Elstree Calling

Elstree Calling
Elstree Calling
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Andre Charlot Jack Hulbert Paul Murray Adrian Brunel Walter C. Mycroft Val Valentine Teddy Brown Helen Burnell Donald Calthrop

Written by

Starring

Cinematography Claude Friese-Greene Distributed by Release date(s) Running time Country British International Pictures (UK) 1930 86 minutes United Kingdom

Elstree Calling (1930) is a film directed by Andre Charlot, Jack Hulbert, Paul Murray, and Alfred Hitchcock at Elstree Studios.

Synopsis
The film, referred to as "A Cine-Radio Revue" in its original publicity, is a lavish musical film revue and was Britain's answer to the Hollywood revues which had been produced by the major studios in the United States, such as Paramount on Parade (1930) and Hollywood Review of 1929. The revue has a slim storyline about it being a television broadcast. The film consists of 19 comedy and music vignettes linked by running jokes of an aspiring Shakespearean actor and technical problems with a viewer's TV set. Hitchcock's contribution was the comic linking segments about a man trying to "tune in" the revue on his television set, but always failing to get the picture for long because of his needless tinkering. (In the UK, John Logie Baird's work in mechanical television in the 1920s made television a topical subject at the time.) In imitation of the lavish use of Technicolor by Hollywood studios at that time, two sequences of the film were photographed using the Pathcolor stencil colour process. In their book Film's musical moment, Ian Conrich and Estella Tincknell write: "The British equivalent of Hollywood's all-star revues was Elstree Calling (1930), produced by British International Pictures (BIP), which consisted mainly of musical and comedy items from stage shows of the day introduced by compare Tommy Handley. Lacking the lavish production values and visual spectacle of its Hollywood equivalents, Elstree Calling is now something of a curio item interesting chiefly for two reasons: Alfred Hitchcock (then contracted to BIP) was one of several directors employed on the production; and the film is quite possibly the first ever to refer directly to television (the linking narrative concerns a television broadcast of the revue, some six years before the BBC began regular television transmissions)."[1]

Elstree Calling

Cast
Teddy Brown Helen Burnell Donald Calthrop Bobbie Comber Cicely Courtneidge The 3 Eddies Will Fyffe Tommy Handley Gordon Harker Jack Hulbert Hannah Jones John Longden Ivor McLaren Lily Morris Nathan Shacknovsky John Stuart

Gordon Begg Jameson Thomas Anna May Wong

References
[1] Ian Conrich, Estella Tincknell, Film's musical moments, Publ. Edinburgh University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-7486-2345-0, ISBN 978-0-7486-2345-7, 226 pages ( page 32 (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=PZS5vb7nQ_UC& lpg=PA32& dq="elstree calling"& pg=PA32#v=onepage& q="elstree calling"& f=false))

External links
Elstree Calling (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020852/) at the Internet Movie Database

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

Elstree Calling Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=550839513 Contributors: AllTalking, Aspects, Bobo192, Darev, Davepattern, Dr Don, Films addicted, Fortdj33, Grstain, Iantresman, Kilo-Lima, Lord Cornwallis, Lucobrat, Lugnuts, MarnetteD, Mikomaid, Pearle, Pegship, Polisher of Cobwebs, SMcCandlish, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, SidP, SkeletorUK, Skier Dude, Sreejithk2000, Tjmayerinsf, WOSlinker, Webrarian, Wool Mintons, Ydam, Zzyzx11, 4 anonymous edits

License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/