Posts Tagged ‘20s’

London’s Hollywood Review

November 10th, 2014

Nathalie Morris, (archive curator at the BFI) offers a positive review in Sight and Sound Magazine (December 2014)

 

‘valuable and enjoyable… a detailed and thorough study.’

‘provides valuable and enjoyable studies of a huge range of films while placing the studio within the context of issues affecting filming making across this period.’

‘a worthwhile addition to the growing body of research on British silent cinema.’

‘Chapman’s book chronicles, film by film, both the titles produced by the studio from 1920 onwards and those made by the company Gainsborough Pictures.. even when these were shot elsewhere. This approach helps build a sense of continuity across projects and careers, and gives an impression of the wider production scene in and around London.’

Chapman makes steps toward a major reassessment of the career of Graham Cutts ‘with a passionate defence of the director and his work.’

‘Another strength of the book is its highlighting of other personnel and roles such as costume designer Marcelle de Saint Martin… and continuity supervisor Renie Marrison.’

Chapman also ‘offers useful and informative pocket biographies of the host of other directors, writes, cameramen and actors who crossed the studio’s threshold during the 1920s’

LH Review S&S copy

London’s Hollywood: The Gainsborough Studio in the Silent Years

The first ever evaluation of the history, output and achievement of the most iconic film studio in London during the 1920s ‘a microcosm of the evolution of the British film industry during the silent era’…

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Paperback, £14.99, 
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London’s Hollywood – Book of the Week

November 5th, 2014

London’s Hollywood is book of the week on The Great British British Bookshop

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‘…a microcosm of the evolution of the British film industry during the silent era’.

 
BOOK 3D copy 2

Interview about London’s Hollywood in the Camden Review

September 25th, 2014

Interview about London’s Hollywood in the Camden Review

Click here to read

 

Screen Shot 2015-06-12 at 12.41.57

Screen Shot 2015-06-12 at 12.41.57

The jockey Stephen Donoghue – an unlikely British silent film star

August 20th, 2014

Come on Steve – a jockey as a British Silent Film Star!

 

Stephen Donaghue on the front cover of Picturegoer

Stephen Donaghue on the front cover of Picturegoer

In late 1925, C.M. Woolf persuaded Michael Balcon to produce a series of six two-reel racing pictures starring Stephen Donoghue, the most celebrated champion jockey of his day. Walter West, who had made his name at Broadwest in the early 1920s creating numerous racing dramas was engaged as director.

Stephen Donoghue, Carlyle Blackwell and Frank Bullock winning the studio stakes - during filming of Riding For a King (1926) at the Islington studio

Stephen Donoghue, Carlyle Blackwell and Frank Bullock winning the studio stakes – during filming of Riding For a King (1926) at the Islington studio

Despite being an unlikely British silent film star, Donoghue took to the medium of film like a duck to water and was not in the least bit camera conscious or awkward. Asked how he liked making his film debut he said ‘Great… everything’s so new and absorbingly interesting and I’m, enjoying every minute of it. I almost feel I should like to give up everything else and make screen acting my profession – although of course, I don’t know very much about it yet. I just do what Mr West tells me and hope for the best.’ He claimed he wasn’t too nervous before the camera because he had been interviewed and photographed so many times before.

Frank Bullock (Australian jockey champion- seen left) visited the Islington studio one day to see how his colleague Stephen Donoghue (far right) was enjoying his film experience. With Carlyle Blackwell and June.

Frank Bullock (Australian jockey champion- seen left) visited the Islington studio one day to see how his colleague Stephen Donoghue (far right) was enjoying his film experience. With Carlyle Blackwell and June.

The first film to be produced was Riding for a King, which featured Donaghue and Carlyle Blackwell, Miles Mander and the pretty actress June Tripp (simply called June). Filmed by Bert Cann, one of America’s foremost cameramen, the story was about a jockey hero whose unhappy fate was to love Lady Betty Raleigh (June). Blackwell and Mander were already well established silent film stars but June was a relative newcomer. June said that she had been engaged for the picture without any sort of test and wanted to feel ‘that I’m justifying the choice.’

