Page 62 - FILM STUDIOS CROPPED

he ghosts of Gainsborough’s Tglory years linger on at Poole Street, Islington in North London, often referred to by those who worked there as “the studio by the Grand Union Canal.” While studios are frequently known as film factories, it was an apt description for this tall redbrick Victorian building with its equally lofty lone
chimney stack facing Shoreditch Park.
As it has been allowed to fall into disre- pair over the years since its closure in 1949, to witness its dilapidated state today it is hard to believe that well over 160 great and
good British films were made here.
In its heyday, Gainsborough was the parent production arm of Gaumont-British Pictures. Beginning life as the Metropolitan Railway electricity pumping station, it was converted into a film studio as early as 1919. While across town in West London a Frenchman, Leon Gaumont , built the Shepherd’s Bush Studio at Lime Grove for £30,000 in 1915, an American company named Famous Players-Lasky (the forerun- ners of Paramount) converted the Islington building into a studio which also had space for shops and offices. Actor Donald Crisp and director George Fitzmaurice were film-
ing there in 1922.
A touch of Hollywood had been ush-
ered in with the Famous Players era, with J.C. Graham appointed as managing direc- tor on behalf of the Lasky Corporation. While the Islington studio was frequently rented out to independent producers, including Her b er t Wilc ox and Mic hael Balcon, Graham sold the studio to Balcon, a former Birmingham businessman, at a bar- gain price of £14,000.
Gainsborough was founded by Balcon in 1924, with the company being taken over by Gaumont-British some four years later. In 1938 there followed a period or restruc- turing under the three Polish Ostrer broth- ers Maurice, Isidor and Mark. Many of the production chores were left to Edward (Ted) Black, who had originally joined Gainsborough as a studio manager back in 1928, and continuing to run the studio from 1936. The RCA Photophone sound-on-film system was installed at Islington in 1928.
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Balcon had previously remained in con- trol at Islington until transferring to run another equally renowned studio at Ealing. During Balcon’s reign, among the directors who worked on Islington’s two stages were Victor Saville, Graham Cutts and Miles Mander, while at around the same time a young man named Alfred Hitchcock arrived from nearby Leytonstone.
He began his long and distinguished career by writ-
sometimes working at both places simulta- neously. To the public, the company soon became identified by its famous logo of the Gainsborough Lady, based on the painter’s portrait of Mrs Sarah Siddons, who turned her head to smile graciously into the cam- era at the start of each new film. For twelve years (1934-46) she was represented by actress Glennis Lorimer, whose identity was kept a closely guarded secret to the
Lom, just a few of the many who graced the silver screen during this most productive period.
Apart from Hitchcock, of the directors most notable were Leslie Arliss, Arthur C r ab t r e e , A l b e r t d e C o u r v i l l e , B r i an Desmond Hurst and a youthful Carol Reed, who became Lockwood’s favourite direct- ing her on five occasions. It is not widely known that Sam Goldwyn, Jr. (son of a famous father) spent part of his early film- making career in Britain working for Maurice Ost rer, Sydney Box and Ken Annakin before returning to Hollywood.
What was it like working at the studio in its heyday? Robert Stevenson, later to become the doyen of Disney’s live-action blockbusters including the multi-Academy Award-winning Mary Poppins (for which he was also Oscar-nominated) once recalled: “I joined the old Gainsborough Studios at Islington at the time when they were run by Michael Balcon, working with some friends of mine who had also come down from Cambridge where I had studied structural engineering.
“They paid me nine dollars a week as a reader at the studio. During my time in the story department I think I must have read everything that Ethel M. Dell and Edgar Wallace ever wrote. Then I diversified from the story to the art department, to a second assistant on cameras and finally ended up in the cutting-room. I only turned director when I saw what other people were doing to my screenplays. I got my first chance to direct in the mid-1930’s, just before Hitler’s rise to power. It was Tudor Rose (1936), based on a factual historical screenplay I had written.
“I showed it to Michael Balcon and per- suaded him to let me do it because there was nothing else going on in the studio. It was very inexpensive, so at least it didn’t actually lose money. The cash flow was beginning to run low by the time we got to the final wedding scene where the Earl of Dudley (played by John Mills) marries Lady Jane Grey (Nova Pilbeam).
We needed to build a cathedral, so our art director, Alex Vetchinsky, had to come up with a set which didn’t cost more than sixty pounds, which was all we had left. He spent
ing the title caption cards for many silent movies, but quickly moved onwards to scriptwriting and then into the director’s chair with the silent drama, The Lodger in 1926. The great Ivor Novello played the title role, alongside many legendary names from British theatre who filmed at Islington, and included Clive Brook and Betty Compson.
Hitchcock came into his own with the great espionage
Alfred Hitchcock in an unusually good frame of mind
public.
But of the
very many famous actresses to star there, without any doubt the real First Lady at Gainsborough throughout the late 1930’s and during the 40’s was Mar gar et Lockwood. She starred in over a dozen films for the compa- ny including Dr Syn, Owd Bob, Bank Holiday, The Lady Vanishes, A Girl Must Live, The Man In Grey, Dear Octopus, Give Us The Moon, Love Story, A Place Of One’s
thriller, The Lady Vanishes in 1937, which became his calling card to Hollywood and international fame.
During the peak years (1924-1949), Gainsborough’s reputation was built on glossy melodramas and bodice-ripping cos- tume romances, as well as contemporary ‘weepies’ which brought millions of women flocking into cinemas throughout the dark days of World War II.
When Islington became too small, pro- duction was switched to the larger five- stage studio at Shepherd’s Bush, while
Own, I’ll Be Your Sweet- heart, The Wicked Lady and Jassy.
Foremost of her Gainsborough contem- poraries were James Mason, Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger, Anne Crawford, Jean Kent, Dennis Price, Patricia Roc, Griffith Jones, Greta Gynt, Googie Withers, Dulcie Gray, Felix Aylmer, Dermot Walsh, Joan Greenwood, Richard Attenborough and John Mills. Stalwart support also came from Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson, Lilli Palmer, Michael Rennie, Celia Johnson, Flora Robson, Eric Portman and Herbert
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Stills courtesy BFI Stills & Posters/Moviestore Collection/Iain McAsh/Graffiti/Foyer/All copyright owners acknowledged where known.