Elstree was a major centre for film production from the early days of cinema. There’s a great deal of confusion about which studios at Elstree were used for which movies / TV shows.

This page covers MGM Borehamwood (also known as Amalgamated Studios, MGM British Studios and Elstree Way Studios)

MGM Borehamwood (also known as MGM-British Studios)

MGM-British was a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and was initially established at Denham Film Studios in 1936.
After the Second World War, MGM-British took control of the former Amalgamated Studios site, between Shenley Road and Elstree Way, at 120 acres, this was one of the largest facilities in Europe.

The photo below shows a gathering at MGM Borehamwood during pre-production on 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Photo credit: Unknown, courtesy Mike Grant.
Left to Right: Frederick Ordway III (NASA adviser), Donald Slayton (NASA astronaut), Arthur C. Clarke, unknown, Stanley Kubrick, George Mueller (Senior Administrator, Apollo project).
More about Frederick Ordway III’s work on 2001: A Space Odyssey can be read in this article.

Kubrick and NASA meeting, 1965

The studio closed in 1970, and operations were transferred to the (at the time) EMI Elstree Studios down the road, and the studio site was cleared for other industrial and residential uses.

This 1973 documentary features MGM Borehamwood closure around 4 minutes in.
(Watch on BBC iPlayer)

The Studio Housing Estate which takes up part of the site has street names relating to the cinematic past.

History

1935
Amalgamated Studios in Borehamwood begins construction, on the north side of Elstree Way bordered by Shenley Road, adjacent to Thrift Farm.

1936
MGM-British is set up as a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), based at Denham Film Studios. The site was the largest in the UK at the time, occupying an area of 668,000 sqm (around 165 acres).

1937 / 1938
Amalgamated Studios finishes construction. However, the costs of construction were beyond the means of Amalgamated Studios, so they sold the studio to J.Arthur Rank in 1938.

1939 – 1945
During the Second World War the studio was requisitioned by the British Government.

Percy Jackson writes:

The Elstree Road film studios were used for the construction of major sub-assemblies for the Handley Page Halifax bomber. As I recall,there was nothing stored there. The entire site being given over to aircraft manufacture. Its official designation was DU5 (Dispersal Unit No5)
I started work there as an apprentice fitter in September 1942. I was transferred to the company main site at Cricklewood in 1945 when the production of aircraft was scaled down.
The assemblies produced at the site included:-fuselage centre section, intermediate wing, tailplane and rudder assembly.
Because of its size the fuselage centre section had to be transported on a 60 foot long trailer, known as a ‘Queen Mary’. This vehicle was often driven by Sir Frederick Handley Pages daughter.

After the war Rank decided to sell the property.

1948
MGM British Studios acquired control of the Amalgamated Studios in Borehamwood, increasing the number of stages to seven, with a total of 70,000 sq.ft.
The studio buys Thrift Farm at the west side of the site, to allow the backlot to expand.

1962
A supplement to Kinematograph Weekly is published with some great articles about the work of MGM Borehamwood.

1970
The studio closed in 1970, and operations were transferred to the (at the time) EMI Elstree Studios down the road.
Newspapers report on April 24th 1970 that “a joint venture for production and distribution of motion pictures in the United Kingdom was announced by James T. Aubrey Jr., president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., and John Read, joint managing director of Electric & Musical Industries Ltd. of London.”
The MGM Borehamwood studio was closed immediately.

1973
Early hours of May 31, 1973: A large fire damages a number of buildings during demolition of the old studio buildings in preparation for use as a cold store by Christian Salvesen. (Evening News newspaper report) .

During 1973, a film crew from Holiday on the Buses filmed some of the demolition for the climax of that movie.

A BBC documentary featured the MGM Borehamwood closure in ‘The Big Screen’, covering film finance.

1973 – 1986
Remaining studio buildings are used as a cold storage facility by Christian Salvesen.

1987
The clock tower was finally demolished when Christian Salvesen finished operations at the former studio.
Despite local campaigns, Salvesen had declared the building obsolete, and as none of the buildings were listed, there was nothing to stop demolition.
The final clearing of the site began for industrial purposes. A leisure complex and a library was built on an adjacent site, and the backlot area was cleared for residential use.

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A Sainsburys Distribution Centre is built where the main studio buildings were.

Sources:

BFI Screenonline

Backlot

The expansive MGM Backlot stretched out to the west of the main studio buildings, and has now all been converted to industrial uses and housing.

As well as temporary sets for productions such as Inn of the Sixth Happiness, the backlot was home to permanent sets such as the French and British streets seen below, and used in the Pink Panther films.

Thanks to Roger Garrod for some of these photos, and to Dave Larson, USA for his work restoring the photos.
The 1973 backlot stills are from the essential 1981 Wilf Watters documentary about Film Studios in Hertfordshire.
East Anglia Film Archive – Wilf Watters documentary

