About The Danzigers ... To a list of their films ... Production Manager Brian Taylor ... Geoffrey Helman's Description of New Elstree Studios ... Saber of London memories by Robert Arden
Danziger- The Untold Elstree Story
was released on dvd in 2011, and it's a story which we must be grateful to Derek Pykett for telling, for he has energetically tracked down a number of personnel to rack their memories about a minor but fascinating part of Britain's tv and cinema scene from fifty years back. The result is one I'm sure the Danzigers themselves would have approved, for this is no critical appraisal of their output, but a reflection of the fun, as Francis Matthews affectionately describes it, of the atmosphere inside the studios.
Of course Brian Clemens has to feature, as The Danzigers' first main scriptwriter and he forthrightly admits that they produced "potboilers." Production manager Brian Taylor is maybe too laid back about his time there, it would have been good to get a few more facts from him, but assistant director Geoffrey Helman remembered more, but their brief seems to have been to tell as many amusing tales as they could rather than contribute any serious evaluation of their work. Other actors include Geoffrey Bayldon, who has one good story at the end, Ian Gregory, who comes over very charmingly, and Trader Faulkner, the only one to undertake any analysis. Brian Cobby is entertaining and Sheila Whittingham has a nice account of how she met Harry Danziger. But presumably because they either couldn't or wouldn't, it's a pity that others who went to New Elstree weren't able to contribute, like Honor Blackman, Michael Caine or Leslie Phillips.
But there is a good balance of reminiscence, sometimes well illustrated by a still or clip, more short clips to prove the point being made would have been beneficial. At the half way point, rare silent footage of the studios, shot by Francis Matthews, makes a welcome change of pace and is worthy of close study, before this, the groundbreaking The Nudist Story is reviewed. However after this, a disproportionate amount of attention, a quarter of the whole, is given to the Richard the Lionheart tv series. This section becomes too rambling, with memories of interesting but not key Danziger actors like Francis de Wolff and Nigel Green, but no mention, for example, of some bigger names who graced the studios. Presumably this focus on the Danzigers' final tv series was partly because personnel remembered this series best, or was it, as Pykett says, because it was the Danzigers' most successful series? If it was, why did the studios close immediately afterwards? The reason is not given, but surely their most successful series was the Mark Saber/ Saber of London saga which ran to 156 episodes, four times more than that of the Lionheart! But this series is dismissed with two slightly distasteful jokes about the star Donald Gray. Even worse, there is no mention at all of their best series, though that's only my opinion, The Cheaters. The claustrophobic film The Tell Tale Heart is covered, but without mentioning it was the only Danziger feature to receive any sort of award.
However, that said, there are very few factual errors. Devil Girls from Mars is a slight slip, while stating that the 30 minute tv films could be cut to 28 minutes was slightly out, as tv films lasted 25 or 26 minutes. I would also query whether as many as 140 feature films were made at the studios, I'd like all the titles please. At almost two hours ("everything's too long now" admits Clemens), the whole could have been improved by judicious editing, never had The Danzigers themselves lasted that long on screen! But that is being pernickety and this is not a documentary that aims to do much more than reflect the happy times spent by a happy family group, presided over by the two brothers, taskmasters, yes, but loyal to their employees, and producing a remarkable if sadly forgotten underrated slice of celluloid history, yes it was a story worth telling.
To Dinosaur Films monthly magazine
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There were at least 55 UK films produced by Edward and Harry Lee Danziger. There were approx 11 more that were made using the studio's personnel, but were not produced by the brothers, who sold their interest in the business in late 1961. Prior to coming to the UK, the Danziger brothers also produced four films in America- Jigsaw (1949), So Young, So Bad (1950), St. Benny the Dip (1951), Babes in Bagdad (1952).
Here is a list of their features:
1954: Devil Girl From Mars, Star of My Night
1955: Alias John Preston
1956: Satellite in the Sky
1957: Three Crooked Men, The Betrayal, The Depraved, Operation Murder, Son of a Stranger, Three Sundays to Live
1958: High Jump, Innocent Meeting, Links of Justice, Moment of Indiscretion, No Safety Ahead, On the Run, A Woman of Mystery, The Great Van Robbery
1959: The Child and the Killer, Crash Drive, Date at Midnight, Man Accused, Top Floor Girl, Web of Suspicion, Woman Possessed, Date at Midnight, Woman's Temptation,
1960: Compelled, Escort for Hire, Feet of Clay, Highway to Battle, An Honourable Murder, Identity Unknown, Night Train for Inverness, Operation Stogie, Sentenced for Life, The Spider's Web, A Taste of Money, The Tell-Tale Heart, Transatlantic, Two Wives at One Wedding
1961: The Gentle Terror, Strip Tease Murder, The Nudist Story, The Court Martial of Major Keller, Fate Takes a Hand, Middle Course, Part-Time Wife, Return of a Stranger, So Evil, So Young, Tarnished Heroes, The Spanish Sword.
