One of the largest of these had been Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), which was originally budgeted at £250,000, but which eventually cost £1,278,000 (the equivalent of £49.8 million in 2019).
By the following year, Rank had run up an overdraft of £16 million (the equivalent of £506 million in 2019), and announced a loss of £3.5 million, mainly due to big budget flops. In the same year, John Davis was appointed managing director. Due to a shortfall in funds, brought about by financial overspends the previous year, Rank did not have enough money to market The Red Shoes sufficiently at first in the US, but it became Rank's biggest earner up to that point, grossing over £1 million by 1951 (the equivalent of £28.9 million in 2019 terms). Two landmarks in British film produced at Pinewood were released within two months of each other in 1948: Oliver Twist, directed by David Lean, and Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes. The next year, Pinewood re-opened for (non-war-related) business. The Company of Youth, the Rank Organisation acting school (often referred to as "The Charm School"), which launched several film careers, was founded in 1945. As well its use by the armed forces, the Royal Mint and Lloyd's of London were installed on sound stages at Pinewood, and were open for business for the duration of the war. The Crown Film Unit completed many classic wartime documentaries, and Roy Boulting's Desert Victory, Humphrey Jennings' Fires Were Started, Coastal Command and Pat Jackson's Western Approaches (all 1943) were filmed there during that period. 5 Army Film and Photographic Unit, Royal Air Force Film Production Unit, and Polish Air Force Film Unit were based there. 5 Army Film and Photographic Unit.ĭuring the Second World War, Pinewood was requisitioned, and the Crown Film Unit, No. Wikimedia Commons has media related to No. That enabled several pictures to be filmed simultaneously and, ultimately, Pinewood achieved the highest output of any studio in the world. There followed a prolific period of Pinewood and British film history, with Pinewood following the studios adopting the "unit system", an American industry practice. The first film to be made entirely at Pinewood was Talk of the Devil (1936), directed by Carol Reed. The first film director to use the facilities was Herbert Wilcox, completing London Melody (1937) featuring Anna Neagle, portions of which had already been filmed at British and Dominions Imperial Studios in Elstree, before a fire there halted production. On 30 September 1936, the studio complex was officially opened by Dr Leslie Burgin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade. In the years that followed, he also undertook further work on both the Pinewood Film Studios and the Denham Film Studios, both of which had by then become a part of the newly-formed Rank Organisation.
Five stages were initially completed and there was provision for an enclosed water tank capable of holding 65,000 imperial gallons (300,000 L), which is still in use. The studios were finished nine months later, having cost £1 million (approx. Construction began in December of that year, with a new stage completed every three weeks. Boot named the new studio Pinewood because "of the number of trees which grow there and because it seemed to suggest something of the American film centre in its second syllable". Boot based designs for the studio complex on the latest ideas being employed by film studios in Hollywood, California. Arthur Rank (1888–1972) went into partnership with Boot and they transformed the estate into a film studio. In 1935, millionaire Methodist and flour magnate J. The ballroom was converted into a restaurant and many of the bedrooms became furnished suites. In 1934, building tycoon Charles Boot (1874–1945) bought the land and turned it into a country club. Due to its seclusion, it was used as a discreet meeting place for high-ranking politicians and diplomats the agreement to create the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed there. He added refinements such as a ballroom, a Turkish bath and an indoor squash court.
Pinewood Studios was built on the estate of Heatherden Hall, a large Victorian country house which was purchased by Canadian financier, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentford and Chiswick, Lt. 2.2.2 Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios.