orpheum

Anyone know how many of these exist and availability .Thanks to one member of this site i managed to obtain a couple.I read that when Warners closed down their production side at the studio they offered the prints to the BFI which offer was rejected.As a result prints were junked and most of the films no longer exist.Can anyone confirm or deny this.

DB7

Might help if you listed the missing titles. I presume it's the post-war to early 50s period?

orpheum

I have no idea as to the missing titles.I am talking about the 45 pre war titles.

MrT

The Teddington Studios were badly damaged by a flying bomb in 1944. I believe that many of the original negatives for the Warner Brothers Teddington films were either destroyed or damaged in the raid. As most of them were made only for the UK market, the only ones in circulation today are the few that got a distribution in the US and thus survived the bombing. Some Teddington prints are held by the BFI, but large numbers are missing , many of them being featured in the BFI's "Missing believed lost" book published in 1992.

Also missing are many of the films produced by British Lion in the 30s. This I believe was an act of cultural vandalism - the company either sold off negatives to Pathe for release on the 9.5 mm gauge, and other negatives I heard were intentionally destroyed by the company in the 1950s.

Mike (MrT)

Joenoir

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) set to premiere the second installment of its remarkable Lost and Found series with a collection of films made at London’s famed Teddington Studios by Warner Bros. First National between 1932 and 1943, it was announced today by Charlie Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for TCM. The collection of 13 films includes the U.S. premieres of two early works from director Michael Powell (The Red Shoes)—the comedy Something Always Happens (1934) starring Ian Hunter, and the crime thriller Crown vs. Stevens (1936) starring Beatrix Thompson. The other premieres are Crime Unlimited (1935) starring Lili Palmer; Man of the Moment (1935) starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Laura La Plante; The Peterville Diamond (1943) starring Anne Crawford and The Dark Tower (1943) starring David Farrar. The Teddington Studios: Lost and Found films premiere on TCM in September.

“Similar to the lost RKO films we premiered earlier this year, these six films had also quietly slipped through the cracks of film history,” Tabesh said. “Warner Bros deposited the original nitrate camera negatives at the BFI in 1963 and, over the years, the BFI had restored and preserved them. As curators of film history, TCM is proud to take the lead in showcasing these rare and historically important films and airing them for classic movie fans of all ages.”

Known as “quota quickies,” these films were shot at a fast pace on low budgets to meet the demands of the Cinematograph Films Act of 1927, created by the United Kingdom Parliament to require a yearly quota of British-made movies and hopefully counter Hollywood’s dominance of the cinema world. (Never considered a success, the Act was modified over the years and repealed in 1960.) The films made at Teddington during its Warner Bros. era were strictly for the U.K. market, and most were never seen on this side of the Atlantic. Of more than 100 such films, only 33 are known to survive.

Many distinguished actors worked at Teddington during its Warner Bros. period; also represented in the TCM series are Michael Redgrave in Sons of the Sea (1941), Richard Greene in Flying Fortress (1942) and John Gielgud in The Prime Minister (1942). Among those films believed to be permanently lost, one of the most historically significant is 1934’s Murder in Monte Carlo, in which a young actor named Errol Flynn so impressed Warner Bros. executives that they dispatched him to Hollywood.

Teddington Studios has a long and interesting history dating to the 1880s. It became a production center for feature films in 1916 and was leased, then purchased, by Warner Bros. in the early 1930s. In 1944, during the dwindling days of World War II, a German rocket exploded on the property, causing extensive damage. Eventually reconstructed, the studios would become home to Thames Television, and today the facility remains an important media center.

Start every day with a smile and get it over with.

Steve Crook

That Sons of the Sea (1941) [aka Atlantic Ferry] stars Valerie Hobson alongside Michael Redgrave and one of the scriptwriters was a young(ish) Emeric Pressburger

The "quota quickies" are often dismissed as being of little interest or value, but some people like Michael Powell did make good use of them and used them as a training ground. Powell directed 23 films in 5 years and the ones that survive show him trying out a few techniques that he later used again (done better) on his major films.

In fact not all "quickies" made at that time were really Quota pictures under the act. And some of them are well worth watching. Steve Chibnall has written a very good book about them, available from Amazon (UK) and other booksellers.

Steve

howard 65

When will we get the chance to see those 13 films on British TCM or indeed anywhere here?

Steve Crook

Who knows? Write to TCM (UK) and suggest they do the same season over here

Steve

howard 65

Thanks, I'll try but I don't hold much hope when I look in and find they are showing Maybe Baby on a classics channel!

maturin

'd love to see Something Always Happens - a fairly early Powell film with Ian Hunter, one of my favourite actors (Battle of the River Plate, North West Frontier). Turner Classic Movies USA have scheduled the 'lost' series for September 17th to 24th. My local cable provider is supposed to offer TCM, but in fact doesn't. Anyone out there have access to this film? R.

Cassandra

I'm in the States and receive TCM. I plan on recording this entire series on my TiVo-DVR. I will then burn all of the films to DVDs. Anyone wanting a copy just send me a message and I'm sure we can work something out.

image45

Thats very thoughtful of you

"Seya next time!"

maturin

thanks very much - that's great.
R

Carmel

Why does American TCM get better movies than us although we get some good one's on TCM here but American always go one better.

Steve Crook

Errm, maybe because they're an American company so they server their American audience better?

This series of films made by Warners at Teddington was at least partly instigated by Martin Scorsese & Thelma Schoonmaker so that tey could get some of the early Powell films shown. It helps to have a good champion for a cause

Steve