13 August, marks the birthday of Alfred Hitchcock, born in Leytonstone in 1899.
Hitchcock would become one of the most famous directors in cinema history, with many of his later and more well-known films made in Hollywood. But there is a remarkable fact about his career which deserves to be better known. Hitchcock directed more films at the studios on Shenley Road in Borehamwood than at any other studio complex at which he worked.
Between The Ring in 1927 and Number Seventeen in 1932, Hitchcock directed eleven feature films at the British International Pictures studios. He returned to the same studio — by then the Associated British Picture Corporation — for Jamaica Inn in 1939 and Stage Fright in 1950.
That makes 13 complete Hitchcock feature films directed at Shenley Road.
In addition, in 1930 he directed several sequences for the extraordinary all-star revue Elstree Calling, and the same year made the now-lost ten-minute short An Elastic Affair at the studio.
Further towards the A1, also in Borehamwood, Hitchcock directed Under Capricorn (1949) at the rival MGM British Studios on Elstree Way; bringing his total to 15 films in Borehamwood.
One of the most fascinating of his Elstree films is Mary (1931), the German-language version of Murder!. Rather than dubbing the English film, Hitchcock directed an entirely separate version on the same sets with a largely German-speaking cast.
Hitchcock had picked up some German, but his command of the language was limited. He could give direction to the actors, but did not fully understand all the dialogue and idiom — an extraordinary situation for a director as famously precise and controlling as Hitchcock.
So although Hollywood would eventually make Hitchcock an international icon, no studio complex saw him direct more films than those in Borehamwood.
