Acting with Feeling: Robert Donat, the 'Emotion Chart' and "The Citadel" (1938)

This article looks at approaches to film acting in 1930s British Cinema by examining the papers of the actor Robert Donat (1905-1958), now housed in the Donat Archive in the John Rylands University Library, Manchester. Using Donat's original documents, particularly the 'The Emotion Chart', that was used in preparation for his role in "The Citadel" (MGM, 1938), it argues that film acting methodologies in Britain were developed from the cross-fertilisation of stage acting and existing film acting practice.