Gaumont British Picture Corporation Limited
History
Gaumont Pictures was founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont (1864-1946). From 1905 to 1914, its studios "Cité Elgé" (from the normal French pronunciation of founder's initials) at La Villette, France, were the largest in the world. The company manufactured its own equipment and mass-produced films until 1907 under Alice Guy Blaché, the motion picture industry’s first female director, and then under Louis Feuillade.
Gaumont British
Gaumont-British Picture Corporation was the British arm of the French film company Gaumont. The company became independent of its French parent in 1922, when brothers Isidore and Maurice Ostrer acquired control of Gaumont-British.
Gaumont's headquarters were based at Lime Grove in Shepherd's Bush and its sister company from 1927, Gainsborough Pictures, were based at the Islington Studios originally built by Famous Players-Lasky, where Alfred Hitchcock began his motion picture career.
When the studio head, Michael Balcon visited the set of Waltzes from Vienna, Hitchcock talked to him about the abandoned script for Bulldog Drummond's Baby that had been co-written with Charles Bennett whilst both were at British International Pictures. Balcon signed Hitchcock to a multipicture contract and the revised Drummond story became The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934).
Filmography
Hitchcock productions...
- Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
- The 39 Steps (1935)
- Sabotage (1936)
- Secret Agent (1936)
- Young and Innocent (1937)
- The Lady Vanishes (1938)
