BRITISH FILMS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19373, 23 December 1932, Page 5

BRITISH FILMS

MANY STUDIOS ARISE. PAST AND FUTURE SURVEYED. It is commonly thought that all the British film studios are concentrated at Elstree. the little Hertfordshire town about 20 miles to the north-west of London, which suddenly about four years ago found itself famous, but preferred to remain obscurely English and take no part in the development of the factory-like buildings in its neighbourhood. As a matter of fact, the two large studios in this district are not. strictly speaking, at Elstree at all, but at Boreham Wood, about two miles distant, a rather more enterprising village, which has now developed into a garden suburb. The first film studio in England was that of the Gaumont Company at Sheph ert l’ s Bush » a western suburb of London, which was established in 1914. The first British studio to make a talking picture was that ol British International Pictures at Boreham Wood. This company was established five years ago and its studios •were until recently the largest in duced here simultaneously, and the Europe, Nine pictures can be procompany employs over 600 permanent workers, while during the past year some 14,500 artists took part in talking pictures in its stud os. The other studio at Boreham Wood belongs to the British and Dominions Film Corporation, which has recently entered into an agreement with the American company United Artists, for the mutual distribution of each other’s pictures in England, America, Australia, New Zealand, India and Canada. In 1929 this company comprised a single unit working in a small studio with only one sound stage. Now it employs a studio staff of 600 and its potential output is 36 pictures a year. It is now making a series of Brit’sn pictures for Paramount (U.8.A.) The policy of this company, more perhaps than of any other in Great Britain, is to build up stars, and among its artists are Jack Buchanan. Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn, Anna Neagle, Sydney Howard, Dorothy Bouchier and Elsie Randolph. The Newer Studios. The studios of the Gaumont-Britisn Corporation at Shepherd’s Eush arc being enlarged and renovated and will probably be the most up-to-date in England when they are finished. The company has just begun a big autumn “push,” which will give employment to over 1000 actors and actresses. Its most important venture at the moment is the filming of J. B. Priestley’s “The Good Companions.” The Gainsborough Studios at Islington, which are now allied to Gau-mont-British, though fti as small and about as depressing a bit of London as could be imagined, are possibly producing the most original films in this country. Too many producers seem intent on merely giving photographic versions of popular plays, but at Islington British film comedy, at any rate, is coming into its own. “Sunsh'ne Susie,” “Jack's the Boy” and “Love on Wheels,” thanks in part to the versatility of Jack Hulbert, but also to clever photography and a sense of pictorial values, are among the best British films of the year. The Ealing studio, though small, is extremely new and up-to-date, and is the place chosen by Gloria Swanson for the making of her own film. If it only had another floor. Miss Swanson thinks this studio would be ideal, and her ideas on the efficiency of British film-making have changed considerably since she started working in Britain. Her film in which the English parts are being taken by English people and the American parts by Americans, has already cost about £50,000. and has some of the mo>t beautiful sets—with many real and lovely antiques—yet seen on the screen. They are also making at Ealing a film of the classic “Three Men in a Boat.” One of the three men is William Austin, well known in Hollywood. A Great Future Forseen. On the whole, one’s impression after visiting half a dozen of the leading studios is that the British film industry, though its progress has been slow is becoming more and more important as a factor to be reckoned with in the world market. It is handicapped stil! for lack of capital, and this may partly account for insufficient publicity It has yet to learn the importance ol “blowing its own trumpet.” They try to copy Hollywood, instead of building up their own technique as Germans and France are doing, and they do nol spend enough money in finding anc creating stars. The artists are there though a large proportion of them art drawn from the English stage, bui their possibilities are not sufficients exploited; they are in most cases not tied down to long contracts; and thmost promising of them are snappec up by Hollywood before the extent ol their talents is fully realised. Nevertheless, in equipment anc technical ability the “British Holly wood” is far more up-to-date thai most people realise. Some of the newest studios are as perfect in every was as those of Hollywood.