Industry | Entertainment |
---|---|
Founded | 1948 |
Founder | Robert Baker [1] Monty Berman [2] |
Defunct | 1961 |
Headquarters | , United Kingdom |
Products | Motion pictures, television programmes |
Tempean Films was a British film production company formed in 1948 by Robert Baker and Monty Berman. [3] Tempean's output of B movies were distributed by Eros Films. [4] The company later moved into television, adapting Leslie Charteris' series of The Saint novels, starring Roger Moore. [5]
The company produced several of its features at Southall Studios in Middlesex including both The Trollenberg Terror television series in 1956 and the film version in 1958, which was Southall Studio's final production. [6] [7] [8] The studio was dissolved in 1961.
John Gilling directed many of Tempean's features. [2]
Tempean is an adjective of, or pertaining to, Tempe, a valley in Thessaly, celebrated by Greek poets on account of its beautiful scenery; resembling Tempe; hence, beautiful; delightful; charming.
Forrest Meredith Tucker was an American actor in both movies and television who appeared in nearly a hundred films. Tucker worked as a vaudeville straight man at the age of fifteen. A mentor provided funds and contacts for a trip to California, where party hostess Cobina Wright persuaded guest Wesley Ruggles to give Tucker a screen test because of Tucker's photogenic good looks, thick wavy hair and height of six feet, five inches.
The Trollenberg Terror is a 1958 British science fiction horror film produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman and directed by Quentin Lawrence. The film stars Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne and Jennifer Jayne. The special effects are by Les Bowie. The story is based on a 1956 British ITV "Saturday Serial" television programme written by George F. Kerr, Jack Cross and Giles Cooper under the collective pseudonym of "Peter Key". The film was released as The Crawling Eye in the United States on 7 July 1958 by Distributors Corporation of America and as The Trollenberg Terror in the United Kingdom in October 1958 by Eros Films. It played on a double bill with the British science fiction film The Strange World of Planet X, retitled Cosmic Monsters for American audiences.
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John Gilling was an English film director and screenwriter, born in London. He was known for his horror movies, especially those he made for Hammer Films, for whom he directed The Shadow of the Cat (1961), The Plague of the Zombies (1966), The Reptile (1966) and The Mummy's Shroud (1967), Cross of the Devil (1975), among others.
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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.
Anglo-Amalgamated Productions was a British film production company, run by Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy, which operated from 1945 until roughly 1971. Low-budget and second features, often produced at Merton Park Studios, formed much of its output. It was the UK distributor of many films produced by American International Pictures (AIP), who distributed AA's films in the United States.
Laurence Stanley Payne was an English actor and novelist.
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Nestor Montague "Monty" Berman was a British cinematographer and film and television producer.
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No Smoking is a 1955 British comedy film directed by Henry Cass and starring Reg Dixon, Peter Martyn, Belinda Lee and Lionel Jeffries. It was produced by Tempean Films as a second feature. The film was shot at Southall Studios with sets designed by the art director Wilfred Arnold. Shortly after the production Lee was signed up for a contract with the Rank Organisation.
This is a list of British television related events from 1956.
Martin Benjamin Benson was a British character actor who appeared in films, theatre and television. He appeared in both British and Hollywood productions.
Southall Studios was a film studio located in Southall, Middlesex which operated between 1924 and 1958.
Edward J. Danziger (1909–1999) and Harry Lee Danziger (1913–2005) were American-born brothers who produced many British films and TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s.