Evening star., 1932-12-02
ENCLAND'S MOVIE
INDUSTRY GROWING
British Companies Make
Strong Big to SuppIant
American Films.
BY JOAN LITTLEFIELD.
sp.cial Dispatch to The Star.

SpsCldI DlSpaICn 10 Inc Quar-.
LONDON, December (NAN.A).-
It Is commonly thought, even In this
country that al the British film studies
are concentrated at Eistrec, the little
Hertfordshire town about 20 miles to
the northwest of London, which sud-
denly about four years ago found itself
famous and has not to this day done
ANYTHING about it, preferring to remain
obscurely English and take no part in
the development of the factory-like
buildings that have arisen in its neigh
borhood.
As a matter of fact the British
HOLLYWOOD" however. is not confined to
Elstree, but is to be found south of the
Thames at Twickenham and Tedding-
ton; to the west, at Ealing and Shep-
herds Bush; nearer home, at Crickle-
wood and Islington, and farther out, at
Beaconsf1eld, in Buckinghamshire.
500 Workers Employed.
The first film studio in this country
was that of the Gaumont company, at
Shepherds Bush, western suburb OF
London, established in 1914. The first
British studio to make talking picture
was that of British International Pic
lures at Boreham Wood. This COM
pany was established five years ago,
and its studios were until recently the
largest in Europe. Nine pictures can be
produced there simultaneously, and the
company employs more than 600 perma-
oent workers, while during the past year
some 145O0 artists took part in talking
pictures in its studios.
More than a hundred pictures have
been produced there since the studio
was opened, some of them bi and tri-
lingual among them being Murder,
starring Herbert Marshall; After Office
Hours" talkie version of John van
Druten's London Wall" and How He
Lied to Her Husband" the first Bernard
Shaw play to be filmed.
The other studio at Boreham Wood
belongs to the British 81 Domlnlons
Film Corp, which recently entered into
IN agreement with United Artists for
the distribution of the pictures OF both
companies in this country, Australasia,
India and Canada.
In 1929 this company comprised
single unit working in small studio
with only one sound stage. Now it en-
ploys a studio staff of 600, and its po-
tential output is 36 pictures a year. 1t
is the only studio in Great Britain to
use the Western Electric sound system,
and it is now making series of British
pictures for Paramount.
Policy to Build Stars.
The policy of this company, mere,
perhaps than of any other in Great
Britain, is to build up stars. and among
Its artists are Jack Buchanan, who has
just completed a new picture, Yes, Mr..
Brown" shortly to be distributed in
America; Tom Walls and Ralph Lynn,
who have appeared in the talkie vef-
sions of the farces they made famous
at the Aldwych Theater; Anna Neagle,
who starred with Jack Buchanan in
Good Night, Vienna" (called Magic
Night" in the United States Sydney
Howard, Dorothy Boucher and Elsie
Randolph
The most important venture of the
Gaumont- British Corp. at the moment
is the filming of The Good Compan-
IONS" with Henry Ainley as Jess Oak
royd.. and John Gielgud and Jessie Mat
thews as lingo Jollifant and Susie |
Deans. number of scenes are being
shot in the Yorkshire Dales and at
Barnby Moor Nottinghanlshire, and it
is the ambition of the director, Victor
saville, to put the Great North Road
ON the screen in this picture and to get
a real English background for the
story.
Sunshine Susie" Jacks the Boy
and Love on Wheels" thanks in part
to the versatility of Jack Hubert, but
also to clever photography and a sense
of pictorial values. are among the best
British films of the year, and the films
written and directed by Anthony As !
q,uth, one of which, "a Kingdom for
Ffve-and-Six," is now being made, also
are likely to be Of more than ordinary
interest.
Ealing Studio Up-to-Date.
The Ealing studio though small. is
extremely new and up-to-detc and is
the place chosen by Gloria Swanson
for the making of her own film. Her
film already has cost about S250.00o.