budget and the Rank Company (who  financed it and were to release it) had little faith in its  commercial potential. They tried to bury it by not giving it a  premiere (backer J. Arthur Rank walked out of its first performance)  and by just letting it quietly show at late screenings at a cinema  in London. They werent even prepared to strike a print for the  American market. Slowly, however, audiences started to pick up on  the film and Rank realized that they might have a potential  break