Formed in 1937, Two Cities was initially envisaged as a production
company operating in the two cities of London and Rome which gave the company its name. Its first significant film was French Without Tears (d. Anthony Asquith, 1939), produced by Mario Zampi, but the company is most closely associated with 'the golden age of British cinema' - the 1940s - and with big-budget 'prestige' picture-making for the Rank Organisation. The flamboyant driving force of the
company was the Italian-born Filippo Del Giudice and, despite his brief
internment during the war along with Zampi, Two Cities produced a number of
'quintessentially English' film classics including the most popular British film
from the wartime period - In Which We Serve (d. Noël Coward/David Lean, 1942). Other Two Cities films such as This Happy Breed (d. Lean, 1944), The Way Ahead (d. Carol Reed, 1944) Henry V (d. Laurence Olivier, 1944), and The Way to the Stars (d. Asquith, 1945) form the backbone of the 'quality' cinema much favoured by critics of the day and contributed significantly to the high critical reputation acquired by the British cinema of the time. In the mid '40s Two Cities became part of the Rank Organisation producing key films such as Odd Man Out (d. Reed, 1947) and Hamlet (d. Olivier, 1947) towards the end of the decade.
Tom Ryall, Encyclopedia of British Film
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