While the burlesques brought Brunel to the attention of the industry, they failed to secure him the position he hoped for. In fact, his reputation for making successful films on a tiny budget was a disadvantage, and he effectively devalued his work by undertaking non-directorial jobs for Gainsborough. It took two years of campaigning before he was permitted to direct a feature for the studio, during which time he was kept afloat by sheer determination and a versatility that was both a boon and a hindrance. Busy with editing and other tasks, his directing career was on hold.

Thus far, Brunel had been able to make films with relative freedom and had demonstrated his potential for creativity when external interference was limited. These experiences did not prepare him for directing a feature under the watchful eye of a major studio entirely concerned with profit margins. His attachment to Gainsborough may have led him to believe that he had finally gained a position from which he could influence mainstream filmmaking, backed by financial resources and with access to a distribution set-up that would ensure his films reached an audience. However, his first feature for the studio, Blighty, was a stark introduction to the politics of studio production, requiring him to engage in complex negotiations in his attempts to maintain a level of creative control over the project. The various versions of the story and script of Blighty in Brunel's and Ivor Montagu's paper collections illustrate the decisions and compromises made to balance the intentions of the filmmakers with the commercial imperatives of the studio. Blighty was an example of one of the most popular genres of the 1920s, the war film, the generally conservative nature of which threw up both challenges and opportunities for Brunel in his endeavours to imbue British film with the originality he felt it lacked.

Brunel and Gainsborough

Brunel was convinced that his lack of directing opportunities at Gainsborough was due to a conspiracy by two of its dominant powers: C. M. Woolf and star director Graham Cutts. Ivor Montagu's assessment corroborates this view, recording that ‘intrigues kept him ever from the floor’ (1970: 275). Brunel spent more than two years engaged in post- production on other people's films, including the two Cutts films The Prude's Fall (1924) and The Blackguard (1925).