Running late? Cut some script

This was the only local film studio actually sited in Elstree and in those few short years produced hundreds of film and television productions, most of which were assumed lost.

Jeffrey Kruger said: “Just before Harry Danziger died we spoke in Beverly Hills, and he signed over the rights to all their productions to me. Since then, we have spent countless hours tracking down prints and negatives and spending a great deal of time restoring them.

“However, we still need to trace more and would be interested to hear from any film collectors or veterans who worked at the studio.”

Harry and Ed Danziger found a ready market for economically made B movies and television series, and proved successful enough to take over an old aero-engine test facility and build their own studio in Elstree, which they cheekily named the New Elstree Studios.

They embarked upon a huge output, gave employment to many actors and technicians and were well liked by their employees. However, the cheapness of their productions meant many felt you were “slumming it” to work for them or must be hard up.

Actor Francis Matthews told me years ago: “I made several movies there and they were great fun, but shot fast. I would be asked if I wanted to star in a film that would start the following week. I would be paid perhaps £100 for ten days work, but that was a lot of money in the Fifties.”

One of their regular directors was the late Ernie Morris. He said: “You were not allowed to waste film on several retakes and if you were running behind schedule you would catch up by ripping out pages from the script.

“You were expected to shoot a 30 minute television episode in two-and-a-half days and a film in ten days. Once you worked for the Danzigers you could tackle anything. When I later worked on The Saint they could not believe how fast I shot. I directed one television series for the Danzigers and they asked me to use another name on some episodes so it looked like they splashed the cash and hired several directors.”

Christopher Lee made a couple of films there and they even produced an Agatha Christie mystery The Spider’s Web, which brought the great lady to the studio.

One of the popular television series was a detective story featuring a one-armed actor called Donald Gray, which provoked an actors’ joke of the time that he gave his right arm for the part. Another series was Richard the Lionheart, with Dermot Walsh, that often required knights of old to ride in nearby fields.

The studio was hired out to other productions and the late director Val Guest recalled: “We did Quatermass II there and I remember a lot of mud and duck boards between the stages, as they were still building it. Our star was Brian Donlevy, who was always drinking but never got drunk and you could find him every lunch break at the nearby Plough pub.”

Another film shot there was Count Five And Die, starring Fifties Hollywood hearthrob Jeffrey Hunter, who is best remembered today for having starred in the pilot episode of Star Trek, but declined to do the series and was replaced by William Shatner. Tragically Jeffrey died at the young age of 42 following a stroke and a fall downstairs.

By 1961 the Danzigers were more interested in their other businesses including the Mayfair Hotel in London. The late Ed Danziger told me: “B movies were being phased out and the price we could get for a TV series stayed fixed while costs increased so the whole game became uneconomical. We closed the studio and then in 1965 sold the contents by auction and the buildings were sold to RTZ.”

Sadly the studio was demolished many years ago and a business park now occupies the site. In 1996 I arranged for a plaque to be installed on the entrance gates and it was unveiled by the then British Film Commissioner Sir Sydney Samuelson. Only the memories survive, but if you want a nostalgia trip, get the DVDs and see if you can spot up and coming stars, local scenes and enjoy some Fifties entertainment.