Roll over image to zoom in
The Shepperton Story
£20.10£23.80 (-16%)
This exhaustive and affectionate history is crammed with information and rare pictures from the famous Shepperton Studios. From assistants to directors, producers, stars, prop men, production managers and studio executives, the author has interviewed over 200 industry people and has painstakingly researched the history of the studio site from its first recorded use in the Doomsday Book through its redevelopment as one of Britain’s first major film studios in 1932. The studio has housed classic movies featuring comedy great Will Hay, to blood-churning horrors starring Todd Slaughter through the studio’s covert use during the Second World War as a camouflage manufacturing plant and on to its reopening with great classics such as The Third Man, The Tales Of Hoffman, Dr Strangelove and I’m All Right Jack, and on to modern greats such as Flash Gordon, Alien, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, The Crying Game, Chaplin, Gladiator, Troy, Batman Begins, The Da Vinci Code and The Golden Compass. This is their story.
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | The History Press Ltd (13 Mar. 2009) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 368 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0752449702 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0752449708 |
| Dimensions | 20.32 x 2.29 x 27.94 cm |
by K. Gilliat
By Leslie Gilliat, retired film producer.
I agree entirely with Jason Smethurst’s comments – an excellent book.
I loved Shepperton Studios and the majority of my films were made there including three of the St Trinian’s films. Gareth Owen’s book contains an amazing amount of detail and many really interesting anecdotes from professionals and technicians who have worked there.
Read it – I’m sure you will agree with me!
by Bookwurm
If you are looking for a decent history of the films made at Shepperton this is definitely NOT the book to buy. It’s essentially a financial history of the studio with only passing reference to some of the most famous and best loved films made there. Not only are some significant movies given a mere sentence, other far less deserving titles have pages devoted to trivia and superficial anecdotes about the catering and such like!
It could also have done with being looked over by a professional editor as no one appears to know that new subjects are always given a new paragraph – time and again I thought ‘at last a decent para about a film made at Shepperton only to find that it was a single sentence followed immediately by some more anecdotes about the building, or what a jolly chap some electrician was on another film entirely. YAWN.
by astraone
Great book marvellous photos good quality.
by Al
In THE SHEPPERTON STORY Gareth Owen has created a superbly balanced account of the famous studios’ history which will satisfy both the casual reader and the dedicated film history student.
The history (to date) of the studios is told in a book which draws upon not just big star sources, but those of several of the craftsmen and women ‘behind the scenes’, which makes this volume so fascinating.
It also manages to chronicle the boom and bust cycles within the British film industry, and the politics behind these and the many changes of the studios ownership over the years, without becoming a ‘heavy’ tome.
Well worth shelf space, the book is illustrated with a good number of rare photographs. This is ALMOST the definitive history of Shepperton; happily the studios continue to thrive and hopefully this bodes well for an updated edition in time…
An excellent read!
by British Film Fan
This is a beautiful looking, thoroughly detailed history of Shepperton.
It covers the background to Littleton Park Monor (now the centre of the lot) from the Doomsday Book right through to when it was purchased by the MD of Harrods and then details how it was bought by Norman Loudon in 1932 to become a film studio.
We then go on a roller coaster ride through the studio’s ups and downs, and track the productions made there – brought to life by interviews with over 100 people ranging from directors & producers to cameramen, actors, writers and technical crew. There’s a whole chapter on The Third Man, a great chapter on Kubrick and Dr Strangelove, plus one on Amicus.
The chapter on the ‘asset strippers’ is very interesting and enlightening – about how the studio was taking over from the Boulting Brothers by a city whizz kid and all but sold off for housing.
The book comes bang up to date to the end of 2008 and then features a 60 page Filmography which brings in film titles previously uncredited with the studio.
It’s a delicious book that far betters any previous on the studio!
by Mr. Eric N. Taylor
Dont leave this book on the coffee table as it tends to “walk” into the shopping bags or brief cases of your buddies, everyone has a memory of a Shepperton film, everyone has has a favourite Shepperton moment, from my Mum who loved “The African Queen” to my Uncle Alan who years ago told me that one of the sound stages started life at another studio and now that studio is being turned into housing units, again and again this book is just so informative and interesting the words “can I borrow that book again?” ring out after freinds come to eat, its well written and an honest appraisal of a fascinating magical hard working motion picture workplace.