The following is an overview of 1927 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Anna Lee, MBE was a British actress, labelled by studios "The British Bombshell".
Sir Michael Elias Balcon was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in west London from 1938 to 1955. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film studios of the day. In an industry short of Hollywood-style moguls, Balcon emerged as a key figure, and an obdurately British one too, in his benevolent, somewhat headmasterly approach to the running of a creative organization. He is known for his leadership, and his guidance of young Alfred Hitchcock.
Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, northeast London. Gainsborough Studios was active between 1924 and 1951. The company was initially based at Islington Studios, which were built as a power station for the Great Northern & City Railway and later converted to studios.
The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. Opening in 1870, the theatre staged mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. The theatre was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous structure. The current building dates from 1926, and the capacity is now 690 seats. Early stage mechanisms, including rare thunder drums and lightning sheets, survive in the theatre.
Dorothy Hyson, Lady Quayle was an American-born film and stage actress who worked largely in England. During World War II, she worked as a cryptographer at Bletchley Park.
Sir Edward Seymour Hicks, better known as Seymour Hicks, was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, actor-manager and producer. He became known, early in his career, for writing, starring in and producing Edwardian musical comedy, often together with his famous wife, Ellaline Terriss. His most famous acting role was that of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
The Shop Girl was an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts written by Henry J. W. Dam, with lyrics by Dam and Adrian Ross and music by Ivan Caryll, and additional numbers by Lionel Monckton and Ross. It premiered at the Gaiety Theatre in London in 1894 and ran for an extremely successful 546 performances. Its cast included Seymour Hicks, George Grossmith Jr., Arthur Williams, Edmund Payne, and Ellaline Terriss. It soon played in New York and was successfully revived in London in 1920.
Quality Street is a comedy in four acts by J. M. Barrie, written before his more famous work Peter Pan. The story is about two sisters who start a school "for genteel children".
Mary Ellaline Terriss, Lady Hicks, known professionally as Ellaline Terriss, was a popular British actress and singer, best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies. She met and married the actor-producer Seymour Hicks in 1893, and the two collaborated on many projects for the stage and screen.
Jameson Thomas was an English film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1923 and 1939.
The Four Just Men, also known as The Secret Four, is a 1939 British thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Hugh Sinclair, Griffith Jones, Edward Chapman and Frank Lawton. It is based on the 1905 novel The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace. There was a previous silent film version in 1921. This version was produced by Ealing Studios, with sets designed by Wilfred Shingleton.
Adrian Brunel was an English film director and screenwriter. Brunel's directorial career started in the silent era, and reached its peak in the latter half of the 1920s. His surviving work from the 1920s, both full-length feature films and shorts, is highly regarded by silent film historians for its distinctive innovation, sophistication and wit. With the arrival of talkies, Brunel's career ground to a halt and he was absent from the screen for several years before returning in the mid-1930s with a flurry of quota quickie productions, the majority of which are now classed as lost. Brunel's last credit as director was in a 1940 comedy film, although he worked for a few years more as a "fixer-up" for films directed or produced by friends in the industry.
The Passionate Adventure is a 1924 British silent drama film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Clive Brook and Alice Joyce. The film was adapted from a novel by Frank Stayton by Alfred Hitchcock and Michael Morton, with Hitchcock also credited as assistant director to Cutts.
Glamour is a 1931 British drama film directed by Seymour Hicks and Harry Hughes and starring Hicks, Ellaline Terriss and Margot Grahame. A young, ruthless woman falls in love with a rising actor. It was loosely remade for the 1934 American film Glamour. There are currently no known surviving copies of the original film.
Said O'Reilly to McNab is a 1937 British comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring Will Mahoney, Will Fyffe and Ellis Drake. It was made at Islington Studios by Gainsborough Pictures. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky. Leslie Arliss and Marriott Edgar wrote the screenplay.
Land of Hope and Glory is a 1927 British silent drama film directed by Harley Knoles and starring Ellaline Terriss, Lyn Harding and Robin Irvine. It was inspired by Edward Elgar's 1902 song Land of Hope and Glory.
Roses of Picardy is a 1927 British silent war film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Lillian Hall-Davis, John Stuart and Humberston Wright. The title is a reference to the popular First World War song Roses of Picardy. It was based on the novels The Spanish Farm (1924) Sixty-Four, Ninety-Four (1925) by R.H. Mottram. It was made at the Cricklewood Studios in London.
Woolf & Freedman Film Service was a UK film distributor which was founded by film producer C. M. Woolf, and which operated from 1919 to 1934. The company distributed more than 140 films over a 15-year period. In 1935, Woolf formed a new company, General Film Distributors.
Leedham Bantock was a British singer, Edwardian musical comedy actor, early film director, dramatist and screenwriter. In 1912 he became the first actor to portray Father Christmas in film.
