Meshing archival research with interviews with Rank's contemporaries and family, this definitive study charts every aspect of the 1940s "golden era" of the British Film Industry that Rank helped to create.

Presiding over the "golden era" of the British film industry from the mid to late 1940s, J. Arthur Rank financed such classic movies as "Oliver Twist, The Red Shoes, Brief Encounter, Caesar and Cleopatra, and "Black Narcissus
Having started out with relatively litle knowledge of the cinema, Rank's sponsorship brought about astounding progress within the industry. He invested millions in a radical new technique, "Independent Frame," commissioned newsreels and children's film, set up a "B" Feature training studio, and opened an animation department to rival Disney. By establishing an organization comparable in size to any of the major Hollywood studios, Rank briefly managed to reconcile and consolidate competing demands of "art" and "business."
"J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry charts every aspect of the robust film culture that Rank helped to create. It goes on to explain the eventual collapse of the Rank experiment amidst the economic and political maelstrom of post-war Britain, highlighting the problems still facing the industry today. Combining archival research with interviews with Rank's contemporaries and members of his family, this definitive study firmly restores Rank to his rightful place at the center of British film history.

`J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry I will prove an invaluable source of reference for budding entrepreneurs and tycoons...an excellent portrait of a most unusual man.' - Moira Shearer, Sunday Telegraph`His informative, often witty book illuminates an era and, for its contribution to an understanding of British filmmaking, belongs on the shelf beside Jake Eberts' My Indecision is Final.' - Philip French, The ObserverNominated for the British Film Institute's Michael Powell Award