George Clark was a British film producer during the silent era. For many years Clark worked with the British star Guy Newall, whom he had met during the First World War. Together they founded Lucky Cat Films and later George Clark Productions, securing a distribution arrangement with the larger Stoll Pictures. George Clark Productions constructed studio facilities at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, north-west of London, which was opened in May 1922. The films made by the company were often critically acclaimed, but George Clark Productions suffered from the general downturn in the British film industry after 1922 due to the heavy competition from American film distributors. Beaconsfield Studios was sold in 1927 and the company was dissolved in 1932. By 1933 Clark was working for a film distribution company.
Biography
Pre-war years
George Clark was described as "a very wealthy manufacturer".'New British Combine', The Billboard, 11 March 1922, page 92.
Clark had a "keen liking for photography, on which subject he may claim to be an expert".Men Behind the Films: George Clark, Picture Show, 6 March 1920, page 19.
The war years
Clark joined the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), operating anti-aircraft guns as part of Britain's air defences against bombing raids by German aircraft and Zeppelin airships.'The Expressions of Guy Newall', The Picture Show, 27 March 1920, page 7. It was during his service in the RGA, on military duty at a defence station at Dover, that Clark met Guy Newall, who was also serving as an anti-aircraft gunner, beginning an association which led to the foundation of a film company after the war. Newall was an actor with theatrical experience who had gained some pre-war experience in film-making by playing small parts and writing scenarios for productions by the London Film Company, founded in 1913.'The Importance of Being Ernest', The Picturegoer, March 1922, pages 43-46, 58. The two men formed the idea of founding an all-British film company as a commercial proposition. They shared a belief "in the superior talent of British players" and formed a plan for demonstrating "to the world the possibilities of all-British pictures". As Clark described the meeting: "In solemn conclave assembled we carefully considered ways and means, and soon a definite plan of campaign was mapped out".
Lucky Cat Films
After the war ended Clark and Newall founded Lucky Cat Films with Clark as the business manager and Newall as a leading actor and with artistic control. They assembled a team made up of camera operators Bert Ford and Joe Rosenthal (jnr.), set designer Charles Dalmon and directors Kenelm Foss and Arthur Rooke. The other important relationship integral to the success of the new enterprise was Newall's partnership with Ivy Duke, a musical-comedy actress. Newall had met Duke during the war and she was persuaded to join Lucky Cat Films as his leading lady.Biography of Guy Newall written by Christine Gledhill (in) Robert Murphy (ed.) (2006), pages 454-455; see also, an online version: Newall, Guy (1885-1937), BFI ScreenOnline website; accessed 26 September 2024.Rachael Low (1971), pages 146-147. In July 1919 it was reported that Lucky Cat Films aimed to produce "good comedies" for the screen, "without extravagance in scenery or situation... with an English background". The account added: "Everything is to be English, the company, the settings, and, it is to be hoped, the style of humour".'English Comedy', The Times (London), 21 July 1919, page 10.
Lucky Cat Films completed four comedies in quick succession, released from June to September 1919, working from cramped studios in Ebury Street in Central London. The Lucky Cat films were distributed by the Ideal Film Company. Ivy Duke played the leading lady in each of the four Lucky Cat films, with Newall in a lead role in two of them (I Will and Fancy Dress). Newall, together with Frank Miller, wrote the screenplay for The March Hare, which was set in the New Forest.Denis Gifford (1973), pages 331-332 (06742, 06746, 06760, 06763).
George Clark Productions
Towards the end of 1919 Clark and Newall began operating their partnership under the name of George Clark Productions and announced plans to construct a new modern film studio at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, north-west of London. Beaconsfield was chosen for its proximity to London, but the site was outside the zone subject to "the notorious London fog" in order to maximise conditions for daylight filming. Beaconsfield had the added advantage of nearby country locations and a connection to London by a reliable railway service.Patricia Warren (1995), page 11. The partnership secured an arrangement with the Stoll Film Corporation of America to distribute their entire output.Great Future Awaits Stoll Films Here, Motion Picture World, 23 October 1920, page 1075.English Producer is Here, Motion Picture News, 19 February 1921, page 1488.
George Clark Productions completed a series of films from December 1919 to mid-year 1923, in the process of which Newall extended his skills and experience as a writer and director. The first release under the new name was in December 1919: The Garden of Resurrection was directed by Arthur Rooke and featured Newall and Duke in the lead roles. The film was scripted by Newall, based on a novel by E. Temple Thurston. Newall wrote the screenplays for another eleven films produced by George Clark Productions, most of them adaptations of novels. All but a couple of the films produced by George Clark Productions in the period up until July 1923 featured Guy Newall and Ivy Duke in lead acting roles. The exceptions were Testimony, a drama released in September 1920 that was directed by Newall, with Ivy Duke and David Hawthorne in the leading roles and The Mirage (released in December 1920), for which Newall and Duke shared the credit for the screenplay. Testimony was Newall's debut as a director, a film for which he also wrote the screenplay (based on a novel by Alice and Claude Askew).
