> The British film industry began in the 1890s and was very successful until round 1909, when the French studios Gaumont and Pathé began releasing their films in England. British filmmakers simply couldn't keep up with the French, both technically and in the number of films being made. The outbreak of World War I all but stopped film production in England.

> Business picked up a little after the war, but the public still preferred the more advanced and better made American and European films, and in 1924, the industry completely collapsed. To help boost production, the British Parliament passed the Cinematographers Trade Bill, which limited how many films could be imported from abroad in order to give British films an advantage. This helped the industry, but the films didn't get any better. By 1936, there were too many films being made quickly and cheaply to be able to compete with Hollywood, and so several British studios went bankrupt and were bought by the Americans.

> In 1939, the British film industry was once again interrupted by war. World War II saw most of the studio employees off fighting or working in war-related industries. Half of the studio space was being used by the military for training films and other purposes and the number of British films dropped from 220 in 1936 to only 60 a year, many of them documentaries and war-themed films that the public wanted to see.

> After the war, the industry began to come back, but rationing and shortages continued into the 1950s, since Britain had been bombed and needed to recover. It was during this sad and difficult time of rebuilding and recovery that The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) was made. England had suffered greatly and needed comedies. From 1947 to 1957, Ealing Studios were the masters of British comedy. One of the brightest stars (and one of the greatest actors) of the post-war era was Alec Guinness.