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The
studios were in Walton-on-Thames, not far from Shepperton.
They started life back in 1899, when Cecil Hepworth leased a house
for £36 a year and built a 15ft x 8ft 'stage'. Hepworth
was an inventor of exhibition and photographic equipment who had
decided that he wanted to try his hand at film making. He
created a production company - Hepwix - and began by making
'actualities', or local newsreels. He then moved on to making
films using trick photography in his tiny studio. By 1905
Hepworth had added a large glass stage - using frosted glass to
diffuse the light. Thus Hepworth Studios were created.
He
seems to have been a man full of imagination - as well as probably
filming the first slow-motion footage, he also devised a system of
mounting a camera dolly on a short length of railway-type track -
thus probably creating the first tracking shots in cinema.
Unlike
other studios, production continued at the studio through the First
World War, both by making propaganda films and by renting to visiting companies.
Many
films were made by the Hepworth company and several actors became
stars as a result. Perhaps the best remembered today is Ronald Colman.
However,
following the Great War, British film companies were all struggling
to survive and in 1923, despite some critical successes, both Cecil
Hepworth and his film company were declared bankrupt. By then
there were two stages and the studios were very well equipped.
However, the receiver was a man who knew nothing of the value of all
this and it was all sold off at a pittance - the library of old films
made by Hepworth melted down to make dope for aircraft wings.
In
1926 the studios were purchased by Archibald Nettlefold, a
theatrical producer and recreational farmer who was part of a family
of industrialists from Birmingham. Now there's a
combination. (His surname was in fact the 'N' in the
engineering company 'GKN.')
The
newly renamed Nettlefold Studios made a few comedy silents
which were not hugely successful and were one of the last studios to
convert to sound in 1930. However, they quickly caught up and
in 1932 were the first studio in Britain with the new 'high fidelity'
sound system. Nettlefold acquired further land at the rear of
the studios and expanded Hepworth's original site, enjoying a
fruitful relationship with Butcher's Films.
The
next few years saw Nettlefold Studios concentrate on making quota
quickies. These were paid for by the big US film companies at
the rate of £1 per foot so they had to be made very cheaply and quickly.
Like
most film studios around London, Nettlefold was commandeered by the
government for the duration of the Second World War. Initially
this was for storage but following a direct hit to their factory at
Kingston-upon-Thames only five miles away, the Vickers-Armstrong
aircraft company moved here and built two new hangars.
It
is not clear what happened to Nettlefold himself but by 1947 the
studios were owned by Ernest G. Roy and had three stages, including
the two new aircraft hangers. A modest string of films was
produced but the studios lacked the driving force of Nettlefold.
By the mid 1950s they had succumbed to the overall decline that saw
many studios go under. However, rather than close - their
saviour was the newly emerging world of commercial television.
Television
saves the day...
In
1955 Sapphire Films began hiring studio space, eventually buying the
studios and renaming them Walton Studios. The company
was owned by the powerful American producer Hannah Weinstein.
In
order to avoid the anti-Communist persecution and hysteria of
McCarthyism sweeping the US in the early 1950s, Weinstein had moved
her family to Europe in 1950 and established her own production
company, Sapphire Films, in London in 1952. She pre-sold the
idea of a Robin Hood series to an American flour company with the
same name (they would sponsor the series in America) but because her
politics were known to be left-wing she was unable to make the series
in the US.
England
was no problem of course and since the series was made here she also
did a deal with Lew Grade's ITC company to sell initially 39 half
hour episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood. Over the
following four years no less than 143 episodes were made on 35mm
film. The series made a star of Richard Greene, and the opening
musical sting and theme tune were sung by small boys in playgrounds
all over the country for many years. Dozens of well-known
English actors performed in the programme - some playing more than
one part over the years.
The
scripts were of an unusually high quality because Weinstein made use
of McCarthy-era blacklisted American screen writers, working under
assumed names. Often stories contained themes exploring social
justice - the subject matter was of course highly suited to
that. Ironically, it became as popular in the US as it was in Britain.
Each
episode took only four and a half days to shoot. Of course, to
make that many episodes so quickly involved revolutionary film-making
techniques. The most original was that the scenery was made in
sections that could be re-arranged in any order and almost everything
was on wheels. It was said that they could change a set and be
ready to shoot in six minutes. The man responsible for devising
this technique was Peter Proud, an art director with 28 years of film experience.
Setting
and striking is normally very time-consuming but lighting a set can
take even longer. Proud's solution at Walton Studios was to
have a pre-lit area and simply move the set into the light.
Bushes and lightweight canvas tree trunks were trucked about to form
various parts of the forest and 'stone' walls and doorways instantly
became different rooms or corridors within a castle. There was
one enormous hollow tree that appeared in almost every episode in a
different place. Viewers must have assumed that Sherwood Forest
was riddled with hollow trees. There were sometimes a few
exterior shots and these were mostly done around Runnymead and
Windsor Great Park, just a few miles up the river Thames. They
were usually shot by a second unit, often using stunt riders rather
than the leads and rarely involving any dialogue.
The
series developed a visual style of its own and was hugely
popular. So much so that Lew Grade decided to make something
very similar himself. Thus at his newly acquired National Film
Studios in Elstree, ITP (the production arm of ITC) began to make The
Adventures of William Tell. The two series were almost
identical in style and were shown by ATV around the same time.
Most people would have assumed they were made by the same company but
no. Sapphire Films sold the programmes to ITC who sold them to ATV.
Sapphire
made several more series employing the same excellent screen writers:
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956), The Buccaneers (1956),
Sword of Freedom (1957) and detective/spy series The Four
Just Men (1959). For many people of a certain generation
these programmes made by Sapphire at Walton-on-Thames epitomise some
of the best of British television from the late 50s/early '60s.
One
would have thought that the success of this work would have
guaranteed the longevity of the studios. However, several
things combined to bring it all to a close. Apparently,
Weinstein's new husband mortgaged the property and assets of the
studios for the promise of a fortune in Florida. The fortune
never came and he did a runner.
Meanwhile,
The Four Just Men was received with glowing reviews by
critics in Britain and America. However, the 39 episode series
was not deemed suitable by the US networks and was only syndicated by
local stations. The income from US sales was therefore much
less than had been anticipated. As distributors, ITC did their
best to sell it around the world and had some success. Not
enough to counter the lack of an American sponsor, however. At
the same time, ITC were said to be driving a very hard bargain with
regard to the amount they would pay Sapphire for any further shows
they might make. The sums would simply not add up and the bank foreclosed.
In
1962 Walton came into the hands of a liquidator once again and much
of the equipment went to Shepperton. Stage 1 (the Robin Hood
stage) was apparently sold off to be dismantled and re-erected at
Bray - to become used by successful horror film makers Hammer
Films. On the other hand, Shepperton also claim to have
received this stage which became their I stage. Maybe more than
one stage was dismantled and sold - after all, there were two hangers
built during the war that were later turned into stages. No
doubt the salesman claimed to both studios that the one they were
buying was the actual 'Robin Hood Stage.'
The
studio lot was sold to the local Council and became Hepworth Way and
part of the 1960s Walton-on-Thames shopping centre (now itself
demolished.) The flats at Hepworth Way and the shopping centre
apparently feature in the film Psychomania. I am told
that it was also the location for Monty Python's 'Can housewives tell
the difference between...?' sketch.
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