Cinema: Good Enough for Americans?

London turned out last week for a gala premiere of a film which the U.S. may not see for another year.

Caesar and Cleopatra (Gaumont-British) is Yorkshireman J. Arthur Rank's most spectacular production gamble in cinema's newly competitive international game. With Vivien (Scarlett O'Hara) Leigh, Claude Rains and a $5,000,000 production in Technicolor, Rank hopes to put British movies—as represented by Arthur Rank—into real competition with Hollywood. The $66 million-a-year rental which Britain pays for U.S. films is involved—about half enough money to meet the proposed payments on Britain's new U.S. loan.

To screen George Bernard Shaw's 47-year-old play, Rank gave Producer Gabriel...