Southall Studios

Southall Studios was a film studio located in Southall, Middlesex (now West London) which operated between 1924 and 1958.

The studio was a vibrant and productive part of Southall's cultural history. At its peak – in the early 1950s – the film-making facility employed almost 100 permanent staff.

Some of England's best-known actors worked at Southall Studios: Richard Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde, Joan Collins, and horror legend Boris Karloff.

History

Early years: 1924-1935

In 1924, film pioneer G. B. Samuelson converted an old aircraft hangar in Gladstone Road, Southall into a film-making facility.

Following some short films, Samuelson directed the studio's first feature film in 1928. Silent comedy '' Two Little Drummer Boys'' starred Alma Taylor – a major British star in the 1920s – and variety entertainer Wee Georgie Wood.

Converted for sound in the early 1930s, Southall's most significant film in the studio's early years was ''Children of the Fog'' (1935), made by influential German expressionist director Leopold Jessner. Jessner was a Jew working anonymously in exile from Adolf Hitler's Germany. The film's German cinematographer was also notable: Eugen Schüfftan was the inventor of a special effect called the Schüfftan process.

Fire and wartime: 1936-1945

On 29 October 1936 (a Thursday), beginning around 3 a.m., a large fire caused Southall Studios to be burned to the ground. Thousands of pounds' worth of equipment was lost, and reels for two recently-completed films were destroyed. The studios were soon-after rebuilt, at a cost of £9,666 (equivalent to over £570,000 in 2024). Of the few films completed at Southall before the start of World War II, 1938's ''Bed and Breakfast'' is of note for being the last appearance in a feature film of Cockney silent-star Mabel Poulton.

No filming took place at Southall for the duration of World War II (1939-1945). The studio was not at first required for support of the war effort, and an entertainments licence allowed the studio to be used as a dance-hall (called the Locarno) from January to November 1940. The premises functioned also as a roller-skating rink. 400 people attended the Locarno dance-hall's Grand Opening Ball on 24 January 1940, dancing until midnight. In the summer of 1940 the Locarno was twice fined for failing adequately to observe the blackout.

In November 1940, the Minister of Aircraft Production, Lord Beaverbrook, requisitioned the site, turning it over to Fairey Aviation, an aeroplane manufacturer with a factory in nearby Hayes. The Locarno dance-hall was consequently relocated to Ealing.

The Luftwaffe fired on the site during wartime, but the rebuilt studio survived intact and, de-requisitioned after the war ended, the film-making facility entered into a busy post-war period.

Golden age: 1946-1958

The years following the Second World War marked "Southall's golden age". After 1945, Alliance Film Studios acquired the premises, and the studio entered into its most productive period, producing noteworthy films in a variety of genres.

Examples include: British film noir '' Dancing with Crime'' (1947) with Richard Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde and Diana Dors; drama '' Judgment Deferred'' (1952) starring Joan Collins; semi-documentary disaster film ''The Brave Don't Cry'' (1952) with John Gregson; and "all very British" comedies, such as ''Miss Robin Hood'' (1952) and ''The Runaway Bus'' (1954) starring Margaret Rutherford, and '' The Oracle'' (1953) featuring the enigmatic Gilbert Harding.

Controversy attended one Southall Studios production. 1948 gangster film '' No Orchids For Miss Blandish'' attracted outrage: ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' called it "The most sickening exhibition of brutality, perversion, sex and sadism ever to be shown on a cinema screen"; the ''Daily Express'' said "the film sets out to appeal to the prurient-minded, the twisted, the unbalanced"; Labour politician Edith Summerskill claimed the film would "pervert the minds of the British people". The president of the BBFC apologised to the Home Secretary of the day, James Chuter Ede, for having "failed to protect the public" from ''No Orchids For Miss Blandish''. Notoriety contributed to the film's commercial success on initial release, but it was rarely shown again until 2006, by which time it was felt to deserve a modest PG certificate, for "mild violence and threat".

Noted documentary-maker John Grierson – who coined the word "documentary" – worked at Southall from 1951 to 1953, running Group 3 Films with director/producer John Baxter.) Grierson used his documentary/ realist approach to critical and commercial success as executive producer on ''The Brave Don't Cry'' (1952), a semi-documentary feature about the 1950 Knockshinnoch mining disaster. Grierson & Baxter moved base from Southall to Beaconsfield Film Studios in 1953; Group 3 Films stopped production in 1955.

In 1952, Southall Studios employed almost 100 permanent staff. This was its busiest time: besides producing feature films, more work arrived in connection with the increasingly important television industry. The highest-profile television programme produced at Southall at this time was ''Colonel March of Scotland Yard'', starring ''Frankenstein'' legend Boris Karloff as the fictional detective of the title. The 26-episode series featured some well-known actors in individual episodes. Among them, Christopher Lee and Anthony Newley. Three initial pilot episodes filmed in 1952 were compiled to make 1953 film '' Colonel March Investigates''.

In the second half of the 1950s, employment at the studio showed a downward trend. In 1956, there were 47 permanent staff: half the 1952 figure. Worthwhile film and television work continued to be produced there. Crime film '' Kill Me Tomorrow'' (1957), for example, starred seasoned Hollywood actor Pat O'Brien. The 1955 launch in Britain of commercial television station ITV brought in a new source of income: making television adverts. But Southall's end was nigh: the studio would close before the end of the decade.

Southall Studios ended on a high note. The final project to be completed there was science-fiction/ horror film ''The Trollenberg Terror'' (1958). First produced at Southall as a television series in 1956-1957, the full-length feature (re-titled ''The Crawling Eye'' in the USA) would go on to achieve cult classic status. More than twenty years later, acclaimed director John Carpenter acknowledged ''The Trollenberg Terror'' as an influence on his 1980 supernatural horror film ''The Fog''.

Some actors who went on to attain distinction in science-fiction made films (in other genres) at Southall in its golden age: the first and the third Doctor in ''Doctor Who'': William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee; and the actor who played the first Klingon in the original ''Star Trek'', John Colicos.

Five "Bond girl" actresses worked at Southall Studios before going on to appear in the James Bond films: Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny, 1962-1985); Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore, 1964); Eunice Gayson ( Sylvia Trench, 1962 & 1963); Zena Marshall ( Miss Taro, 1962); and Shirley Eaton; (golden girl Jill Masterson, 1964).

Several regulars of the much-loved '' Carry On'' films worked individually at Southall Studios: Sid James, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth.

John Schlesinger – later an eminent, Oscar-winning director – worked twice at Southall Studios as a young actor.

Freddie Mills – the ex-boxer whose mysterious 1965 death continues to attract lurid speculation – acted in two films at Southall Studios in the 1950s.

Closure and demolition: 1959-1960

Southall Studios sadly closed in 1959. The film-making facility was demolished in or around 1960, and no trace of it remains. Film buffs visiting the site in the years following demolition found an industrial estate where the studio once stood.

Southall Studios films

See also

* Eros Films
* Group 3 Films
* Tempean Films

References

{{Cinema of the United Kingdom

External links

History Project

British film studios
1930s fires in the United Kingdom
1936 disasters in the United Kingdom
1936 fires
Southall
Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Ealing
Media and communications in the London Borough of Ealing