Early Invaders: The First British Wave

Abstract

Playwright and screenwriter Edward Knoblock’s quote about wanting to get away from California after a spell in the film community appears to match much of the British reaction to Hollywood in the formative years of film. What drove Knoblock to the Sussex seaside town after the exposure of Los Angeles is not entirely clear, but the impulse to retreat to a world of quintessential Englishness has often appeared to be the raison d’être for many British writers and directors of the era who were quickly appalled by the brash commercialism of the Hollywood film industry. In Knoblock’s case, it was an even more fascinating compunction that took hold of him because he was American born (originally Edward Knoblauch of German parents in New York in 1874), but ended up residing in Britain for much of his life. Indeed in 1916, he became a British subject, choosing to significantly reject his German ancestry at the height of World War One in favour of the Sussex countryside.

“I went to Worthing to recover from Hollywood.”