Page "Cinema of the United Kingdom" Paragraph 9

By the mid-twenties the British film industry was losing out to heavy competition from Hollywood, the latter helped by having a much larger home market-in 1914 25 % of films shown in the UK were British, but by 1926 this had fallen to 5 %.

The Cinematograph Films Act 1927 was passed in order to boost local production, requiring that cinemas show a certain percentage of British films.

The act was technically a success, with audiences for British films becoming larger than the quota required.

But it had the effect of creating a market for ' quota quickies ': poor quality, low cost films, made in order to satisfy the quota.

Some critics have blamed the quickies for holding back the development of the industry.

However, many British film-makers learnt their craft making these films, including Michael Powell and Alfred Hitchcock.