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The
rapidly expanding competition from the new television business
had advanced unchecked on the film industry since the Fifties
and, between the mid-50s and 1960, cinema admissions had been
reduced by half. This was particularly due to the introduction
of regional independent television companies which began to
acquire and broadcast many fairly new films compared to the
BBC's traditional studio-based variety entertainment output.
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Also,
with almost 'instant' news available daily, the cinematic
newsreel programme slowly died out and this, along with a
shortage of American films, led to a major reduction in the
number of cinemas able to survive financially. By the mid-Sixties,
a significant proportion of the population owned television
sets and preferred to be entertained in the comfort of their
own homes. The failing cinemas were being mothballed, demolished
or converted into bingo halls, bowling alleys and dance hall/ballrooms.
The home market for British-made films was shrinking and the
industry had to learn the art of making their output more
acceptable to a wider variety of audiences, both British and
international, in order to survive. The success of these new
films such as 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962), 'Tom Jones' (1963),
'Becket' and 'Zulu' (1964) and 'Those Magnificent Men in Their
Flying Machines' (1965), both encouraged and attracted a significant
American investment into British film production. (more) |
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 Bill
Harry's Sixties - Comment on classic and
cult films, people and other aspects of the 60s from the creator
of
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Sixties
Cinema - (continued)
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Home-grown
male actors such as Kenneth More, Richard Burton, Jack Hawkins,
Peter Finch, Laurence Harvey and Richard Todd maintained or
increased their international appeal but female actresses
of the same stature were few and far between during this period.
American directors such as Joseph Losey (blacklisted in America),
Stanley Kubrick and Richard Lester were regularly working
in Britain throughout the Sixties, producing cult and classic
films such as 'The Knack', 'A Hard Day's Night', 'Help!' and
'2001 - A Space Odyssey'. The special effects talent brought
together by this particular 1968 production was to significantly
enhance the British film industry's importance in this art
over the following years. |
Other foreign directors and producers such as Roman Polanski -
'Repulsion'
(1965) and 'Cul-de-Sac' (1966) - were also attracted to Britain
at this time. Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni made 'Blowup'
with David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave in 1966 and François
Truffaut directed the only film he made outside of France when
he made the classic 'Fahrenheit 451' in 1966. Four
of the Sixties 'Academy Award' winners for 'Best Picture' were
British film productions. (see
film pages)
Concurrently, Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli and Harry Saltzman spectacularly
combined the more relaxed attitude towards sex with exotic
locations, explosive violent action and a self-effacing style
of humour in the incredibly successful 'James
Bond' series of movies. 'Dr. No' - the first film (1962)
- was really only a British hit, initially. The following
year 'From Russia With Love' was received with much more international
interest and 'Goldfinger' (1964) was a worldwide smash hit,
as were all the subsequent productions. Their box office success
led to a plethora of 'spy' films in various guises including
action ('Deadlier Than The Male'), spoof (Monica Vitti's 'Modesty
Blaise' and James Coburn's 'Flint' series) and rather more
serious interpretations such as Michael Caine's superb, very
British 'Harry Palmer' character in 'The Ipcress File', 'Funeral
In Berlin' and 'Billion Dollar Brain' films.
An upcoming, young generation of filmmakers and artists who
would appeal to the virtually untapped potential of 60s youth
audiences of the 60's were one of the 'brave new' hopes for
the indigenous industry and, coinciding with the change in
youth culture, they came into their own as film
censorship reduced its old 'hard line' blanket prohibitions,
allowing the use of increasingly free speech, more overt sexuality
and innuendo and previously 'forbidden' subjects such as homosexuality,
abortion and illegitimacy. |
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This prompted an increase in studio output in many directions,
but most noticeably three: The 'Pop Movie'
which used the media as a vehicle to carry the British 'Beat Boom'
explosion to a much wider visual audience; the British 'farce'
genre of innuendo and postcard humour of the 'Carry
On' film series which took up the baton from the 'Doctor'
films of the Fifties, and a whole range of youth and working-class
cultural films that challenged the
conventions of British society such as 'Saturday Night, Sunday
Morning'; 'A Taste Of Honey'; 'Room at the Top'; 'Up The Junction';
'Look Back In Anger'; 'Georgy Girl'; 'Alfie' and 'Women in Love'.
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New
cinemas were being built in 'New Towns' such as Hemel Hempstead
and Harlow, but many of the older, classic, giant single
screen picture houses were being sold off to be demolished
and replaced by petrol stations, shopping centres and office
blocks (which often contained a small, modern cinema somewhere
in the complex to help with the granting of planning permission).
The more profitable cinemas were extensively modernised
but many were just abandoned and boarded up to become increasingly
derelict 'protected' buildings.
By the end of 1965 the number of British cinemas had declined
to 1,971 from the 3,050 at the end of 1960 and the 4,700
that were flourishing just after the war. By the mid-1960s,
there were only enough major film productions being released
to provide new weekly showings for the two largest cinema
chains: Rank (which included all the old 'Gaumont' and 'Odeon'
cinemas) and the ABC group. Most of the 'independent' cinemas,
starved of product by this virtual 'closed shop', were either
forced to become part of the larger groups or close down.
Occasional attempts were made to play films for a fortnight
or longer on general release but audiences, keen to be among
the first to see new releases, tended to try and view them
in the first week. By the 1960s, many cinemas in city centres
were principally engaged in 'road show' or 'hard ticket'
engagements. The particularly big attractions, such as the
James Bond films, were more suited to a more short-term
run before audience interest declined. |
There
was a rapidly decreasing need for the large seating capacities
and two-tier structure of the leading cinemas. Many, like the
Empire Leicester Square, were replaced by a smaller cinema as
part of a redevelopment scheme.
Substantial sums were
invested to remodel the interiors of other cinemas to create two
or more auditoria with a rather less grandiose, contemporary décor,
beginning with the Odeon, Nottingham, in 1965.
The usual method was to just blank off the 'balcony' section,
creating 3 smaller cinemas. In the early 1970s the circuit cinemas
in the smaller towns and suburbs also began to be subdivided into
three-screen 'film centres'.
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Many Odeons were inexpensively converted into 'triples',
without closing, by blocking off the rear stalls and subdividing
the space into two small cinemas while continuing to use
the balcony and existing screen as the main auditorium while
work progressed. These conversions sometimes provided poor
sightlines and tiny screens downstairs and also had considerable
problems with sound penetration. Many ABC cinemas closed
completely for more substantial conversion into three auditoria,
all with new screens, to create greater capacities. There
was a gradual move to separate performances instead of the
traditional continuous ones and, for safety reasons,to the
elimination of smoking. |
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Sittin' In The Back Row Of The
Movies . . . .
A few of my personal local memories:
The
Odeon, London Road, St.Albans |
The
Gaumont, Hatfield Road, St.Albans |
The
Odeon, Harlow, 1960 |
The Harlow Odeon was converted into a 3-screen cinema. The St.Albans
Odeon has been closed since the Nineties after being converted
into a multi-screen cinema and later, a bingo hall. However, it
is currently the subject of a renovation
project!
The prettiest cinema, The Gaumont is, sadly, no longer with us......
Unfortunately I have no pictures of the Chequers cinema
in Chequer Street, St.Albans which closed in June 1962
or the Embassy cinema in Harpenden. Can
you help? Please mail me ...
A wealth of 50s and 60s cinema information: The
Regal Cinema, Farnham
A local dance hall of the time and a fab site:
The
California Ballroom, Dunstable
Scottish? Have a look at this fab site: The
Whole Story of The Kinema Ballroom, Dunfermline
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Sixties
Cinema 
SixtiesCity 2009