Productions shot at MGM Borehamwood

Title	Released	Director	IMDB
Feature Film (74)
The Shining	1980	Stanley Kubrick
The non-snowy maze featuring scenes with Wendy and Danny in daylight was built on the former MGM Borehamwood backlot, as there was no room on the backlot at EMI Elstree Studios after the Overlook Hotel and maze exterior was built there.
Holiday on the Buses	1973	Bryan Izzard
At the end of the movie, when Stan gets a job as a demolition operative, the brick building he demolishes is the old Stage 06 at MGM Borehamwood, previously used as the base for The Prisoner.
A Clockwork Orange	1971	Stanley Kubrick
Julius Caesar	1970	Stuart Burge
No Blade of Grass	1970	Cornel Wilde
One More Time	1970	Jerry Lewis
The Walking Stick	1970	Eric Till
Alfred the Great	1969	Clive Donner
Captain Nemo and the Underwater City	1969	James Hill
Goodbye Mr Chips	1969	Herbert Ross
Mosquito Squadron	1969	Boris Sagal
Submarine X-1	1969	William A. Graham
2001: A Space Odyssey	1968	Stanley Kubrick
This epic movie has been cited as one of the primary causes behind the closure of MGM British studios because Stanley Kubrick's film occupied more and more of the available studio space - eventually using all of it - for almost two years, thus rendering the facilities massively unprofitable in the long run. The studio closed in 1970.
Dawn of Man sequence was shot on Stage 03 at MGM
Hot Millions	1968	Eric Till
Inspector Clouseau	1968	Bud Yorkin
Much of the movie was shot around the MGM Borehamwood backlot.
The Mercenaries	1968	Jack Cardiff
Where Eagles Dare	1968	Brian G. Hutton
The castle was a superb large scale model built on the MGM British backlot at Elstree.
Dance of the Vampires (aka Fearless Vampire Killers)	1967	Roman Polanski
Quatermass and the Pit	1967	Roy Ward Baker
The Dirty Dozen	1967	Robert Aldrich
Blowup / Blow-Up	1966	Michelangelo Antonioni
The Ricky Tick Club scene was shot here, along with other interiors.
Casino Royale	1966	Val Guest, Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, Richard Talmadge
What's New Pussycat sequence
Eye of the Devil	1966	J. Lee Thompson
Hysteria	1965	Freddie Francis
Filmed February & March 1964
Operation Crossbow	1965	Michael Anderson
The Alphabet Murders	1965	Frank Tashlin
The Hill	1965	Sidney Lumet
The Liquidator	1965	Jack Cardiff
Up Jumped A Swagman	1965	Christopher Miles
Where the Spies Are	1965	Val Guest
633 Squadron	1964	Walter Grauman
A Shot in the Dark	1964	Blake Edwards
Stage 05 and it's tank were used for the Paris apartment and Seine River.
Children of the Damned	1964	Anton Leader
Murder Ahoy	1964	George Pollock
Night Must Fall	1964	Karel Reisz
The Americanization of Emily	1964	Arthur Hiller
The Chalk Garden	1964	Ronald Neame
The Yellow Rolls-Royce	1964	Anthony Asquith
Come Fly With Me	1963	Henry Levin
Maniac	1963	Michael Carreras
Murder at the Gallop	1963	George Pollock
The Haunting	1963	Robert Wise
Production began on October 1, 1962, with a budget of $1.5 million. Exterior shots of Hill House were done at Ettington Hall, now Ettington Park Hotel near Stratford upon Avon.
The V.I.P.s	1963	Anthony Asquith
I Thank A Fool	1962	Robert Stevens
Gorgo	1961	Eugène Lourié
Mr. Topaze	1961	Peter Sellers
Murder She Said	1961	George Pollock
Beat Girl	1960	Edmond T. Gréville
Millionairess, The	1960	Anthony Asquith
Too Hot to Handle	1960	Terence Young
Libel	1959	Anthony Asquith
The Angry Hills	1959	Robert Aldrich
The Scapegoat	1959	Robert Hamer
Another Time, Another Place	1958	Lewis Allen
Corridors of Blood	1958	Robert Day
Inn of the Sixth Happiness	1958	Mark Robson
Chinese village was recreated on the MGM British Studios backlot.
The village set cost more than $250,000 and covers half a million square feet. The total movie budget was around $4 million.
The Safecracker	1958	Ray Milland
This forgotten movie features some shots of Clarendon Road in Borehamwood. The exterior of an MGM studio building also features, as does the car park (for the dog track scene).
Shot in 30 days.
Barnacle Bill	1957	Charles Frend
Fire Down Below	1957	Robert Parrish
High Flight	1957	John Gilling
Bhowani Junction	1956	George Cukor
Invitation to the Dance	1956	Gene Kelly, Joseph Barbera, William Hanna
The Man Who Never Was	1956	Ronald Neame
Stranger from Venus	1954	Burt Balaban
Knights of the Round Table	1953	Richard Thorpe
Mogambo	1953	John Ford
Never Let Me Go	1953	Delmer Daves
Young Bess	1953	George Sidney
Ivanhoe	1952	Richard Thorpe
Production designer Alfred Junge's castle set was to dominate the Borehamwood skyline for some years after.
Miniver Story, The	1950	H.C. Potter
The Elusive Pimpernel (aka The Fighting Pimpernel)	1950	Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Conspirator	1949	Victor Saville
Edward, My Son	1949	George Cukor
The first MGM movie to be made at the new studio.
Under Capricorn	1949	Alfred Hitchcock
The second movie to be made at the new MGM studio.
TV Series (6)
Title	Released	Creator / Showrunner	IMDB
The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine	1971-1972
The MGM Borehamwood backlot featured in one sketch, filmed after the studio had closed, just before the sets were demolished.
UFO	1970-1971	Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson
The series featured studio buildings as a cost-saving exercise. The Harlington-Straker main office block is Neptune House at what is now the BBC Elstree Centre. After the closure of MGM British Studios in 1970, production moved to Pinewood.
Journey to the Unknown	1968
The Prisoner	1967-8	Patrick McGoohan, Pat Jackson, Don Chaffey, David Tomblin
Danger Man	1964 - 1966
Danger Man	1960 - 1962

Links

MGM Borehamwood (also known as MGM-British Studios)

History

Backlot

Productions shot at MGM Borehamwood

Feature Film (74)

TV Series (6)