''Elstree Calling'' is a 1930 British

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as brea ...

directed by Adrian Brunel and

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

at Elstree Studios.

Synopsis

The film, referred to as "A Cine-Radio Revue" in its original publicity, is a lavish

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 '' The Hollywood Revue of 1929''. The revue has a slim plot about its being a television broadcast. The film consists of 19 comedy and music vignettes linked by running jokes of an aspiring

Shakespearean William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

actor and technical problems with a viewer's TV set.

Production background

Among Hitchcock's contributions 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 John Logie Baird FRSE (; 13 August 188814 June 1946) was a Scottish inventor, electrical engineer, and innovator who demonstrated the world's first live working television system on 26 January 1926. He went on to invent the first publicly dem ...

's work in mechanical television in the 1920s made television a topical subject at the time. The film's ensemble numbers were staged by André Charlot, Paul Murray and Jack Hulbert. Imitating the lavish use of

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

by Hollywood studios at that time, four sequences in the film were coloured by the

Pathécolor Pathécolor, later renamed Pathéchrome, was an early mechanical stencil-based film tinting process for movies developed by Segundo de Chomón for Pathé in the early 20th century. Among the last feature films to use this process were the British ...

process, which used

stencil Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface, by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object, to create a pattern or image on a surface, by allowing the pigment to reach ...

s to tint selected areas of the

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

prints. 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 compère

Tommy Handley Thomas Reginald Handley (17 January 1892 – 9 January 1949) was an English comedian, best known for the BBC radio programme ''It's That Man Again'' ("''ITMA''") which ran between 1939 and 1949. Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, Handley went ...

. 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:

(then contracted to BIP) was... 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)."

Cast

In credits order: * Will Fyffe *

Cicely Courtneidge Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge, (1 April 1893 – 26 April 1980) was an Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer. The daughter of the producer and playwright Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West ...

* Jack Hulbert *

Lily Morris Lily Morris (born Lilles Mary Crosby; 30 September 1882 – 3 October 1952)Richard Anthony Baker, ''British Music Hall: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2014, , pp.252-253 was an English music hall performer, who specialised in singing comedi ...

* Helen Burnell * The Berkoffs *

Bobbie Comber Edmund Comber (8 January 1886 – 1 March 1942),5 March 1942, "Chit Chat", ''The Stage'', p.4, accessed viThe Stage Archive2 February 2014 known professionally as Bobbie Comber, was a British comedian, singer and actor. He was born in Bury St Ed ...

* Lawrence Green * Ivor McLaren *

Anna May Wong Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain interna ...

* Jameson Thomas * John Longden * Donald Calthrop * Gordon Harker * Hannah Jones *

Teddy Brown Teddy is an English language given name, usually a hypocorism of Edward or Theodore. It may refer to: People Nickname * Teddy Atlas (born 1956), boxing trainer and fight commentator * Teddy Bourne (born 1948), British Olympic epee fencer * Tedd ...

* Chocolate Kiddies trio, The Three Eddies: Shakey (Clarence) Beasley, Chick (Layburn) Horsey and Tiny (Earle) Ray * The Balalaika Choral Orchestra Supported by: * The Aldelphi Girls * The Charlot Girls Also with: * Gordon Begg as

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

* Nathan Shacknovsky * John Stuart

Copyright and home video status

Like Hitchcock's other British films, all of which are copyrighted worldwide, ''Elstree Calling'' has been heavily

bootleg Bootleg or bootlegging most often refers to: * Bootleg recording, an audio or video recording released unofficially * Rum-running, the illegal business of transporting and trading in alcoholic beverages, hence: ** Moonshine, or illicitly made a ...

ged on home video. As of early 2019, the officially licensed, preserved version has only appeared on DVD from Network Distributing in the UK.

References

External links