In the summer of 1949, Rank's close to 90 million pounds empire had a whopping 37 million pounds overdraft and took a loss of over over 3.5 million in production which resulted in their overall year's trading loss of 750 thousand. J. Arthur Rank would order savage cut-backs. No film from that point forward was to exceed the production amount of 350,000. Rank ceased production on cartoons, terminated This Modern Age, officially closed their studios at Highbury (and the 'charm school'), Shepherd's Bush and Islington and cut back on production activity in Denham. The main base for production now was Pinewood. The economies forced many filmmakers away and most were teaming forces with Alexander Korda (1893-1956), a cultured and quite popular figure with whom the artists felt most at home.
Investment in production was no longer the attractive gamble that is was for financiers in the 1930s. Instead the government of the day created the National Film Finance Corporation which commenced in 1948 with a 5 million pounds loan to producers who proposed safe-looking projects for films. Rank made no attempt to borrow NFFC money, not wanting to increase his organization in debts, but Korda seized the opportunity and borrowed 3 million pounds for a variety of production.
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| Korda rises with The Fallen Idol |
With this new money, came a new lease of life for Korda. He gently coaxed Carol Reed into making The Fallen Idol in 1948 and the following year what was to become Reed's most celebrated work, The Third Man. The Third Man was partly financed by Hollywood fat cat David O'Selznick who also supplied the talents of Joseph Cotten and Italian actress Alida Valli from his roster of stars. Selznick went on to collaborate with Korda on Powell and Pressburger's lavish Gone To Earth in 1950, a melodrama set in the Shropshire countryside with vivid hunting scenes. The film would prompt an argument between Korda and Selznick over the quality of close-ups of Jennifer Jones and Selznick decided to re-shoot the scenes that featured Jones in the United States before releasing the film as The Wild Heart.
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| Jennifer Jones, the girl who fell to earth (Gone To Earth,1950) |