There was very little activity at Twickenham during the short period
between Hagen's death and the outbreak of the WWII in 1939, and during
hostilities, the studio received a direct hit. In 1946, The Alliance
Film Studios Limited was formed, which controlled several studios -
Southall, Riverside and Twickenham. During the 1950s, the studios were
used mainly for half-hour shorts and television productions. In 1959,
Guido Coen took up an appointment at the studios and subsequently became
their Executive Director. Without doubt, the decade that followed was
a major landmark in the studios history. Karel
Reisz’s Saturday
Night And Sunday Morning (1960) was an important contribution to
modern filmmaking, but it was probably the Beatles who brought international
recognition to the two-stage studios.
The film attracting the attention was A
Hard Day's Night (1964), directed by Richard
Lester. Michael Caine, Stanley Baker and Jack Hawkins followed in
the Beatles' footsteps with
Zulu (1964) in the same year, and Caine came back to the studios
in 1966 to make the smash hit Alfie
(1966) . Over the next few decades the studio was home to many international
stars and directors that helped forged Twickenham into a studio with
an international film profile. By the 1980s Twickenham also produced
television productions and commercials, but on the cinema front the
studio was responsible for Karel Reisz;’s adaptation of John Fowles's
novel The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Charles Crichton’s
comedy caper A Fish
Called Wanda (1988) and Shirley Valentine (1989), Lewis
Gilbert’s tale of a bored housewife.
Selected Bibliography Sources: British Film Studios:
An Illustrated History, Patricia Warren.
