How Stage Playwrights Saved the British Cinema, 1930-1956: The Well-Made Screenplay

Examines the film careers and work of British playwrights who worked as screenwriters between 1930-1956.

During the period between the 1927 Cinematograph Films Act and the 'new drama' of the 1950s, many British writers associated with the stage also wrote for films, bringing the techniques of the well-made play with them. Some, like Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, and Terence Rattigan were screenwriter-stars, part of the publicity of the films they worked on – Pygmalion, Brief Encounter, The Way ...