This study is a major appraisal of the contributions of German-speaking émigrés to British cinema from the late 1920s to the end of World War II. Through a series of film analyses and case studies, it challenges notions of a self-sufficient British national cinema by advancing the assumption that filmmakers from Berlin, Munich and Vienna had a major influence on aesthetics, themes and narratives, technical innovation, the organisation of work and the introduction of apprenticeship schemes. Whether they came voluntarily or as refugees, their contributions and expertise helped to consolidate the studio system and ultimately made possible the establishment of a viable British film industry.

Hochscherf talks about such figures as Ewald André Dupont, Alfred Junge, Oscar Werndorff, Mutz Greenbaum and Werner Brandes, and such companies as Korda’s London Film Productions, Powell and Pressburger’s The Archers and Michael Balcon’s Gaumont-British.