THE METROPOLITAN POLICE AND THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY, 1919-1956: PROCESSES OF COLLABORATION AND CONTROL

Between 1919 and 1957, the Metropolitan Police embarked upon a series of films depicting its processes in an attempt to strengthen consent for its position within British society. These films were made collaboratively with British film studios and, in the case of the post-1945 films, the collaborating studios were owned independently of government interests. This thesis makes use of recently-declassified production dossiers housed at The National Archives to trace the processes of collaboration and control inherent in the production of these texts. In doing so, this interdisciplinary piece of research addresses, empirically, the establishment and growth of public relations policy within the Metropolitan Police from the formation of the Metropolitan Police Press Bureau in 1919 until the closure of the Press Bureau's most productive partners, Ealing Studios, in 1957. The research assesses the extent to which the Metropolitan Police masked propaganda as entertainment and how, by making the release of facilities such as locations and procedural advisors conditional upon censure of the script, the Metropolitan Police Press Bureau took control of the productions away from the named filmmakers and placed that control firmly within their own Press Bureau. The thesis analyses the production of several canonical British films, contributing new knowledge by using confidential internal police correspondence - including annotated script drafts and private minutes - to depict the production processes of these films from the Metropolitan Police Press Bureau's perspective. The research problematises existing definitions of the film producer by suggesting that, in a series of productions made between 1945 and 1957, the Metropolitan Police Press Bureau itself occupied the position of producer.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

PhD

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

De Montfort University

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• ROCK, ALEXANDER C.

Licence

• https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstreams/6c9955d4-d3d7-49d6-b5e5-a73c1bc22b74/download