This is a list of feature films produced or distributed by the British company Butcher's Film Service . The company began active production during the First World War. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was a producer of low-budget films, often second features. [1]
The House Across the Lake is a 1954 British crime film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Alex Nicol, Hillary Brooke, Sid James and Susan Stephen. A film noir it was produced as a second feature by Hammer Films and shot at the company's Bray Studios. It was released in the United States by Lippert Pictures under the title Heat Wave.
Mask of Dust (later named 'A Race for Life' is a 1954 British motor racing drama film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Richard Conte, Mari Aldon and Peter Illing. The film was based on the 1953 novel The Last Race by Jon Manchip White. It was produced by Hammer Films at the company's Bray Studios as a programmer. The film's sets were designed by the art director J. Elder Wills. It was released in the United States by Lippert Pictures as Race for Life
It's Not Cricket is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Alfred Roome and starring Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Susan Shaw and Maurice Denham. It is the second of two starring films for Radford and Wayne who appeared as supporting players in ten other films. It was also one of the final films made by Gainsborough Pictures before the studio was merged into the Rank Organisation.
Things Happen at Night is a 1947 British supernatural ghost comedy film directed by Francis Searle and starring Gordon Harker, Alfred Drayton, Robertson Hare and Garry Marsh. The film is based upon a stage play, The Poltergeist, by Frank Harvey. It was shot at Twickenham Studios. Despite the film's comparatively large budget it ended up being released as a second feature.
The Lost Hours is a 1952 British film noir directed by David MacDonald and starring Mark Stevens, Jean Kent and John Bentley. It was produced by Tempean Films which specialised in making second features at the time, and marked Kent's first descent into B films after her 1940s stardom. It was shot at Isleworth Studios and on location around London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Andrew Mazzei. It was released in the United States the following year by RKO Pictures as The Big Frame.
The Golden Link is a 1954 British police drama film directed by Charles Saunders, starring André Morell, Patrick Holt, Thea Gregory and Jack Watling. It was produced by Guido Coen under his Kenilworth Film Productions, featuring a screenplay by Allan MacKinnon and soundtrack by Eric Spear. The story concerns the death of a young woman, having fallen to her demise inside an apartment building. A policeman neighbour, Superintendent Blake, conducts an unofficial investigation, which initially seems to implicate his own daughter in a murder plot.
Guido Coen (1915–2010) was an Italian-born British film producer and film subtitler. He and his family were interned in Douglas, Isle of Man during the Second World War. He began his career working for Filippo Del Giudice and Two Cities Films. When Two Cities was absorbed into the Rank Organisation in the mid-1940s Coen was employed by David Cunynghame of London Film Productions as a subtitler. As Coen later described it in an interview, he did not know anything about subtitling at the time, and learned on the job:
I finally got a phone call from London Films, Sir Cunnyngham, that 's it, who asked me whether I had ever subtitles pictures. I immediately said I had when in point of fact I did not know what he meant, and there was a young man in the office with Sir David Cunnynghame called Lew Watt, and he said Lew Watt will do the technical side and we want you to subtitle an Italian picture in to English. I said certainly. I came out of his office and Lew Watt said to me you don't know what they're talking about do you, I said you're quite right, he said well I'll show you. And I started subtitling pictures with Lew Watt, I used to do the literary side, and he used to do the technical side, the spotting, and lengths, and we together did subtitles for 40 or 50 pictures. The funny thing was we subtitled pictures in Chinese, in Indian and for the Chinese picture I had to have a Chinese waiter with me to tell me where the subtitles [...] I had the Italian dialogue and I had the picture, they gave me a film and we did the spotting together with Lew Watt and the measurements and I used to type the script. We had the film, we had the print which used to run on the two sided thing. And Lew Watt was working all the day so we had to do this at night, so we either used to work at night till 2 o'clock in the morning or we used to work at the weekends. There was always the problem that the Movieola might break down and so we had spare keys of other cutting rooms in in elm St in case we were caught. And that was how we started.
Five Days is a 1954 British film noir directed by Montgomery Tully starring Dane Clark, Paul Carpenter and Thea Gregory. It was produced by Hammer Film Productions and shot at Bray Studios with sets designed by the art director J. Elder Wills. It was made as a second feature for release on a double bill. It was released in the United States by Lippert Pictures as Paid to Kill.
The Fall of the House of Usher is a 1950 British horror film directed by Ivan Barnett and starring Gwendoline Watford, Kaye Tendeter and Irving Steen. It is an adaptation of the 1839 short story of the same title by Edgar Allan Poe.
Street of Shadows is a 1953 British film noir written and directed by Richard Vernon and starring Cesar Romero, Kay Kendall and Edward Underdown. It was shot at the Merton Park Studios in London and on location in the city's West End. The film's sets were designed by the art director George Haslam. It was an early production of Anglo-Amalgamated who had signed a deal with Lippert Pictures who distributed the film in the United States. While much of the company's output at the time were second features, this was a more expensive film aimed at the first feature market.
Butcher's Film Service was a British film production and distribution company that specialised in low-budget productions. The company was founded by William Butcher, a chemist from Blackheath. The company survived through several production slumps in the British film industry and two World Wars.
Why Pick on Me? is a 1937 British comedy film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Wylie Watson, Jack Hobbs and Sybil Grove. It was made at Walton Studios. It was made as a quota quickie for release by the American company RKO Pictures.
Files from Scotland Yard is a 1951 British crime film directed by Anthony Squire and starring John Harvey, Moira Lister and Louise Hampton. It was made as a second feature on a very low-budget, and the production company was wound up soon afterwards.
To the Public Danger is a 1948 British drama short film directed by Terence Fisher and produced by John Croydon. It stars Dermot Walsh, Susan Shaw, Barry Letts, and Frederick Piper.
The Green Carnation is a 1954 British crime film directed by John Lemont and starring Wayne Morris, Mary Germaine and Marcia Ashton.
Act of Murder is a 1964 British crime drama film, directed by Alan Bridges. One of the Edgar Wallace Mysteries series, it was Bridges' first film as director.
Loyal Heart is a 1946 British drama film directed by Oswald Mitchell and starring Percy Marmont, Harry Welchman and Patricia Marmont. The film portrays rivalry in the sheep farming community.
His Brother's Keeper is a 1940 British crime film directed by Roy William Neill and starring Clifford Evans, Tamara Desni and Una O'Connor.
Dangerous Voyage is a 1954 British mystery crime film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring William Lundigan, Naomi Chance and Vincent Ball. It was produced as a second feature for distribution by Anglo-Amalgamated. It was shot at Merton Park Studios in London. The film's sets were designed by the art director George Haslam. Location shooting took place in the English Channel and in Honfleur in France and Shoreham in Sussex. It was distributed in the United States by Lippert Pictures under the alternative title Terror Ship.
The Monarch Film Corporation was a British film distribution company active during the 1940s and 1950s. It specialised in supplying second features to British cinemas. The company handled a mixture of British and American films, as well as the Australian film Strong Is the Seed. It involved itself in production at times, and produced several more ambitious features including Hindle Wakes (1952) and A Yank in Ermine (1956). It had an arrangement with ACT Films under John Croydon to handle films made at Walton Studios. The 1952 adventure film Men Against the Sun (1952) was, unusually for the second feature market, a costume adventure film despite its running time.