Britain: Rank Progress

Britain's moviemaking Rank Organisation—and the entire British movie industry—was in deep trouble in 1948 when Managing Director John Davis received a letter from a bank to which Rank owed a cool $45 million. Written by the bank's chairman, the letter was accompanied by a copy of Rank's annual report—with a circle scrawled around the picture of a statuesque Rank starlet. Said the notation: "If worst comes to worst, we'll settle for this one." Heh, heh.

Though amused, Davis had other ideas for solving the crisis. "Some may treat change as an enemy," he says, "but I prefer to believe it...