Alexander Korda: Churchill’s Man in Hollywood
In early 1935, Winston Churchill wrote an urgent letter to the Hungarian-born British film producer Alexander Korda. He had just completed a screenplay entitled The Reign of George V and was anxious that “not another day be lost in the preparation of the sets.” So confident was Churchill that he cautioned in the text of his screenplay, “the audience must have a chance to recover from the cataract of impressions and emotions to which they will be subjected.”
It was to be “an imperial film embodying the sentiments, anxieties and achievements of the British people all over the world.” Churchill was under contract to Korda as assistant-producer and historical adviser for a handsome sum, so much so that he had sidetracked his long-overdue biography of Marlborough.
Churchill believed that “with the pregnant word, illustrated by the compelling picture, it will be possible to bring home to a vast audience the basic truths about many questions of public importance.”
The main problem, however, was that the screenplay showed no concern for budget. Here is how Churchill painted a few of his scenes:
“a German gunboat steaming through the water in a moonlit night…”
“a rapid series of shots of all parts of the Empire…”
“…away to British Columbia for a moment”
Churchill’s sense of visual drama was undeniable, though, imagining how “a skeleton face with its helmet still on fills the picture of a veritable ‘Death’s
