6-458: The Big Blockade was a 1942 British black-and-white war propaganda film in the style of dramatised documentary. It was directed by Charles Frend and starred Will Hay , Leslie Banks , Michael Redgrave and John Mills . It was produced by Michael Balcon for Ealing Studios , in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Warfare . At one stage, the film was known as Siege . This
12-552: The London Pavilion on 19 January 1942, and the premiere was attended by a group of members of Parliament interested in economic warfare. The film was not well received by The Times , whose critic in 1942 found that "this particular hotch-potch is, as propaganda, woefully unconvincing. It is splendid to give audiences a glimpse of the devoted work done by the Services […] but actors got up as comic Nazi business men distort
18-456: The late 19th and early to mid 20th centuries were often developed in black and white, as an alternative to sepia due to limitations in film available at the time. Black and white was also prevalent in early television broadcasts, which were displayed by changing the intensity of monochrome phosphurs on the inside of the screen, before the introduction of colour from the 1950s onwards. Black and white continues to be used in certain sections of
24-633: The lessons the more serious parts of the film are trying to drive home", and modern film reviewers are not very much kinder to it. Black-and-white Black-and-white ( B&W or B/W ) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey . It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. However, there are exceptions to this rule, including black-and-white fine art photography , as well as many film motion pictures and art film (s). Early photographs in
30-458: The modern arts field, either stylistically or to invoke the perception of a historic work or setting. Since the late 1960s, few mainstream films have been shot in black-and-white. The reasons are frequently commercial, as it is difficult to sell a film for television broadcasting if the film is not in color. 1961 was the last year in which the majority of Hollywood films were released in black and white. In computing terminology, black-and-white
36-474: Was a propaganda film in which the British strategy of the economic blockade of Nazi Germany was illustrated through a series of scenes and sketches, combined with documentary footage. Although released in 1942 it was largely made in 1941 so part of the story is complaint of America's non-involvement. The film's commentary is made by the journalist and former Liberal MP Frank Owen . The film premiered at
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