The Cine Technician (1938-1939)

118 THE CINE TECHNICIAN Nov. -Dec, 19.'58 enham studio, for Maurice Elvey to produce and direct "Comradeship," starring Owen Nares and Lily Elsie. This proved to be a great success. So much so that they took the Boat House studios at Kew Bridge the following year and Elvey produced "Mr. Wu" there, with Matheson hang. This studio had previously been used for the Billy Merson "Homeland" comedies, which were directed by VV. P. Kellino and photographed by D. 1'. Cooper. It is now a public house and dance-hall. .Meanwhile, Goldwyn in America had embarked on a series notable in the history of the cinema, called "The Eminent Author Series," the idea of which was to presell films to exhibitors on the name value of their authors. It should be remembered that at that time in England as well as in America films were "block booked" and "blind booked" as much as a year ahead. It is alleged (those interested can verify by consulting the trade press of that period) that Goldwyn decided to get out of his contract with Stolls when launching a new "super" of his, outside the series, called "Earthbound" (1 believe Walter Wanger was the salesman in charge of its exploitation and distribution). The contract stipulated that Stoll's had the sole marketing rights of Goldwyn pictures made in America and exported to this country. Circumventing this arrangement, the story goes, was done very simply by not exporting any pictures to Stolls at all. This, of course, left the English company in a jam. They had contracts with a vast number of English exhibitors for months ahead to supply them w ith Goldwyn pictures and they were getting no pictures. To meet thi' situation Sir Oswald Stoll called a meeting of exhibitors and announced that with their agreement he intended to start a rival series, for which he would make stories by such authors as Phillips Oppenheim and Ethel M. Dell, to be supplied to the theatres at the rate of one per fortnight in place of the (loldwyn pictures. The exhibitors agreed and production started. The Regent House at Surbiton, which had previously been the home • if M. Nicol, proprietor of the Cafe Royal, but was already a studio, was taken over, with Maurice Elvey as Director General of Productions. The film directors included Martin Thornton. Harold Shaw (an American), Sinclair Hill, who started as a writer but soon turned to directing, and George Ridgewell, who gave £1,000 to set up the first Kinema Club. Ridgewell, like others, practically starved during the "black" years of 102.1 to 1027; he died a few years ago as a result of it, shortly after he had become contact man for Gaumont-Rritish News. The first year's working showed a handsome profit. The company intended to extend and improve the Regent House ballroom, which was the actual studio, but the local council, it is said, objected to the building of a "factory" in their select neighbourhood. Consequently the company moved to the building at Cricklewood. This had been built during the war as the Nieuport Aircraft Factory, and is the building that went under the hammer. A few years after this move the producing and distribution sides of Stoll's were merged. Distribution for some time thereafter was in the hands of New Era. The first year's working at Cricklewood showed £10,000 profit. The decline which set in later was due, veterans tell me, to an attempt to make too many pictures too quickly, in the hope of even better results. But unfortunately better pictures are rarely made in that way, and I believe it is true that the Stoll Company from that period on paid no more dividends. (Elvey was against this policy, and resigned, to spend the next few' years with Fox in Hollywood. His "Dick Turpin," "Sherlock Holmes" series, and .Matheson Lang pictures had all been successful money-makers). There were times when as many as six films were being turned at the same time. One unit would have to wait until the next had finished its scene in order to borrow the lamps lor its own, and frequently the sets of two productions would he built across each other. There wore periods, too. when Stolls stopped producing and rented out the studios to such firms and persons as Herbert Wilcox, British and Dominion, WelshPearson-Elder and Miss Dinah Shurie. From 1022 or 102H onwards, in fact, the studio had a checkered existence whose high-lights were the production, among others famous in their day, of such pictures as "The (inns of Loos," directed h\ Sinclair Hill and starring Madeleine Carroll, "A Woman Redeemed," also by Sinclair Hill, with Brian Aherne starring, "The Glorious Adventure." the first big all-colour picture, directed by Stuart Blackton. and Anthony Asquith's first picture, "Shooting Stars." The last silent picture made at Stoll's was never shown. It was "The Price of Divorce" and starred Miriam Seegar, American star now married to director Tim Whelan. It was never shown because sound had by then hit the entertainment world and nearly everybody had to start thinking again in a hurry. The Stoll Studio was dormant for nine months, until the Marconi Visatone sound system was installed for them by Captain Round. Stoll's first sound picture was "Such is the Law." lor Butchers, directed by Sinclair Hill. It used up such scenes of the unseen silent. "The Price of Divorce." as could be fitted into a different cast but similar story. This period for me is modern times. My first job in a studio was at Stolls just after they had finished shooting this picture. There must be few technicians who entered the industry before the beginning of 1030 who did not have some contact with this studio that has gone. Their memories would be assorted but they would probably agree that the history of this studio is the history of much that was good and exciting in the postwar days of English film production. I would like to pay one tribute to its method of working in those days, when Sinclair Hill was director of productions. Before a picture went on the floor they had a script conference. This too often merely means four or five people agreeing as hard as they can with the producer. And nowadays having any script conferences at all seems to be an obsolete custom. All the more honour to the Stoll units of those days who had real script conferences. The complete script was read through by the scenario editor (Leslie Howard Gordon) to the entire unit. The technicians affected by any special scene could discuss its exact details with the director and with each other in advance, and everybody went on the floor knowing exactly what the picture was about (a rare occurrence today even in the most stream-lined and chromium-plated studios). But perhaps even more important, these conferences meant that the unit went on to the floor as a unit, as a team, with a sense of working together to produce as good a picture as they collectively could make. And that's a pretty good epitaph. (Xotc.—Thc author acknowledges gratefully the co-operation of various directors and technicians in writing the above article).