Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), originally British International Pictures (BIP), was a British film production company active from 1927 until 1970. The company was founded by John Maxwell after he had purchased British National Studios and their Elstree Studios complex, renaming the company British International Pictures. In their early years the company's most prominent work was that done by Alfred Hitchcock, including his 1929 feature Blackmail, which is commonly regarded as being the first British "talkie". Production company refers to a company responsible for the physical production of a motion picture. ... John Maxwell was the name of many notable people including: John Maxwell (writer) John C. Maxwell (life coach, writer) John Maxwell (actor) who appeared in over 100 films in the 1940s and 1950s ... The former British National Studio is located on Clarendon Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, UK. It is currently used by the BBC and has been in continuous use since its opening in 1927. ... Historically, the name Elstree Studios refers to any of several film studios that were based in the town of Elstree and Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, England. ... Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was a British-born American film director and producer, closely associated with the suspense thriller genre. ... Blackmail (1929), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was one of the first British films with sound. ... A sound film (or talkie) is a motion picture with synchronized sound, as opposed to a silent movie. ...

Hitchcock left the company in 1933. After the Second World War, the company signed a deal with Warner Brothers for the distribution of its films in the United States, and this led it to change its name to Associated British Picture Corporation. The company was to produce much of its best and most well-remembered work under this name in the 1950s, including films such as The Dam Busters (1954) Ice Cold in Alex (1958). Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Warner Bros. ... The term The Dam Busters, when used by itself, can refer to: Operation Chastise, 617 Squadrons attack on German dams in World War II The 1951 book, The Dam Busters (book) by Paul Brickhill. ... Ice-Cold in Alex (1958) is a British film starring John Mills. ...

In 1955, ABPC also became the parent company of a new British ITV television franchise contractor, Associated British Corporation, which held the commercial television licence for broadcasting to the Midlands at the North of England at weekends. This company later became Thames Television, and although it lost its broadcasting franchise in 1992 still exists in the form of the talkbackTHAMES independent production company. Current ITV logo. ... ABC logo, 1960s ABC Television or ABC Weekend TV was the British Independent Television (ITV) (commercial television) contractor on Saturdays and Sundays in the Midlands and North of England between 1956 and 1968. ... In general, the midlands of a territory are its central regions. ... The North of England , also the North country or simply The North, is a term which strictly refers to any part of Northern England north of a line from the Humber to the Dee estuaries. ... The classic Thames Television logo (1969 - 1989), featuring a geographically incorrect montage of London landmarks. ... talkbackTHAMES is a British television production company, a division of FremantleMedia (itself part of the RTL Group). ...

During the 1960s, however, the fortunes of the film company slumped, and in 1969 it was purchased by EMI. The following year it was renamed EMI Films, under which title it was still an active concern in the film industry until 1990. The EMI Group is a major record label, based in Hammersmith in London, in the United Kingdom. ... EMI Films is a motion picture production arm of The EMI Group, and its films were released between 1939 and 1990. ...

References

• Alexander, Lou. Associated British Picture Corporation (1933-1970). British Film Institute Screenonline. URL accessed February 7, 2006.

The British Film Institute (BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and... screenonline is a website devoted to the history of British film and television, and to social history as revealed by film and television. ... February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI in Roman) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Associated British Picture Corporation at the Internet Movie Database.