1960) [1]
School for Scoundrels (1960) [1]
The Entertainer (1960) [1]
The Rebel (1961) [1]
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) [1]
Whistle Down the Wind (1961) [1]
Murder, She Said (1961) [1]
Nine Hours to Rama (1963) [1]
The Haunting (1963) [1]
Billy Liar (1963) [1]
From Russia with Love (1963) [1]
The Mouse on the Moon (1963) [1]
The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963) [1]
First Men in the Moon (1964) [1]
A Hard Day's Night (1964) [1]
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) [1]
The Ipcress File (1965) [1]
The Collector (1965) [1]
The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) [1]
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965) [1]
To Sir, with Love (1966) [1]
Fahrenheit 451 (1966) [1]
Born Free (1966) [1]
Blowup (1966) [1]
The Jokers (1966) [1]
Carry On Screaming (1966) [1]
Don't Lose Your Head (1966) [1]
A Man for All Seasons (1966) [1]
The Wrong Box (1966) [1]
How I Won the War (1967) [1]
Quatermass and the Pit (1967) [1]
Privilege (1967) [1]
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) [1]
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) [1]
Doppelganger (1969) [1]
The Italian Job (1969) [1]
Hannibal Brooks (1969) [1]
The Railway Children (1970) [1]
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) [1]
Performance (1970) [1]
Straw Dogs (1971) [1]
10 Rillington Place (1971) [1]
Morte a Venezia (1971) [1]
Don't Look Now (1973) [1]
The Wicker Man (1973) [1]
The Day of the Jackal (1973) [1]
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) [1]
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) [1]
The Man Who Would Be King (1975) [1]
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) [1]
Jabberwocky (1977) [1]
Monty Python Meets Beyond the Fringe (1977) [1]
Life of Brian (1979) [1]
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980) [1]
The Elephant Man (1980) [1]
Time Bandits (1981) [1]
An American Werewolf in London (1981) [1]
Privates on Parade (1982) [1]
The Missionary (1982) [1]
Pink Floyd The Wall (1982) [1]
Educating Rita (1983) [1]
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) [1]
A Private Function (1984) [1]
A Passage to India (1984) [1]
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) [1]
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) [1]
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) [1]
A Room with a View (1986) [1]
84 Charing Cross Road (1986) [1]
Withnail and I (1987) [1]
The Last Emperor (1987) [1]
A Fish Called Wanda (1988) [1]
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) [1]
My Left Foot (1989) [1]
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) [1]
The Pope Must Die (1991) [1]
Truly Madly Deeply (1991) [1]
Peter's Friends (1992) [1]
Much Ado About Nothing (1993) [1]
Staggered (1994) [1]
Shallow Grave (1994) [1]
The Madness of King George (1994) [1]
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995) [1]
Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (1996) [1]
The English Patient (1996) [1]
Brassed Off (1996) [1]
The Full Monty (1997) [1]
Event Horizon (1997) [1]
Mrs. Brown (1997) [1]
Little Voice (1998) [1]
Topsy-Turvy (1999) [1]
Plunkett & Macleane (1999) [1]
The Winslow Boy (1999) [1]
Chicken Run (2000) [1]
Billy Elliot (2000) [1]
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)[1]
Dog Soldiers (2002) [1]
28 Days Later (2002) [1]
Deathwatch (2002) [1]The History of the British Film Industry
Directors
A few important British directors: (for more directors of all nationalities, visit film directors.)
North Ireland:
Actors
Some of the Key Films in British Cinema History