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The period between the two world wars is often named "the golden age of the cinema" in Britain. This definitive and entertaining book on the cinema and cinema-goers of the era is herewith reissued with a new Introduction.Jeffrey Richards, described by Philip French as "a shrewd critic, a compulsive moviegoer, and a professional historian," tells the absorbing story of the cinema during the decade that produced Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, the musicals of Jessie Matthews and Alexander Korda's epics. He examines the role of going to the pictures in people's lives during a tough period when, in the sumptuous buildings that housed local cinemas, people regularly spent a few pence to purchase ready-made dreams watching Gracie Fields, Robert Donat and the other stars of the day. He scrutinizes the film industry, censorship, cinema's influence, the nature of the star system and its images, as well as the films themselves, including the visions of Britain, British history and society that they created and represented.
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The Age of the Dream Palace
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Cinema and Society series GENERAL EDITOR: JEFFREY RICHARDS The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society in 1930s Britain Jeffrey Richards Best of British: Cinema and Society from 1930 to the Present Anthony Aldgate & Jeffrey Richards Brigadoon, Braveheart and the Scots: Distortions of Scotland in Hollywood Cinema Colin McArthur The British at War: Cinema, State and Propaganda, 1939–1945 James Chapman British Cinema and the Cold War Tony Shaw Children, Cinema and Censorship: From Dracula to the Dead End Kids Sarah J. Smith The Crowded Prairie: American National Identity in the Hollywood Western Michael Coyne An Everyday Magic: Cinema and Cultural Memory Annette Kuhn Femininity in the Frame: Women and 1950s British Popular Cinema Melanie Bell Film and Community in Britain and France: From La Règle du Jeu to Room at the Top Margaret Butler Film Propaganda: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany Richard Taylor From Moscow to Madrid: Postmodern Cities, European Cinema Ewa Mazierska & Laura Rascaroli Hollywood Genres and Post-War America: Masculinity, Family and Nation in Popular Movies and Film Noir Mike Chopra-Gant Hollywood’s History Films David Eldridge Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films James Chapman Past and Present: National Identity and the British Historical Film James Chapman Powell and Pressburger: A Cinema of Magic Spaces Andrew Moor Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933–1945 David Welch Shooting the Civil War: Cinema, History and American National Identity Jenny Barrett Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone Christopher Frayling Spectacular Narratives: Hollywood in the Age of the Blockbuster Geoff King Typical Men: The Representation of Masculinity in Popular British Cinema Andrew Spicer The Unknown 1930s: An Alternative History of the British Cinema, 1929–1939 Edited by Jeffrey Richards
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THE AGE OF THE DREAM PALACE Cinema and Society in 1930s Britain
JEFFREY RICHARDS
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This edition published in 2010 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 First published in 1984 by Routledge & Kegan Paul plc Copyright © 1984, 1989, 2010 Jeffrey Richards The right of Jeffrey Richards to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, De