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"Lucky Cat" redirects here. For the common Japanese figurine, see Lucky cat.

George Clark was a British film actor and 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.

Biography

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Early years

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George Downing Clark was born in about 1859 in Birmingham, a city in the West Midlands of England. He was a descendant from Sir George Downing.[1]

He was educated at Leamington College. Shortly after leaving school he began a career as an actor in the theatre.[2]

The theatre

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Clark "quickly attained a position of prominence on the English stage". During an engagement at the Garrick Theatre in London he appeared before King Edward and Queen Alexandra.[3]

Clark worked as a theatre actor in the United States. His first stage roles in America was with Charles Frohman at the Star Theatre in New York.[2] For a number of years Clark was employed as Frohman's stage manager.[1][3]

In August 1912 Clark was recorded as the manager of the Belasco Theatre in New York.[4] In August 1914 Harry Walker replaced Clark as business manager of David Belasco's theatre on West Forty-fourth Street in New York.[5]

Clark was later employed by David Belasco, with whom he remained for two years. During this period he became involved in film acting with the Lubin Manufacturing Company. He appeared in a number of Lubin films including A Man's Making, Souls in Bondage, The Uplift and The Fires of Johannis.[2][6] In a production at the Belasco Theatre in New York in about 1913, he personally received President Taft after the performance.[3]

In September 1916 it was reported that Clark was to work as an actor in films made by William Fox in the United States.[1][3]

Films

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In early 1915 Clark was one of the cast members of Road O' Strife, a fifteen-part serial directed by John Ince and produced by the Lubin Manufacturing Company.[7] Clark became a regular performer in films produced by the Philadelphia-based Lubin company.[8] He appeared in about twenty Lubin productions, both multi-reel features and short films, released in the period from April 1915 to July 1916.[9]

The war years

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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.[10] It was during his service in the RGA, on military duty at a defence station at Dover, that Clark first 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.[11][10] In the ensuing discussion 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".[11]

Lucky Cat Films

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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.[12][13] 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".[14]

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.[12] 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.[15][B]

George Clark Productions

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Towards the end of 1919 Clark and Newall began operating 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.[12] 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.[16] The company secured an arrangement with the Stoll Film Corporation of America to distribute their entire output.[17][18]

Guy Newall and Ivy Duke in The Persistent Lovers, published in The Picturegoer, May 1922.

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.[12][C] 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).

"Exterior view of new George Clark studios at Beaconsfield", published in Pictures and Picturegoer, July 1923.

George Clark Productions Ltd. was registered as a company in October 1920 with capital of fifty thousand pounds, with Clark as company president and Newall as the managing director.[13][19] After raising finance for the project, construction of the Beaconsfield Studios commenced in 1921.[16] While the studios were still under construction Newall took the company to Nice, on the French Riviera, where he directed The Bigamist and The Persistent Lovers, films for which he also wrote the screenplays and acted in the leading male roles.[12] 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), films for which he had full artistic control as director, screenwriter and actor.

The films made by George Clark Productions were released in the United States through Stoll, with some being moderately successful.[19] In particular, Newall's The Bigamist was highly regarded and was "exported with comparative success".[20] 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".[19]

The Beaconsfield Studios were officially opened in May 1922.[13] 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.[21]

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".[13] 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.[12][22] 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".[23] 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".[12]

There had been a general downturn in the British film industry after 1922 due to the heavy competition from American film distributors.[24] In October 1924 the Beaconsfield Studios were hired by Britannia Films to make Afraid of Love. The facilities were also leased to Anglia Films. The Beaconsfield Studios fell into disuse by early 1925 due to the prevailing slump in British film production.[16] In 1927 the Beaconsfield facilities were sold to the British Lion Film Corporation in anticipation of government legislation being introduced to support the British film industry.[16][13][25]

Last years

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Low book.[26]

George Downing Clark died on 17 August 1930 at New Haven, Connecticut. Obit.[27] see also: Silent Film Necrology page 93.

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ a b c 'Ten Companies are Hard at Work for Fox in East and West', Motion Picture News, 23 September 1916, page 1847.
  2. ^ a b c 'Clarke Acts in First Fox Production', Motion Picture News, 4 March 1916, page 1311.
  3. ^ a b c d 'Clarke Acts in First Fox Production', Motography, 30 September 1916, pages 771-772.
  4. ^ Los Angeles, Variety, 23 August 1912, page 32.
  5. ^ New Belasco Theatre Manager, The New York Clipper, August 1914, page 1.
  6. ^ 'The Fires of Johannis', Motion Picture News, 29 April 1916, page 2555.
  7. ^ An All Star Lubin Cast, Motography, 20 March 1915, page 436.
  8. ^ Summer Heat Fails to Stop Production at Lubin's, Motion Picture News, 28 August 1915, page 65.
  9. ^ a b George Clarke, IMDb website; accessed 20 December 2024.
  10. ^ a b 'The Expressions of Guy Newall', The Picture Show, 27 March 1920, page 7.
  11. ^ a b Men Behind the Films: George Clark, Picture Show, 6 March 1920, page 19.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g 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.
  13. ^ a b c d e Rachael Low (1971), pages 146-147.
  14. ^ 'English Comedy', The Times (London), 21 July 1919, page 10.
  15. ^ Denis Gifford (1973), pages 331-332 (06742, 06746, 06760, 06763).
  16. ^ a b c d Patricia Warren (1995), page 11.
  17. ^ Great Future Awaits Stoll Films Here, Motion Picture World, 23 October 1920, page 1075.
  18. ^ English Producer is Here, Motion Picture News, 19 February 1921, page 1488.
  19. ^ a b c Guy Newall, Notable Londoners, an Illustrated Who's Who of Professional and Business Men (1922), London: London Publishing Agency, page 67.
  20. ^ Rachael Low (1971), page 77.
  21. ^ British Studio Gossip, Pictures and Picturegoer, March 1923, page 26.
  22. ^ Jay Weissberg (2005), The 23rd Pordenone Silent Film Festival: A Consideration, Senses of Cinema website; accessed 2 October 2024.
  23. ^ Introduces Two Players, Moving Picture World, 4 December 1920, page 600.
  24. ^ 'The British Film Industry', The Times (London), 21 January 1948, page 5.
  25. ^ Rachel Low (1971), page 220.
  26. ^ https://archive.org/details/historyofbritish0000lowr_l4h8/page/n5/mode/2up
  27. ^ 'Obituary: George Downing Clarke', Variety, 27 August 1930, page 77.
  28. ^ The Uplift, Moving Picture World, 4 March 1916, page 1490.
  29. ^ Her Wayward Sister, Moving Picture World, 18 March 1916, page 1852.
Sources
  • Rachael Low (1971), The History of the British Film: 1918–1929, London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
  • Patricia Warren (1995), British Film Studios: An Illustrated History, London: B. T. Batsford.
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