America's Best, Britain's Finest: A Survey of Mixed Movies (Hollywood Classics)

Movies that combine American and British casts have always been very popular with film-makers, but somewhat less so with film-goers. The reason, of course, is simple. British stars always added luster to a Hollywood movie at U.K. ticket windows. But the reverse, alas, was not always 100% true. Vera-Ellen and Cesar Romero, for instance, probably did little to enhance the appeal of the British musical, "Happy Go Lovely", at the U.S./Canadian box-office (even though it was also directed by Hollywood's Lucky Humberstone). This is a mammoth book which, if anything, is a little too heavy to handle easily in its traditional print format. Nonetheless, the subject of mixed movies demanded a more elaborate treatment. As a general rule, British movies, even when laced with top-ranking, super-popular Hollywood stars like Frank Sinatra, Gene Tierney, Danny Kaye, Robert Mitchum, Dan Duryea, William Bendix, Phyllis Kirk, Edmund Lowe, Cliff Robertson, Russ Tamblyn, Alex Nicol, Dewey Martin, Otto Kruger, Roddy McDowall, Zachary Scott, Peggie Castle, Vincent Price, Anna May Wong, Orson Welles, William Holden, Woody Allen, George Raft, Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea, Van Johnson, Mia Farrow, Mona Freeman, Joan Crawford, Raquel Welch, Constance Cummings, Edmund Purdom, Sam Hardy, Pier Angeli, Tab Hunter, Dorothy McGuire, Wayne Morris, Vera Miles and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., took disappointingly little money at the U.S./Canadian boxoffice. Of course, the above list could be considerably extended, but I’ve confined my list to just some of the American stars of movies actually covered in this book. Also included in "America's Best, Britain's Finest", are some of the British movies made by British stars who were super-successful in Hollywood, such as James Mason, David Niven, Peter Ustinov, George Sanders, Ron Randell, Peggy Cummins, Barry Fitzgerald, Laurence Olivier, Francis L. Sullivan, Ian Hunter, Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger, Rex Harrison, Boris Karloff, Errol Flynn, Clive Brook, Michael Rennie, Deborah Kerr, Edmund Gwenn, Robert Newton, Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Nigel Bruce, Raymond Massey, Angela Lansbury, Margaret Lockwood, Peter Finch, Joan Collins, Jack Hawkins, Paul Lukas, Dame May Whitty, Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Charles Laughton, Edna Best, Howard Keel, Jean Pierre Aumont, Christopher Lee, Alec Guinness, Lilli Palmer, Peter O’Toole, Vincent Price, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Valerie Hobson, Michael Wilding, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Nils Asther, Elissa Landi. As another general rule (there are some notable exceptions), American movie-lovers are not over-fond of British films, even those disguised with top-ranking Hollywood stars. Why? "Can't understand the accents," most people complain. On the other hand, British picturegoers have always loved American films. Why? Most people in the movie business are mystified. But I once received an excellent reply from a cinema manager in London's East End. "People come to the movies to get lost," he told me. "They don't come to see the same dreary streets they live in, day in, day out. They want to be transported to a magic world, or at least a different world. That's what Hollywood supplies. British movies are too realistic, too down-to-earth." Perhaps, he was right. But then, why were British movies like "Bedazzled", "Tom Jones", "The Sundowners", "Tom Thumb", "Hobson's Choice", "Bridge on the River Kwai", "The Lady Vanishes", "Rob Roy", "The V.I.P.s", "The Sound Barrier", "Land of the Pharaohs", "Casino Royale", "Knight Without Armor" and "Elephant Boy" so successful worldwide?