Philadelphia Inquirer (25/Jul/1993) - Film studio in Britain is closing

Details

• article: Film studio in Britain is closing
• newspaper: Philadelphia Inquirer (25/Jul/1993)
• keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, Blackmail (1929), Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, Gregory Peck

Article

Film studio in Britain is closing

"With the demise of the British film industry, the facilities there have been substantially underutilized over the last three years," the firm said.

Elstree Studios at Borehamwood, 15 miles northwest of central London, opened in 1914. Its main studio complex was built 12 years later.

The young Alfred Hitchcock made the first British movie with sound, Blackmail, at Elstree in 1929.

By the 1930s, the studio had nine sets, and by the beginning of the 1940s, more than 250 movies had been made there. Over the next two decades, Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn and Spencer Tracy all worked there.

Many well-known movies were made at Elstree, including Moby Dick (1956), starring Gregory Peck; Murder on the Orient Express (1974), which featured an all-star cast including Albert Finney, and works by the zany Monty Python comedy team.

The 1970s saw the British movie industry decline, and American companies began to desert Elstree. But George Lucas' 1977 blockbuster Star Wars was made there, as well as Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones movies.