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Towards the end of the Second World War American directors come to England to shoot (girare) their movies. Among the most famous were King Vidor (1894-1982) who produced The Citadel (1938) taken from Cronin’s novel; Sam Wood (1883-1949) with Goodbye Mr.Chipps (1939) and Basil Dean (1888-1998), Twenty one Days (1938) starring Laurence Olivier and his wife, Vivien Leigh, with the script written by Graham Green. The post-war crisis in the industry was strangely complemented by a growing (crescent) critical prestige for the British filmmakers like David Lean (1908-1991) with his Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948) taken from Charles Dicken’s novels and Carol Reed (1906-1976), who is famous for his sophisticated thrillers like The Third Man (1949). Critics began to praise (lodare) British filmmakers for their “realism”, and their human qualities. This British cinema, free from the influences of Hollywood, attracted the attention of the major American companies that, in the fifties, began investing in British filmmaking. Pictures such as Mogambo (1953) by John Ford (1894-1973), Bhowani Junction (1956) by George Cukor (1899-1983), Moby Dick (1956) by John Huston (1906-1987), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) by David Lean are productions, which mix British and American themes and stars and attract the international audience. George Cukor reached fame with My fair Lady a 1964 musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pigmalion (1912) starring Audrey Hebburn and Rex Harrison. On the other hand, the properly British production turned to (si volse al) the Gothic genre, so dear (così caro) to British popular culture. The Curse (maledizione) of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958) by Terence Fisher (1904-1980) began a cycle of horror films, which won the acclaim (acclamazione) of audiences all over the world (in tutto il mondo).