Stephen Donoghue and June in a scene from Riding For a King (1926) filmed at the Islington studio

Stephen Donoghue and June in a scene from Riding For a King (1926) filmed at the Islington studio

The picture’s chief purpose was ‘providing a full-length study of Donoghue’s personality in private life and on the racecourse’ and he was seen as a slight, youthful looking, charming little man, with an evident sense of humour. No-one would ever suspect that he had a grown-up son, also a jockey.

Needless to say, the race climax was the best part of the film. Another five pictures were filmed in the first few months of 1926 and released thereafter: Dark Horses, A Knight of the Saddle (with Carlyle Blackwell and Madge Stuart), Beating the Book (with Carlyle Blackwell and Violet Hopson), The Stolen Favourite and The Golden Spurs (with Irene Russell).

 

London’s Hollywood: The Gainsborough Studio in the Silent Years 

Published 15th July 2014

A detailed look at the British Silent Film industry with this first ever evaluation of the history, output and achievement of the most iconic film studio in England during the silent era. 

Available in the following formats:

Hardback, £27, ISBN 9781909230132

Paperback, £14.99, 
ISBN 9781909230101

From Amazon.co.uk

From Amazon.com

Amazon Kindle ebook, £8.99, 

ISBN 9781909230125

Apple ebook, £8.99, 
ISBN 9781909230118 (Through Apple / iTunes – search for title on iTunes bookstore)

Alfred Hitchcock directs Nita Naldi in The Mountain Eagle (1926)

July 31st, 2014

Alfred Hitchcock arrived in Munich in late September 1926 to start work on The Mountain Eagle, his follow-up to The Pleasure Garden (1926) as arranged by Michael Balcon for Gainsborough Pictures.

Based on a story called Fear O’God, it starred the American actress Nita Naldi and British actor Malcom Keen and was filmed in the Emelka studios in Munich and on location in Obergurgl in the Urz valley, the highest village in the Austrian Tyrol.

When Naldi arrived she was dark, Latin, slinky and glamorous, with four-foot heels and long nails. Dressed in black with a black dog to match, she called the elderly Barclay ‘papa’. She was also ‘cynical, irreverent, bawdy, often undisciplined, and far more intelligent than she let on and she never took herself too seriously’.

Playing against type as a straight, unsophisticated heroine. Naldi had been typecast in the past as a femme fatale vamp and had made her name with John Barrymore in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920) and then with Rudolph Valentino in Blood and Sand (1922) and DeMille’s Ten Commandments (1923). At the time she was taking an extended vacation in Paris with her companion, the wealthy James Searle Barclay, Jr, who was twenty-four years her senior and whom she would later marry.

 

Alfred Hitchcock directs Nita Naldi in The Mountain Eagle (1926)

Alfred Hitchcock directs Nita Naldi in The Mountain Eagle (1926)

 

Hitchcock found her to be an amusing woman, bizarrely at odds with her statuesque screen presence and despite her protests transformed her to match the demure and plain character she was to play. They remained friends and when Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville married in December 1926, they spent some time in Paris with Nita Naldi before spending the rest of their honeymoon in the Palace Hotel in St Moritz.

 

London’s Hollywood: The Gainsborough Studio in the Silent Years 

Published 15th July 2014

A detailed look at the British Silent Film industry with this first ever evaluation of the history, output and achievement of the most iconic film studio in England during the silent era. 

Available in the following formats:

Hardback, £27, ISBN 9781909230132

Paperback, £14.99, 
ISBN 9781909230101

From Amazon.co.uk

From Amazon.com

Amazon Kindle ebook, £8.99, 

ISBN 9781909230125

Apple ebook, £8.99, 
ISBN 9781909230118 (Through Apple / iTunes – search for title on iTunes bookstore)

The Rat (1925) and the Cutts-Hitchcock Divide

July 23rd, 2014

The Rat (1925), directed by Graham Cutts and filmed at the Islington studio was the first in, what was to become, a fabulous trilogy following the adventures of a low-life Parisian Apache played brilliantly by Ivor Novello. One of the early Gainsborough Pictures it was hailed as ‘a triumph for British film industry’ and was seen as ‘a British picture that will do much to encourage the future of British effort.’

