World War One created one of the first opportunities of England's separate societal classes to converge on a daily basis because of the war effort. Soldiers, manufacturing jobs and daily living were forcing the English from varying strata to rub shoulders with one another in ways they had never done before.
The universal theme of different classes interacting in either a romantic setting or because of necessity has a long, rich history in movies. George Bernard Shaw in his 1913 play "Pygmalion" (1964's "My Fair Lady" is adapted from Shaw's play) examines that wide breach between the classes in London. The 2019 Academy Awards Best Picture "Parasite," 1997's "Titanic", and even 1987's "Dirty Dancing," among many other films look at how people from distinctive economic backgrounds clash, manage to cope with one another or sometimes adapt each other's positivity despite their disparity.
The first movie in cinema to address this societal difference was September 1916's "East Is East." A young woman living on the East side of London stands to inherit a fortune from a distant relative, with the stipulation she adapt to the cultural traits of the sophisticats of London's West side. Actress Florence Turner is the Eliza Doolittle (to borrow Shaw's female lead), named Victoria Vickers in "East Is East," and her attempts to learn the ways of cosmopolitan West London. She has a boyfriend back in the East (London) who has borrowed from her inheritance, but has paid her back when his fish and chips business skyrockets in that section of the city. Victoria is somewhat frustrated with the lifestyle of the West side, until a marriage proposal comes her way.
Despite the interaction of the varying classes during WW1, England reverted back to its class separations soon after that war's conclusion. This distinction is still in evidence today with the two sides of London almost polar opposites--just as it existed in 1916.
Florence Turner was the unnamed actress the public nicknamed "The Vitagraph Girl" in 1907 when she appeared regularly for one of the biggest film studios at the time, Vitagraph Studios. Her name was finally revealed when Florence Lawrence and Mary Pickford's star status was publicized by their respective studios to hype their movies. But Turner's special spotlight was no longer shining by then. She journeyed to England and made a number of movies there, earning enough money to start her own production company, Turner Film Company. It was at this time she teamed up with director Henry Edwards, her co-star in "East Is East," to make this highly successful and influential movie.
By 1924, Turner was virtually forgotten when she moved back to Hollywood, securing just supporting roles and uncredited extra positions.
