Britain’s Forgotten Film Factory
The Story of Isleworth Studios
- Author(s):
- Ed Harris
15th August 2015
Paperback
288
60
198
124
From the first Sherlock Holmes film to the African Queen, the only full account of this important film studio
Regular Price
£9.99
Online Price:
£8.99
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In stock
ISBN
9781445648224
The story of Isleworth Studios is essentially that of the British film industry from 1914 to 1952. Beginning with the first British Sherlock Holmes screen adaptation and ending with its Oscar-winning swansong, The African Queen, in the intervening years it was one of the most technically advanced studios in the country and home to some of the best and the worst examples of British cinema.
It experienced the transition from silent films to talkies. Britain’s only movie mogul, Alexander Korda, arrived, looking to rival Hollywood, followed by Douglas Fairbanks Jr looking to rival Korda. Buster Keaton struggled with alcoholism; Richard Burton made his screen debut; Bogart, Hepburn and Huston made a classic; and Emeric Pressburger directed his first and only film at Isleworth. Little by little the old dream factory’s physical shape is now crumbling or altered, or is disappearing altogether. Soon it may be gone.
Isleworth Studios has a history worthy of more than just an addendum in the annals of the British film industry. This is its story told for the very first time.
It experienced the transition from silent films to talkies. Britain’s only movie mogul, Alexander Korda, arrived, looking to rival Hollywood, followed by Douglas Fairbanks Jr looking to rival Korda. Buster Keaton struggled with alcoholism; Richard Burton made his screen debut; Bogart, Hepburn and Huston made a classic; and Emeric Pressburger directed his first and only film at Isleworth. Little by little the old dream factory’s physical shape is now crumbling or altered, or is disappearing altogether. Soon it may be gone.
Isleworth Studios has a history worthy of more than just an addendum in the annals of the British film industry. This is its story told for the very first time.
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