Forde's first two comedy features, which he directed and starred in
with Pauline Johnson and Frank Stanmore, were Wait and See (1928) and
What Next? (1928). His last silent feature film, well received by the
press, was Would You Believe It! (1929). Nettlefold lost his eyesight
in 1930 and failed to respond quickly to the challenge of the talkies
and sound equipment was not installed until later that year. Almost
inevitably, Nettlefold, along with many other studios, became a battery
station for independent producers and quota quickies. The only people
interested in backing Quota films were the large American production
companies who had hundreds of films to unload and couldn't, unless they
shared the bill with a British film. To achieve this they were prepared
to finance second features made in England. Michael
Powell's directional debut was on a film called Two Crowded Hours
(1931), which entered the history of motion pictures as a quota quickie
for Fox made at the Nettlefold Studios at Walton.
By 1932, Nettlefold claimed to be the first British studio to have
installed the new high-fidelity recording system, and it was widely
used by independent producers such as Paramount, Ideal, United Artists
and indirectly; the Butcher's Film Service, backers of low-budget quota
productions. Among the offerings from these companies in the 1930s were
The Officers Mess (1931), Self Made Lady (1932), directed by George
King, Prince of Arcadia (1933), Virginia's Husband (1934), Twice Branded
(1936) with James Mason and Eve Grey; Father Steps Out (1937), a George
Smith production, from a story by Henry Holt with a young Dinah Sheridan;
and Spies of the Air (1940), a John Corfield production starring Roger
Livesey. Two other John Corfield productions in 1939 were Laugh it off
(1940); with Tommy Trinder; and Night Journey (1938). In the late 1930s,
the music-hall artists Arthur Lucan and his wife, Kitty McShane, alias
Old Mother Riley and her wayward daughter Kitty, appeared in a Butcher's
production, Old Mother Riley in Paris (1938). In 1937, Nettlefold launched
a new stage abutted to the rear of the existing studio after purchasing
a large mid-Victorian house, The Croft, and building a new sound stage
with water tank of the land.
By 1940, Walton, along with many other British studios, had been commandeered
by the Ministry of Works for the war years. The Vickers-Armstrong aircraft
factory on the borders of Kingston-upon-Thames received a direct hit
and moved part of their operations to the Walton studios. They built
two new hangars which were used for filming after the war. The studios'
proprietors were the executors of Archibald Nettlefold following his
death in 1944, but when the studios reopened in 1947, boasting three
sound stages, they were now owned by Ernest G. Roy who was also in charge
of production. Post-war, Nettlefold’s contract director was Maclean
Rogers and he churned out several films featuring the Francis Durbridge
detective Paul Temple. The studios continued to produce modest budget
films; among the 1940s releases were The Hills of Donegal (1947), with
Dinah Sheridan and Moore Marriott; and The First Gentleman (1948) with
Cecil Parker and directed by Alberto Cavalcanti.