 

Mae Marsh and Ivor Novello in the Gainsborough Picture The Rat (1925) directed by Graham Cutts and filmed at the Islington studio

Mae Marsh and Ivor Novello in the Gainsborough Picture The Rat (1925) directed by Graham Cutts and filmed at the Islington stud

 

Cutts was delighted to be able to use the American actress Mae Marsh once again as he had directed her previously in Flames of Passion (1922) and Paddy the Next best Thing (1923) both filmed at the Islington studio for Graham-Wilcox productions but he also secured the added beauty of Isabel Jeans playing the vamp responsible for most of the thrills and all the trouble.

The film was also significant as it was the first film in which Cutts did not use Alfred Hitchcock, after having him as assistant director on several previous projects. Due to the clear antagonism that had surfaced between the two, Michael Balcon and separated them and was to send Hitchcock with Alma Reville to Berlin to film The Pleasure Garden (1926).

The Rat scored a big reaction in America and the review from Harrison’s Report, a New York based film trade journal, was exceptional: ‘If the majority of the pictures that are made in Great Britain are as well directed and acted and the plot is as well constructed as in that of The Rat, the American exhibitors need not worry about shortage of good pictures. All that will be necessary for the British producers to do then will be to create a demand for their product among the American public and they will find the American exhibitor a ready buyer. From the point of view of production The Rat is distinctive. The scenarist has shown unusual intelligence in the development of his plot: he has taken so good a care to do the characterising that when the heroine offers to sacrifice her life to shield the man she loves, one takes such a sacrifice as natural. The plot unfolds smoothly: the direction is skilful, the acting particularly of the principal characters is extremely artistic. Miss Marsh appears winsome and Mr Novello a he-man. It is a picture that no first rate theatre need be ashamed to show.’

 

 

London’s Hollywood: The Gainsborough Studio in the Silent Years 

Published 15th July 2014

A detailed look at the British Silent Film industry with this first ever evaluation of the history, output and achievement of the most iconic film studio in England during the silent era. 

Available in the following formats:

Hardback, £27, ISBN 9781909230132

Paperback, £14.99, 
ISBN 9781909230101

From Amazon.co.uk

From Amazon.com

Amazon Kindle ebook, £8.99, 

ISBN 9781909230125

Apple ebook, £8.99, 
ISBN 9781909230118 (Through Apple / iTunes – search for title on iTunes bookstore)

Dorothy Gish in the British Silent Film Nell Gwyn (1926)

July 21st, 2014

Dorothy Gish was the star of Herbert Wilcox’s magnificent British silent film Nell Gwyn (1926) wearing incredible costumes designed by Doris Zinkeisen.

After filming Decameron Nights (1924) at UFA, Herbert Wilcox  left Graham-Wilcox Productions and formed Herbert Wilcox Productions. His first production was The Only Way (1925), adapted from the stage show based on A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Distribution by the British arm of First National Pictures with a cash guarantee of £12,500, it initiated their British programme with a commitment to encouraging British production.

Wilcox was thinking of the next project and saw a theatre bill headlining Dolly Elsworthy, whom he had seen performing at the Camberwell Palace doing her famous ‘Orange Girl’ sketch. This gave him the idea to film Nell Gwyn but he needed a bright and vivacious actress to play the lead. He decided this should be the American star Dorothy Gish. A cable was sent and, since her career was in a bit of lull, she immediately accepted the offer, receiving a salary of £1,000 per week. Secure with the distribution deal from First National, Wilcox booked the Islington studio, forcing Michael Balcon and Graham Cutts to find another studio to film The Sea Urchin.

Dorothy Gish in the British Silent Film Nell Gwyn (1926) filmed at the Islington Studio, London (outfit designed by Doris Zinkiesen)

Dorothy Gish in the British Silent Film Nell Gwyn (1926) filmed at the Islington Studio, London (outfit designed by Doris Zinkiesen)


London’s Hollywood: The Gainsborough Studio in the Silent Years 

Published 15th July 2014

A detailed look at the British Silent Film industry with this first ever evaluation of the history, output and achievement of the most iconic film studio in England during the silent era. 

