Merton Park Studios

[DB7]

Hollywood's little brother

David McKie
The Guardian

The hottest tickets during the Venice Film Festival, the Observer reported last weekend, were not for the new big-budget productions starring today's most sought-after stars, but those for Italian B-movies being shown at a parallel event. According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, these were a mixture of erotic comedies, western and war movies, providing audiences with a continuous flow of police chases, zombie cannibals, beautiful girls constantly in the shower, rampant sideburns and short collars no designer today would dare to revive - most of them made in the 1970s on vestigial budgets.
Is there a chance, I wonder, that these Venetian excitements might trigger a fresh wave of interest in the British B-movies which used to appear in support of the night's main attraction in cinemas here in the 1950s and 1960s?

An evening at the cinema in the years between the second world war and the dominance of television meant an evening, rather than 90 minutes. Two movies were expected rather than one. If the times were awkward, you would watch the end of one feature, the whole of the next, and then the bit of the first that you hadn't yet seen. And your chances of getting something serviceable at least, and often better than that, were enhanced if the opening titles told you that tonight's second feature had been hatched at Merton Park Studios.

According to one standard reference book, there were more than 130 B-feature films made in this salubrious quarter of London SW19, with production reaching its peak in the early 1960s: 13 completed features in 1961, 12 in each of the three years that followed - but only seven in 1965 and only one in 1967 when, having completed Payment in Kind, starring John Thaw, the studios closed. Their most famous and fecund line had been the Edgar Wallace mysteries, which opened with a bust of the writer revolving on a turntable, but a strong second front emerged in their Scotland Yard series and its successor, Scales of Justice, introduced by the punchy, paunchy figure of Edgar Lustgarten.

Television made Lustgarten famous: by the end, Merton Park's market was television as much as the cinema. Though some of the titles involved seem almost interchangeable with Italy's - Act of Murder, Strangler's Web, Destination Death - the work that came out of Merton Park was far less exotic: no zombie cannibals, no beautiful girls constantly in the shower; even the sideburns, if I remember, were relatively restrained. Budgets were low and timescales frequently vicious: an average production turnaround was 10 to 14 days, and because some of the artists they used had far more lucrative outlets elsewhere, schedules were sometimes perilous, as when Merton Park only just managed to get what it wanted out of the young Stanley Baker before he moved on to The Guns of Navarone.

To keep costs down, they tended to film as near to base as they could. For those who lived in Merton Park - one of London's two earliest garden suburbs, created by the great horticulturalist John Innes - a late-night Edgar Wallace or Scotland Yard movie had the added attraction of familiar locales: the land between the suburb and Merton Park station, where huge metal bridges crossed two railway tracks, for instance, might have been made for police chases.

Yet the list of directors, writers and actors who worked at Merton Park is impressive. One 1950s account boasts that James Mason and Merle Oberon had worked there - though only at the end of a list which began with the British comedians Tommy Trinder and Arthur Askey. The final rollcall is an evocative mixture of future stars with the kind of engine-room actors who used in those days to appear in every fifth film you saw: Paul Daneman, Bernard Lee, TP McKenna, Maxine Audley, Harry H Corbett, David Lodge, Nigel Davenport, Peter Barkworth, Patrick Barr, Maurice Denham, Michael Gough, Imogen Hassall, and Michael Aspel, even.

With its output sadly reduced, the operation decamped to Bushey in Hertfordshire, and the studios, based on an imposing building on the Kingston Road called Long Lodge, much of it dating from the 18th century, fell into disrepair. Schoolchildren who used to trespass there on their way home reported its mix of grandeur and dereliction: what had once been a noble staircase, of the kind down which gleaming officers and ladies in crinolines habitually descended in costume dramas; reels of film thrown into corners and coated in dust. Sic transit gloria mundi. Sic transit gloria Merton Park Studios anyway.

[Hackett]

Merton Park Continued its film library and projection services after 1967 until the mid 70's, when the site was sold to developers. We can only hope that the redevelopers who vandalized this hallowed studio enjoyed declining years with thier arseholes removed.

[mysteriesofedgarwallace]

John Thaw was not in Payment In Kind.

Payment In Kind featured>>>
Maxine Audley
Brian Haines
Justine Lord

John Thaw only did two Edgar Wallaces; "Five To One" (1963) and "Dead Man's Chest" (1965)
Dead Man's Chest was the last Edgar Wallace.

Payment In Kind was the last "Scales of Justice" and the last Merton Film.

For me, the most fabulous thing of these films is watching the stars of the future, and some of the [then] present. One of the biggest was not mentioned; Michael Caine, who had a small part in "Solo For Sparrow" (1962)
Not forgetting John Le Mesurier "Flat Two" (1962)

Amazingly, Bernard Lee returned to film "Who Was Maddox" (1964) after he had made a three Bond films!!!!

[Hackett]

Hi Mysteriesofedgerwallace, (get a shorter handle please)
Is "SOLO FOR SPARROW" about a kidnapping and Caine plays an Irish heavy?.

[mysteriesofedgarwallace]

HACKETT: Hi Mysteriesofedgerwallace, (get a shorter handle please) Is "SOLO FOR SPARROW" about a kidnapping and Caine plays an Irish heavy?.