Films produced at New Elstree with studio personnel, but not actually produced by the Danzigers
1961: Three Spare Wives, The Pursuers
1962: The Durant Affair, Design for Loving, Gang War, She Always Gets Their Man, The Silent Invasion, What Every Woman Wants, The Lamp in Assassin Mews, and The Battleaxe- the working name for this final film made at New Elstree, was Breach of Promise (Production No 537)
OTHER FILMS WERE MADE AT NEW ELSTREE by independent producers, such as Harold Huth's The Hostage (1956).
MYSTERIES:
Stage and TV Weekly 28 Jan 1960 p 13 mentions: YOUNG SINNERS (technicolor, “just finished”) and YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE – a comedy. These could be alternative titles for films listed above, or maybe the latter was only a projected movie.
There was also Fun at the Movies, dated 1956, but this was possibly a compilation, with clips linked by a Michael Bentine. Several features of compilations of the tv series Calling Scotland Yard, and The Vise were made for cinema release. The films were: 1954: Gilbert Harding Speaking of Murder, A Tale of Three Women. 1955: Three Cornered Fate, Triple Blackmail, The Yellow Robe
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Memories of New Elstree by BRIAN TAYLOR,the Danzigers' right hand man in the latter years of production, has written an account of this chapter of his career in his book "Grandfathers Tales." It's well worth a read!
He told me that Ralph Rodgers, the librarian at New Elstree, "kept tabs on" Danziger material for many years. He also added details of how Bravo obtained their prints of Man from Interpol which they showed in the early nineties. The producer in question reckoned he had produced them (though he hadn't) and "had cut off all the British credits from the prints and then placed his company into bankruptcy, after he had taken the cash, to avoid any litigation from the Danzigers."
In a very helpful letter in January 2005, Brian Taylor confirmed some initial
planning was done for a tv series 'The World is My Beat' but the project was aborted as there
was "no sponsor prepared to back."
He also confirms Daniel Massey had been approached about 'Ali Baba,' though
"nothing apart from very preliminary discussions took place." He also explains why
the series never got off the ground:
Associated Rediffusion "had expressed interest and wanted the Danzigers to go
ahead." However "although 39 half hour scripts had been prepared, A-R had a flop
with a one night music spectacular called 'The Tales of Ali Baba.'" This was a live
musical show in June 1960 in black and white. "The critics were only lukewarm and
Rediffusion got cold feet about going ahead with a film series, also scheduled to be in
black and white.
The Danzigers tried to rescue it by pre-selling the series in America and making
it in colour, but even there in 1961, colour TV was in its infancy and noone was
prepared to risk such an expensive experiment."
On a happier note, Brian adds: "I spoke to Harry Danziger only a couple of weeks
ago. He now lives in Palm Springs and has reached the grand old age of 92, and can
carry on a lively conversation."
Thank you Brian for your helpful comments. Since writing this, Harry Lee died in April 2005.
Note- In The Veteran No.78 (Autumn 1996) Brian wrote about the sale of all the studio effects, which occurred in Spring 1964.
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GEOFFREY HELMAN- who worked as assistant director on later Danziger films from 1960:
About the New Elstree Studios-
It was an excellent purpose built block of four sound stages, each with well designed
and fitted make-up/ hairdressing rooms, plus actors' dressing rooms and crowd artist dressing rooms.
I think the architect was Eric Blakemore.
Across the site was an admin block housing the Production Manager (John Draper),
an executive (Brian Taylor) and the Studio Manager (Steve Fallon), plus secretaries. Within the main stages block
there was also an accounts department, alongside a full time Casting Director's office (Barry Gray).
Another purpose built block housed a good sized canteen adjacent to a well equipped Camera Department
and a Sound Department. On the upper floor were several well equipped cutting rooms
with a preview theatre for rushes, as well as an Art Department headed by Peter Mullins.
Within the main studio building were Props, Carpentry, Paint, Drapes and Rigger shops with a sizeable car park close by.
A back-lot existed where exterior sets were built and these were revamped from medieval England
to China, Berlin etc! The only department housed in a temporary block of timber was Wardrobe; Yvonne Blake
was the chief, subsequently she went on to win an Oscar for her costumes in Nicholas and Alexandra.
On Production-
Shooting operated efficiently on a schedule of two and a half days for one Tv episode, and maybe a couple of weeks for a feature film.
However very occasionally, if we were behind schedule, the front office would issue an instruction to the director to rip out a page or two from the script!
There were also directives from Edward and Harry Danziger. One was that photography was not to be low key as the US networks would not buy
anything that looked 'arty.' Another was Never Wear Bow Ties on screen, as US audiences would assume
the characters were 'goddam faggots.' Locations were set up from time to time on a two or three day basis with a casual daily crew,
sometimes with a young novice director like Michael Winner.
Thank you to Geoffrey who wrote this fascinating insight into the studios for this site.
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