Twickenham Film Studios is a film studio in St Margarets, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, that is used by various motion picture and television companies. It was established in 1913 by Ralph Jupp on the site of a former ice rink. At the time of its original construction, it was the largest film studio in the United Kingdom.
The Black Island is the seventh volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle for its children's supplement Le Petit Vingtième, it was serialised weekly from April to November 1937. The story tells of young Belgian reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy, who travel to England in pursuit of a gang of counterfeiters. Framed for theft and hunted by detectives Thomson and Thompson, Tintin follows the criminals to Scotland, discovering their lair on the Black Island.
Bernard Vorhaus was an American film director of Austrian descent, born in New York City. His father was born in Kraków, then part of Austria-Hungary. Vorhaus spent many decades living in the UK. Eearly in his career, he worked as a screenwriter, and co-produced the film The Singing City. He was blacklisted in Hollywood for his communist sympathies, and returned to England, where he resumed his career. Known, alongside Michael Powell, for his quota quickies, Vorhaus also worked in Europe.
Gate Studios was one of the many studios known collectively as Elstree Studios in the town of Borehamwood, England. Opened in 1928, the studios were in use until the early 1950s. The studios had previously been known as Whitehall Studios, Consolidated Studios, J.H. Studios and M.P. Studios.
Ronald Launcelot Squire was an English character actor.
Jane Baxter was a British actress. Her stage career spanned half a century, and she appeared in a number of films and in television.
Cotton Queen, also known as Crying Out Loud, is a 1937 British comedy film directed by Bernard Vorhaus, and starring Stanley Holloway, Will Fyffe, and Mary Lawson.
At the Villa Rose is a 1930 British mystery film directed by Leslie S. Hiscott and starring Norah Baring, Richard Cooper and Northern Irish Actor Austin Trevor. It marked Trevor's screen debut. It was released in the United States under the alternative title of Mystery at the Villa Rose.
The Sleeping Cardinal, also known as Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour in the United States, is a 1931 British mystery film directed by Leslie S. Hiscott and starring Arthur Wontner and Ian Fleming. The film is an adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Although it is not based on any one particular story, the film draws inspiration from "The Empty House" and "The Final Problem". The film is the first in the 1931–1937 film series starring Wontner as Sherlock Holmes. It is unrelated to the Basil Rathbone series of Sherlock Holmes films that began in the late 1930s.
Ralph Kemplen was a British film editor with more than fifty film credits between 1933 and 1982. Kemplen had a long collaboration with director John Huston (1906-1987) on six films between 1951 and 1966. Kemplen also directed one feature film, The Spaniard's Curse (1958).
Julius Hagen (1884–1940) was a German-born British film producer who produced more than a hundred films in Britain.
Beauty and the Barge is a 1937 British comedy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Gordon Harker, Judy Gunn and Jack Hawkins. It was produced by Julius Hagen's production company Twickenham Film Studios, but made at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith rather than at Twickenham. It was based on the 1905 play Beauty and the Barge by W. W. Jacobs.
The Counterfeit Constable is a 1964 French comedy film directed by Robert Dhéry and Pierre Tchernia and starring Ronald Fraser, Diana Dors and Arthur Mullard.
The Ghost Camera is a 1933 British mystery film directed by Bernard Vorhaus, starring Henry Kendall, Ida Lupino and John Mills, and based on "A Mystery Narrative", a short story by Joseph Jefferson Farjeon.
The Morals of Marcus is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Miles Mander and starring Lupe Vélez, Ian Hunter and Adrianne Allen. The screenplay concerns an archaeologist who finds a woman hiding in his luggage who has escaped from a harem and they eventually fall in love and marry. The Morals of Marcus was previously filmed twice as silents in 1915 with Marie Doro and in 1921 with May McAvoy.
Sherlock Holmes is a film series running from 1931 to 1937. Arthur Wontner portrayed Sherlock Holmes in five films.
Crime on the Hill is a 1933 British mystery film directed by Bernard Vorhaus and starring Sally Blane, Nigel Playfair and Lewis Casson. The plot was based on a successful play by Jack de Leon and Jack Celestin. It was made by British International Pictures at Welwyn Studios in autumn 1933.
Harry Fowler Mear was a British screenwriter. He spent a number of years at Twickenham Film Studios where his work has been described as "competent but uninspired".
Ruffels Pictures was a British film distribution outfit during the silent era. The company often handled films produced at Kew Bridge Studios. Julius Hagen, later the owner of Twickenham Studios, was employed as a salesman for Ruffels in his earlier career.
Death Croons the Blues is a 1937 British crime film directed by David MacDonald and starring Hugh Wakefield, Antoinette Cellier and George Hayes. The film was made at Twickenham Studios by the producer Julius Hagen whose ownership of the company was about to be ended due to financial problems.