Yep, thats the one. He plays a character called 'Paddy Mooney'
Have a look here for some synopsys>>>
http://www.78rpm.co.uk/tvyy.htm#wall

[Steve Crook]

The other thing about Merton Park films was that they always seemed to have a car chase scene in them - and it always went down the George Hill (on the road between Morden & North Cheam).
See Map

Steve

[Stephen W]

Can anyone please recommend a book about Merton Studios? My late father-in-law was an Art Director there.

[smudge]

Hi Stephen -

if you search on Merton Park in here I am sure someone mentioned a memoir which was written a while ago. Long since out of print though, so would be a booksearch job. A brief history will be contained in Patricia Warren's BRITISH FILM STUDIOS but not (I suspect) to the level you'll be wanting if your father-in-law worked there.

Might I ask who he was ?

Regards,

SMUDGE

[mysteriesofedgarwallace]

A couple of years ago (maybe more) I was in touch with a chap called Steve Chibnall, who was in the process of writing a book on the 'British 2nd Feature' needless to say, Merton Park Studios was to figure heavily.
I also had some correspondence with David Greenwood (son of Jack) and put the two of them in touch with each other.
Sadly, the book does not (as yet) seem to have come to fruition.

[mysteriesofedgarwallace]

Was your late father-in-law one of these chaps:-

Scott MacGregor
C. Wilfred Arnold
Eric Saw
Peter Mullins
Peter Proud

Its a great pity, as with the onset of time; and not much documentation; there are less and less people around to recount memoirs of studios such as Merton.

[Stephen W]

Thanx for all the suggestions: my late father-in-law was called George Haslam (an entry can be found on IMDB) and, besides some feature films such as "Death Comes To School", he was involved with the "Scotland Yard" TV series. Primarily, he was an artist and taught at the Royal Academy of Art.

[mysteriesofedgarwallace]

Thats interesting, Stephen, thanks for the info.

His work on the 'Scotties' doesn't appear to be listed. Might be worth contacting IMDB to get it updated.

Mr. Haslam's IMDB entry can be found here

[Steve Crook]

I live in Merton and the following article appeared in our local paper this week:

Hollywood's Little Cousin in Merton
With household names like Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Arthur Askey and James Mason, you need not be a film buff to appreciate the faded glamour of the film studios that, in its heyday, hosted them all.

An impressive array of talent appeared at the Merton Park Studios at Long Lodge in Kingston Road, a creative hub short on space but not on ambition.

About 130 second feature films or B-movies, mostly crime-based, were made at the studios, with production reaching its peak in the early 1960s.

Part of Long Lodge, where the studios were based, was leased to Publicity Films in 1934 with the rest of the premises occupied by the Brocklesby family.

In 1939, the family left and the whole building was taken over by Merton Park Studios and its associated companies.

During the war, training and propaganda films were made, giving way to information, education and advertising afterwards.

Later features such as the Edgar Wallace mysteries, the Scotland Yard series and its successor Scales of Justice, hosted by Edgar Lustgarten, were successful despite their tigh budget.

The actors used often went on to fame, if not better paid work, elsewhere.

A young Stanley Baker graced Merton Park before he moved on to The Guns of Naverone and Zulu.

Among other later greats you might have spotted if you had hung around the front gate with your autograph book was a young scriptwriter called Michael Winner, in the days before he found fame as a director with the Death Wish series and Esure adverts.

A prudent approach to film-making meant that parts of the borough were often used for location filming.

Thought perfectly suited for police car chases was the section of London Road in Morden underneath the bridge near Morden South station, as can be witnessed in 1962's Never Back Losers.

The number of films made annually fell from 13 to 1961 to just one, the last made, in 1967, which was Payment in Kind, starring John Thaw.

The studio closed and the operation decamped to Bushey, Hertfordshire, but the film library remained until 1976 when Long Lodge was sold and the grounds developed for housing with the house becoming a set of offices, now home to Bedford Insurance.

However, its past as Hollywood's little British cousin is commemorated by plaques from the British Film Institute and Merton Council, the latter also noting its earlier history as the home and workshop of pre-Raphaelite atrist Frederic Shields, a friend of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.


Just as additional note, Merton is still used for "Police procedurals". The TV series The Bill is based in Merton with Sun Hill Police Station being a unit in a local industrial estate. We often see them filming in the area. In fact I once asked a local policeman how we can tell the difference between the actors and the real policemen, he said "Their uniforms fit better."

For those that know the area, there are many local landmarks that are seen in things like the Edgar Wallace mysteries and the Scotland Yard series. A regular being George Hill between Morden & North Cheam. It's made for car chases. Shame there's now a speed camera there.

Of course Merton is also known as the home of Wimbledon tennis, the home of Nelson & Emma Hamilton and one end of the longest underground line in London (longest time underground) - Morden to East Finchley via Bank.

Steve

[Rob Compton]

(Steve Crook @ Nov 13 2005, 06:26 PM) Of course Merton is also known as the home of Wimbledon tennis, the home of Nelson & Emma Hamilton and one end of the longest underground line in London (longest time underground) - Morden to East Finchley via Bank. Steve

...and Rutlish School!

rgds
Rob

[Steve Crook]

(Rob Compton @ Nov 13 2005, 06:32 PM) ...and Rutlish School! rgds Rob

My Dad went there but I suppose it's more famous for educating John Major.

Steve