From Star Wars To Strictly: The Story Of The Studios That Refused To Die

Star Wars. Indiana Jones. The Shining. Hitchcock. The history of the Elstree Studio reads like a who's who of global film-making.

And what a history it is. The studio can trace its beginnings back to the mid-1920s when young British film producer Herbert Wilcox and Hollywood producer J.D Williams were looking for a site to build a new motion picture studio.

The first feature film to be completed was Madame Pompadour starring silent screen actress Dorothy Gish. The facility was passed into the hands of Scottish cinema owner John Maxwell, who named the studios British International Pictures and signed up new talent including the up-and-coming director Alfred Hitchcock.

Hitchcock went into the record books by directing Blackmail at Elstree, which is generally credited as being the first British talking film. During the late 1920s and early 1930s the Studio was involved in many other motion picture breakthroughs, including colour production and multi-lingual films.

In 1939, with the beginning of the Second World War, the facility closed for several years and was used as an ordnance depot and a garrison theatre by the Army, but after the War Elstree resumed operations.

Hitchcock returned to direct legendary Marlene Dietrich in Stage Fright and within a few years the Studio was discovering new talent such as Audrey Hepburn, Richard Harris and Laurence Harvey.

The 1950s saw a raft of Hollywood stars appearing at Elstree including David Niven, Sophia Loren, Gregory Peck, William Holden and Errol Flynn in such movies as Moby Dick and The Key along with home grown talent such as Jack Hawkins, Dennis Price and Terry Thomas.

In the early 1960s, Elstree began to move into the new entertainment genre television, signing up talent such as Tony Hancock and Charlie Drake. In the 1960s, as the home of ABC Television, Elstree Studios became used for more television production including The Saint and The Avengers. The films hits kept coming as well, including The Railway Children, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (the snowbound hotel was constructed on the site) and Murder on the Orient Express.

Then came a true mega-hit. In 1976, George Lucas made Star Wars and the rest is history. During the next few years he produced two sequels and also invited Steven Spielberg to direct the Indiana Jones trilogy. A new large silent stage was built to accommodate this extra work.

In 1986, Thorn EMI decided to sell the Studio and it was purchased by Cannon, who produced Superman IV.

George Walker of Brent Walker purchased Elstree Studios in the early 90s as a development opportunity and gained permission to demolish much of the facility and sell 12 acres to Tesco, provided Brent Walker retained and rebuilt the remaining 15 acres as a film and TV studio. In 1993, Brent Walker closed the Studio for production with just one or two tenants remaining.

The Studios have been restored with millions of pounds spent re-equipping the stages and building two massive new sound stages, "The George Lucas Stages" which were opened by Prince Charles in 1999.

Nowadays the Studio is once again a profitable and high profile aspect of the film and television production scene keeping alive the British Hollywood. Roger Morris arrived having been a Managing Director at Pinewood Shepperton. Prior to that he was partner/owner and Managing Director of Teddington Studios and CAST Cable and Satellite Transmission Service. He was also Group Managing Director of Barnes Trust Television.

Roger, who is also a producer and director and produced the very first programme for C4 when it first opened, has an extensive film and TV career dating back to 1975. He arrived at a time when the studio had slipped back into the doldrums. The Studios have been transformed to become once again one of the top UK Studios alongside Pinewood and Warner Brothers Leavesden.

Recent film productions have included Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Brian Singer's Jack the Giant Slayer, Under The Skin, The World's End, World War Z and of course multi-award winning film The King's Speech, and "Paddington" for Producer David Heyman of the Harry Potter franchise fame.

"Seven years ago, we were in real danger of closing. Today, the situation has transformed so that we are now the golden goose of the local economy."

The Elstree story, does, after all, look like it will have a happy future.

Image: The King's Speech © Momentum Pictures.

This article is also available to read at BFV online.

(JP)