Gerry Blattner | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Gerard L. Blattner 1913 |
| Died | 1992 (approx.) Spain |
| Occupation | Film producer |
| Years active | 1933–1976 |
| Spouses |
|
Gerry Blattner (real first name Gerard) was a British film producer who worked on many films produced by Warner Bros. in the United Kingdom.
Gerry Blattner was a British film producer and executive producer, best known for producing the Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated and Golden Globe winning feature film The Sundowners (1960). [1]
Son of Ludwig Blattner (also a film producer, as well as an inventor), he followed his father into the film business. He was a production supervisor on My Lucky Star (1933), which was filmed at the Blattner Studios in Elstree. [2] He was a production manager on The Edge of the World (1937) at the age of 24, a film produced by Joe Rock, who leased a studio amongst the Elstree Studios complex from Gerry's father in 1934 and appointed Gerry the studio manager. [3] By the 1950s he was producing or overseeing the production of many of the Warner Bros. films made at Elstree and elsewhere in Europe such as Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951), [4] Where's Charley? (1952) as producer, [5] [6] Land of the Pharaohs (1955) [7] as production manager, and Fanny (1961). [8] Although Raoul Walsh, with whom he worked on Captain Horatio Hornblower, described Gerry Blattner as the "studio head" in his autobiography [9] (and mistakenly called him "Jerry"), he was actually the head of Warner Bros. European Film Productions. [10]
In the contemporary Australian publicity handouts for The Sundowners, the section describing the choice of locations quotes (and describes) Gerry Blattner thus: [11]
'The whole effect is a visual one,' explains Gerry Blattner, the tubby English producer with a satisfied finality in his voice. 'We want one half of the picture to have a background of deep green, hence Nimmitabel. The other half has to look burnt down - Port Augusta.'
In 1976 the television adaptation of I, Claudius was produced by arrangement with Gerry Blattner Productions. [12]
Although born in Liverpool in 1913, [13] the later years of his childhood were spent in Hertfordshire after his father bought the Ideal Film Company studio in Elstree in 1928. When his father committed suicide in 1935, Gerry was only 22 years old. He married in 1943 during the production of the film Theatre Royal , which starred Flanagan and Allen: Barbara K. Emary recalled that they gave a china tea set as a wedding present, but dropped it as a joke as it was being handed over. [14] He had one daughter, Sandra, whose marriage to David Benson was attended by many film star friends of her father. [15] Gerry and his first wife Pamela also lived in Elstree while he was working for Warner Bros. Simon Cowell's parents lived next door, [16] and Gerry is credited with helping Simon to obtain his first job in showbusiness [17] [18] as a runner on the production of The Shining , which was shot at Elstree Studios by Warner Bros. Gerry died in the early 1990s.
Gerry and his father were honoured by the naming of Blattner Close in Elstree in the mid-1990s. [19] [20] [21]
The United Kingdom has had a significant film industry for over a century. While film production reached an all-time high in 1936, the "golden age" of British cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, during which the directors David Lean, Michael Powell, and Carol Reed produced their most critically acclaimed works. Many British actors have accrued critical success and worldwide recognition, such as Audrey Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, Glynis Johns, Maggie Smith, Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Ian Mckellen, Joan Collins, Judi Dench, Julie Andrews, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet. Some of the films with the largest ever box office returns have been made in the United Kingdom, including the fourth and fifth highest-grossing film franchises.
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. The largest settlement is Watford, and the county town is Hertford.
The Sundowners is a 1960 Technicolor comedy-drama film that tells the story of a 1920s Australian outback family torn between the father's desires to continue his nomadic sheep-herding ways and the wife and son's desire to settle in one place. The Sundowners was produced and directed by Fred Zinnemann, adapted by Isobel Lennart from Jon Cleary's 1952 novel of the same name, with Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Peter Ustinov, Glynis Johns, Mervyn Johns, Dina Merrill, Michael Anderson Jr., and Chips Rafferty.
Borehamwood is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, 12 miles (19 km) from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 36,322, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly known as Elstree Studios.
Lew Grade, Baron Grade, was a Russian-born British media proprietor and impresario. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production began in 1954 when he founded the Incorporated Television Company to distribute programmes, and following the success of The Adventures of Robin Hood decided to focus on bringing them to the American market. Grade had some success in this field with such series as Gerry Anderson's many Supermarionation series such as Thunderbirds, Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner, and Jim Henson's The Muppet Show. Later, Grade invested in feature film production, but several expensive box-office failures caused him to lose control of ITC, and ultimately resulted in the disestablishment of ATV after it lost its ITV franchise.
Elstree Studios is a generic term which can refer to several current and demolished British film studios and television studios based in or around the town of Borehamwood and village of Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Production studios have been located in the area since 1914 when film production began there.
Elstree is a large village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire, England. It is about 15 miles northwest of central London on the former A5 road, that follows the course of Watling Street. In 2011, its population was 5,110. It forms part of the civil parish of Elstree and Borehamwood, originally known simply as Elstree.
Captain Horatio Hornblower is a 1951 British naval swashbuckling war film in Technicolor from Warner Bros., produced by Gerry Mitchell, directed by Raoul Walsh, that stars Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty and Terence Morgan.
Joe Rock was an American film producer, director, actor, and screenwriter. He produced a series of 12 two reel short subject comedies starring Stan Laurel in the 1920s.
David Hudson DePatie was an American film and television producer who was the last and longest lived executive in charge of the original Warner Bros. Cartoons studio. He also formed DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, with Friz Freleng, and was an executive producer at Marvel Productions.
Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), originally British International Pictures (BIP), was a British film production, distribution and exhibition company active from 1927 until 1970 when it was absorbed into EMI. ABPC also owned approximately 500 cinemas in Britain by 1943, and in the 1950s and 60s owned a station on the ITV television network. The studio was partly owned by Warner Bros. from about 1940 until 1969; the American company also owned a stake in ABPC's distribution arm, Warner-Pathé, from 1958. It formed one half of a vertically integrated film industry duopoly in Britain with the Rank Organisation.
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.
The Moonraker is a British swashbuckler film made in 1957 and released in 1958 and set in the English Civil War. It was directed by David MacDonald and starred George Baker, Sylvia Syms, Marius Goring, Gary Raymond, Peter Arne, John Le Mesurier and Patrick Troughton. It is based on the 1952 play of the same title by Arthur Watkyn. It was shot at Elstree Studios with sets designed by the art director Robert Jones.
The BBC Elstree Centre, sometimes referred to as the BBC Elstree Studios, is a television production facility, currently owned by the BBC. The complex is located between Eldon Avenue and Clarendon Road in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England.
Ludwig Blattner was a German-born inventor, film producer, director and studio owner in the United Kingdom, and developer of one of the earliest magnetic sound recording devices.
Imperial Studios were the studios of the British and Dominions Film Corporation, a short-lived British film production company located at Imperial Place, Elstree Way, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The studios were active from 1929 to 1936, when they were destroyed by fire.
The Tell-Tale Heart is a 1934 British drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst. The screenplay by David Plunkett Greene is based on the 1843 short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. It is the earliest known "talkie" film adaptation of the story.
Elstree Studios on Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire is a British film and television production centre operated by Elstree Film Studios Limited. One of several facilities historically referred to as Elstree Studios, the Shenley Road studios originally opened in 1925.
Joshua Adam Berger CBE is an American-born British business executive and producer in the media and entertainment industry. He is the founder and Chairman of Battersea Entertainment.