''Britain Prepared'' (1915) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

documentary feature film. The film is silent and made in black-and-white with some colour sequences in the

Kinemacolor Kinemacolor was the first successful colour motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson and, more directly, Ed ...

additive color Additive color or additive mixing is a property of a color model that predicts the appearance of colors made by coincident component lights, i.e. the perceived color can be predicted by summing the numeric representations of the component colo ...

process. The film documents Britain's military preparedness, showing scenes of the army and navy in preparation for war, and the manufacture of munitions. The film was made by the Cinema Committee, comprising

Charles Urban Charles Urban (April 15, 1867 – August 29, 1942) was an Anglo-American film producer and distributor, and one of the most significant figures in British cinema before the First World War. He was a pioneer of the documentary, educational, propag ...

, William Jury of Jury's Imperial Pictures and Tommy Welsh of Gaumont, at the behest of the covert British propaganda organisation, the

War Propaganda Bureau Wellington House is the more common name for Britain's War Propaganda Bureau, which operated during the First World War from Wellington House, a building on Buckingham Gate, London, which was the headquarters of the National Insurance Commission b ...

(also known as Wellington House). It was the first major British official film of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Production

The film was produced during the Autumn of 1915. The army sections were filmed at

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

by Gaumont camera operators in September, showing the training of recruits and culminating in a review of troops by

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. Born duri ...

on 30 September. The naval scenes were filmed in September and October by Charles Urban, who operated one of the cameras, alongside

Teddy Tong Teddy is an English language given name, usually a hypocorism of Edward or Theodore. It may refer to: People Nickname * Teddy Atlas (born 1956), boxing trainer and fight commentator * Teddy Bourne (born 1948), British Olympic epee fencer * Ted ...

, Charlie Weddup and Fred Wilson. The fleet was filmed off

Scapa Flow Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern end in June 2009 Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay and ...

under conditions of great security, as naval officialdom was worried by the film depicting identifiable stretches of coastline. Sequences of the fleet at sea were filmed in

. The section of munitions manufacture used film previously produced by

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

Ltd, and included scenes showing women munition workers. The film also featured the launch of battleship and the launch of a

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

Release and reception

The film was premiered at the Empire Theatre, London, on 29 December 1915, before an audience of political and military dignitaries. It was introduced by the

First Lord of the Admiralty The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...

Arthur Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As F ...

. It was shown in two halves: 'The New Army in the Making' and 'The Sure Shield of Britain and Empire'. It was accompanied by orchestral music specially composed by

Herman Finck Herman Finck (November 4, 1872 – April 21, 1939) was a British composer and conductor of Dutch extraction. Born Hermann Van Der Vinck in London, he began his studies training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and established a care ...

. These are the sections of the film as it was originally exhibited: Part I: The New Army in the Making # Recruiting and Drilling of Volunteers # Making Ammunition # Trench Work (training in England) # Cavalry, Artillery, and Mounted Infantry # Royal Flying Corps and Field Telegraph # Motor-Cycle Machine-Gun Battalion at Work # Provisioning an Army # His Majesty King George V Part II: The Sure Shield of Britain and Empire # Building and Launching a Battleship # On a British Mine-Sweeper # ‘The Silver Sentinel’ # ‘The Iron Grip’ (Kinemacolor) # A Battle Squadron at Sea (Kinemacolor) # With the Grand Fleet in the North Sea # Jack Afloat # Life on Board H.M.S. ‘Queen Elizabeth’ (Kinemacolor) # The Submarine Service # The ‘Hornets’ of the Fleet # ‘Watch-dogs of the Empire in Action’ (Kinemacolor) # ‘All’s Well’ (Sunset on Calm Surroundings) # ‘God Save the King’ The film ran for six weeks at the Empire, then was converted into a shorter, monochrome-only version for general release in the UK and overseas. A book of the film was produced with text by

Archibald Hurd Archibald is a masculine given name, composed of the Germanic elements '' erchan'' (with an original meaning of "genuine" or "precious") and ''bald'' meaning "bold". Medieval forms include Old High German and Anglo-Saxon . Erkanbald, bishop o ...

and a series of twenty-four colour postcards with scenes from the film was issued by the

Photochrom Photochrom, Fotochrom, Photochrome or the Aäc process is a process for producing colorized images from a single black-and-white photographic negative via the direct photographic transfer of the negative onto lithographic printing plates. The proc ...

Company. The film was widely praised in Britain for its propagandist and educational value. W.G. Faulkner, film critic of ''The Evening News'', said the film ''ought certainly to be shown, not only in every part of the British Isles but throughout the Empire and in every neutral country the world over. There would be no need for any other propaganda; no literature could effect half as good as these pictures.'' German newspaper ''Rheinsche Westphaelische Zeitung'' said of the film: ''We must admit, a more clever advertisement could hardly be made by the English Ministry of War for its Army and Fleet and its war services in general. This speculation on the sensibilities of the cinema visitor will not fail of its object. Strongly recommended for imitation.'' It was exhibited overseas in many countries, usually managed by local concessionaries, but for some key territories special representation was required. Tommy Welsh took the film to France, the novelist

Gilbert Frankau Gilbert Frankau (21 April 1884 – 4 November 1952) was a popular British novelist. He was known also for verse (he was a war poet of World War I), including a number of verse novels, and short stories. He was born in London into a Jewish fami ...

took it to Italy, and A.S. Paulsen of

Nordisk Film Nordisk Film A/S (lit. "Nordic Film") is a Danish entertainment company established in 1906 in Copenhagen by filmmaker Ole Olsen. It is the fourth-oldest film studio in the world behind the Gaumont Film Company, Pathé, and Titanus ...

took it to Scandinavia. Theatrical circuit manager Maurice Bandman handled the film in India and the Far East. Charles Urban took the film to the USA, retitling it ''How Britain Prepared''. He experienced great difficulty in getting the film shown, because of exhibitors' resistance to

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

and protests from

German American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

interests. A monochrome copy of the film survives at the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

. Some of the Kinemacolor sequences were recently discovered in the USA.

References

External links

* Watc
''Britain Prepared''
on the

website *
Charles Urban and Britain’s first war propaganda film (National Science and Media Museum blog post)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Britain Prepared 1915 films 1910s color films British silent feature films British documentary films 1915 documentary films Black-and-white documentary films Documentary films about World War I British black-and-white films Films shot in Hampshire Films shot in Scotland 1910s British films Silent war films 1910s English-language films Arthur Balfour

Production

Release and reception

See also

References

Further reading

External links