Tempean Films was a British film production company formed in 1948 by
Robert Baker and
Monty Berman
Nestor Montague "Monty" Berman (16 August 1913 in Whitechapel, London, England – 14 June 2006 in London, England) was a British cinematographer and film and television producer.
Early career
Berman began his film career as a camera assistant ...
. Tempean's output of
B movie
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feat ...
s were distributed by
Eros Films
Eros Films was a British film distribution and, later, production company, in operation from May 1947 to June 1961. It was founded by three brothers: Philip, Sydney, and Michael Hyams.
Hyams Bros
The Hyams' father was a Russian immigrant baker, ...
. The company later moved into television, adapting
Leslie Charteris' series of
The Saint novels, starring
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 1 ...
.
The company produced several of its features at
Southall Studios in
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...
including both
The Trollenberg Terror
''The Trollenberg Terror'' (released in the U.S. as ''The Crawling Eye'') is a 1958 British science fiction drama film, produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman and directed by Quentin Lawrence. The film stars Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, ...
television series in 1956 and the film version in 1958, which was Southall Studio's final production.
John Gilling
John Gilling (29 May 1912 – 22 November 1984) was an English film director and screenwriter, born in London. He was known for his horror movies, especially those he made for Hammer Films, for whom he directed '' The Shadow of the Cat'' (1961 ...
directed many of Tempean's features.
[
Tempean is an adjective of, or pertaining to, Tempe, a valley in Thessaly, celebrated by Greek poets on account of its beautiful scenery; resembling Tempe; hence, beautiful; delightful; charming.
]
Film library
* A Date with a Dream (1948) First production of Tempean Films and screen debut of Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, (4 February 1915 – 4 October 2010) was an English actor, comedian, musician and singer best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring a hapless onscreen character often called Norman ...
* Melody Club
Melody Club is a Swedish band from Växjö formed in January 2000. Their breakthrough came in 2002 with the song ''Palace Station'', which was also a big success in Germany. The band has frequent radio airplay in Sweden, Germany, Japan, Norway and ...
(1949)
* Blackout (1950)
* No Trace (1950)
* The Quiet Woman (1951)
* The Voice of Merrill (1952)
* The Frightened Man (1952)
* 13 East Street
''13 East Street'' is a 1952 British crime thriller film directed by Robert S. Baker and starring Patrick Holt, Sandra Dorne and Sonia Holm.Mackillop & Sinyard p.180
It was shot at Twickenham Studios with some location shooting around London. ...
(1952)
* The Lost Hours
''The Lost Hours'' is a 1952 British film noir directed by David MacDonald and starring Mark Stevens, Jean Kent and John Bentley. It was produced by Tempean Films which specialised in making second features at the time, and marked Kent's f ...
(1952)
* Love in Pawn (1953)
* Recoil
Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, as according to Newton's third law the force r ...
(1953)
* Three Steps to the Gallows
''Three Steps to the Gallows'', released in the United States as ''White Fire'', is a 1953 British crime film directed by John Gilling and starring Scott Brady, Mary Castle and Gabrielle Brune. The film, essentially a British second feature, i ...
(1953)
* Escape by Night (1953)
* The Steel Key (1953)
* The Embezzler (1954)
* Impulse (1954)
* The Gilded Cage (1955)
* Reluctant Bride
''Reluctant Bride'' (released in the U.S. as ''Two Grooms for a Bride'') is a 1955 British comedy film.
Plot summary
Jeff Longstreet and Laura Weeks are paired together to take care of a group of wild children whose parents are lost on an Afric ...
(1955)
* No Smoking (1955)
* Tiger by the Tail (1955)
* Stranger in Town (1957)
* Hour of Decision
The ''Hour of Decision'' was a live weekly radio broadcast produced by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. First broadcast in 1950 by the American Broadcasting Company, it was a half-hour program featuring sermons from noted evangelist B ...
(1957)
* Kill Me Tomorrow (1957)
* The Blind Spot (1958)
* Blood of the Vampire
''Blood of the Vampire'' is a 1958 British colour horror film directed by Henry Cass and starring Donald Wolfit, Barbara Shelley, and Vincent Ball. The film was produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman for Tempean Films, from a scree ...
(1958)
* Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer ...
(1958)
* Sea of Sand
''Sea of Sand'' (released in the US as ''Desert Patrol'') is a 1958 British war film starring Richard Attenborough, John Gregson and Michael Craig. The film, which was directed by Guy Green, is about a patrol of the Long Range Desert Group ( ...
(1958)
* The Trollenberg Terror
''The Trollenberg Terror'' (released in the U.S. as ''The Crawling Eye'') is a 1958 British science fiction drama film, produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman and directed by Quentin Lawrence. The film stars Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, ...
(1958) Also known as also known as The Crawling Eye, Creature from Another World, The Creeping Eye, and The Flying Eye, it appeared as the first film in the Mystery Science Theater 3000
''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1 ...
series and was mentioned in the final episode
* Stormy Crossing (1958)
* The Siege of Sydney Street (1960)
* The Hellfire Club (1960)
* The Flesh and the Fiends
''The Flesh and the Fiends'' (US title ''Mania'') is a 1960 British horror film directed by John Gilling. It stars Peter Cushing as 19th-century medical doctor Robert Knox, who purchases human corpses for research from a murderous pair named Bu ...
(1960) produced by Triad Productions, a team-up of Tempean Films and John Gilling
* What a Carve Up! (1961)
Television
* The Trollenberg Terror
''The Trollenberg Terror'' (released in the U.S. as ''The Crawling Eye'') is a 1958 British science fiction drama film, produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman and directed by Quentin Lawrence. The film stars Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, ...
(1956)
* The Saint (1962 - 1969)
* Gideon's Way
''Gideon's Way'' is a British television crime series made by ITC Entertainment and broadcast by ITV in 1964–1966, based on novels by John Creasey (writing as 'J. J. Marric'). The series was made at Elstree Studios in twin production with ...
(1964 - 1965)
References
Film production companies of the United Kingdom
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