British Cinema and the Cold War: The State, Propaganda and Consensus

Much has been written about cold war Hollywood and the Soviet Union’s cinematic campaign against the West. This book fills a significant gap in the international story by uncovering British cinema’s contribution to cold war propaganda and its attempt to create a consensus among British audiences on cold war issues. The book includes tales of conveniently forgotten films like High Treason , directed by Roy Boulting, which put a British McCarthyism on celluloid; Little Red Monkey , in which the Chinese communist threat first emerged; and the fascinatingly ambiguous The Man Between , Carol Reed’s follow-up to The Third Man , set in a divided Berlin. It examines cold war issues, as refracted through British films and Hollywood movies released in Britain, and tells how the British public received this “”war propaganda.””