Available in the following formats:

Hardback, £27, ISBN 9781909230132
Paperback, £14.99, 
ISBN 9781909230101
From Amazon.co.uk
From Amazon.com
From The Book Depository (hardback)
From The Book Depository (paperback)

Amazon Kindle ebook, £8.99, 

ISBN 9781909230125
Apple ebook, £8.99, 
ISBN 9781909230118
(Through Apple / iTunes – search for title on iTunes bookstore)

 

The ‘lost’ British silent film Woman to Woman

July 11th, 2014

Considered to be one of the most important ‘lost’ British silent films, Woman to Woman (1923) was directed by Graham Cutts for Balcon-Saville-Freedman.

The American actress Betty Compson was the star and here she is in her stunning ostrich-feather dress designed by Dolly Tree composed of over 200 ostrich feather plumes and 1,000 pearls.

Betty Compson in the 'lost' British silent film Woman to Woman (1923)

Betty Compson in the ‘lost’ British silent film Woman to Woman (1923)

Filmed at the Islington studio in the summer of 1923 it had an estimated budget of £40,000 and when released was thought to be an outstanding British silent film and called a triumph.

Perhaps most poignantly the film did ‘one important thing astonishingly well – it forever blasts the delusion that a production, technically perfect, cannot come out of a British studio’.

Cutts liked music in the studio and was pleased that Betty was not just a tireless worker but also a wonderful violinist. She spent most of her time when she was not working playing the violin in a little orchestra, endeavouring to act as an inspiration to her director. The three-piece orchestra (piano, cello and violin) was there to aid Betty’s acting for she was incapable of registering emotion without the aid of it. Throughout the production the orchestra would play specific tunes such as ‘Mighty Like a Rose’ and then she could cry. But it didn’t go down well with Michael Balcon, who would wince whenever he heard the tune thereafter!

 

London’s Hollywood: The Gainsborough Studio in the Silent Years 

will be published 15th July 2014

A detailed look at the British Silent Film industry with this first ever evaluation of the history, output and achievement of the most iconic film studio in England during the silent era. 

Available in the following formats:

Hardback, £27, ISBN 9781909230132
Paperback, £14.99, 
ISBN 9781909230101
From Amazon.co.uk
From Amazon.com
From The Book Depository (hardback)
From The Book Depository (paperback)

Amazon Kindle ebook, £8.99, 

ISBN 9781909230125
Apple ebook, £8.99, 
ISBN 9781909230118
(Through Apple / iTunes – search for title on iTunes bookstore)

John Stuart and Virginia Valli in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Pleasure Garden (1926)

July 4th, 2014

A picture that missed getting into London’s Hollywood is this charming portrait of John Stuart and Virginia Valli in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Pleasure Garden (1926) filmed in Munich at the Emelka Studios.

Regarded as Hitchcock’s first ‘true’ feature film in a directorial capacity it was filmed in the summer of 1925 and also starred Carmelita Geraghty and Miles Mander. Despite overall praise for the finished picture things were not all rosy, and at the time there was much internal politics at Gainsborough Pictures which led to complications for Hitchcock that held up the national release.

John Stuart & VV Pleasure Garden

 

London’s Hollywood: The Gainsborough Studio in the Silent Years 

will be published 15th July 2014

A detailed look at the British Silent Film industry with this first ever evaluation of the history, output and achievement of the most iconic film studio in England during the silent era. 

Available in the following formats:

Hardback, £27, ISBN 9781909230132
Paperback, £14.99, 
ISBN 9781909230101
From Amazon.co.uk
From Amazon.com
From The Book Depository (hardback)
From The Book Depository (paperback)

Amazon Kindle ebook, £8.99, 

ISBN 9781909230125
Apple ebook, £8.99, 
ISBN 9781909230118
(Through Apple / iTunes – search for title on iTunes bookstore)

 

Digital Sampler for London’s Hollywood

July 2nd, 2014

Take a look at the digital sampler for

London’s Hollywood: The Gainsborough Studio in the Silent Years to be published 15th July 2014