George Clark Productions Ltd. was registered as a company in October 1920 with capital of fifty thousand pounds, with Clark as company president, Newall as the managing director and S. M. Johnson as secretary.Guy Newall, Notable Londoners, an Illustrated Who's Who of Professional and Business Men (1922), London: London Publishing Agency, page 67.'George Clark Productions', The Times (London), 21 February 1922, pages 33, 34. After raising finance for the project, construction of the Beaconsfield Studios commenced in 1921. In about January 1921, while the studios were under construction, Newall took the film-making personnel to Nice, on the French Riviera, where he directed The Bigamist and The Persistent Lovers over a seven month period, films for which he also wrote the screenplays and acted in the leading male roles.'George Clark Productions: Work in Nice Completed', Le Courrier Cinématographique, 16 July 1921, page 32. After returning from France Newall took his actors and production company to the New Forest and Salisbury Plain to film Boy Woodburn and Fox Farm (released in May and July 1922). The most successful of the company's films was The Bigamist, released in August 1921, which was one of only a few English productions at that time to enjoy a run at an established London theatre (the Alhambra).
The films made by George Clark Productions were released in the United States through Stoll, with some being moderately successful. In particular, Newall's The Bigamist was highly regarded and was "exported with comparative success".Rachael Low (1971), page 77. In the early 1920s Newall was described as "the leading spirit of the movement among English film producers who aspire to make British films which shall compete with American productions on their own ground".
Clark arrived in New York in late January 1921 for the stated purpose of visiting his family and "to study film conditions". He was accompanied by Miss Leila Lewis of the firm of Landy & Turnbull, who was handling publicity in England for George Clark Productions. During her visit Miss Lewis made arrangements to co-ordinate publicity with the Stoll Film Corporation, the company's American distributors. Clark and Lewis returned to England in mid-February after Clark had made a trip to Palm Beach in Florida.'Clark Here to Survey Industry, not Produce', Exhibitors Herald, 19 February 1921, page 43.'English Press Agentess', Variety, 11 February 1921, page 47. Less than a month later Clark returned to New York for another short stay. He based himself at the offices of Stoll Film Corporation at 130 West Forty-sixth Street, intending to "look over the American field with a view to becoming better acquainted with conditions and to start a campaign for his two stars, Ivy Duke and Guy Newall".'Head of English Firm Arrives in America to Study Local Condition', Exhibitors Herald, 12 March 1921, page 84.
In early 1922 an association of British film producers and exhibitors called the British National Film League was formed to support local film production against competition from American films. Clark was initially elected president of the body.British National Film League, The Motion Picture Studio, 28 July 1923, page 13.
Beaconsfield Studios
The Beaconsfield Studios were officially opened in May 1922. The main studio space measured approximately by , with a height of . The studios had their own developing and printing facilities, as well as a power generating plant independent of the local power supply. Land adjoining the building was set aside as a sports ground for the staff. The interiors of The Starlit Garden (released in July 1923) were filmed in the Beaconsfield Studios, the last of Newall's films for George Clark Productions.British Studio Gossip, Pictures and Picturegoer, March 1923, page 26.
The film historian Rachael Low described the acting partnership of Newall and Duke in the following terms: "their combined realistic, shrewd and humorous observation of the interplay of personal relations was a refreshing contrast to the stock figures portrayed in most contemporary films". In her biography of Newall for the British Film Institute, Christine Gledhill wrote that in his films for George Clark Productions Newall "developed a pathos-laden, if whimsically ironic, protagonist defined by social marginalisation and personal isolation". His characters were described as "unloved, misunderstood and wryly self-deprecating oddballs". His films ("a series of stylish fantasies, laced with wry humour") depicted "his outsider heroes" as they confronted realities of post-war Britain such as a corrupted and declining aristocracy and changing class and gender relations.Jay Weissberg (2005), The 23rd Pordenone Silent Film Festival: A Consideration, Senses of Cinema website; accessed 2 October 2024. In December 1920, on the occasion of the release of Squandered Lives (the film Duke's Son, featuring Newall and Ivy Duke in the lead roles, renamed for the American market), an article in Moving Picture World observed: "The partisans of Mr. Newall with large justification insist he is one of the screen's most natural actors as well as one of its most skillful character delineators".Introduces Two Players, Moving Picture World, 4 December 1920, page 600. Although Newall's more nuanced and serious performances in the George Clark Productions films of the early 1920s differed considerably from the earlier Lucky Cat comedies, reviews in the British press and audiences "responded positively to this new direction", even to the extent of him being named at that time as "Britain's finest actor".
In May 1922 it was reported that George Clark Productions had changed its "style and title" to "George Clark Pictures, Limited, Guy Newall Productions".In the Independent Field, Moving Picture World, 6 May 1922, page 62.