Film & TV Database

Notes Founded by Alexander Korda. Company liquidated on his death in 1956, and was reconstituted in the mid-1970s under the directorship of M.E.A. Shelmerdine and others. Re-established in 1997. The company was founded in 1932 by Alexander Korda and based at Denham Studios. It foundered in 1939, due to money problems, and Korda went to Hollywood, with LYDIA, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, TO BE OR NOT TO BE and JUNGLE BOOK being made in the USA. In 1946 he revived the company in Britain again, and based it at Shepperton Studios. London Films liquidated on Korda's death. However, it was reconstituted under the directorship of M.E.A. Shelmerdine, David Conroy, and others around the mid-1970s. It acquired the distribution rights to many of the Korda films, as well as holding London Films' productions. Production-wise the company participated in some TV work, but productions were very few. In the 1980s they sold off film rights to Goldwyn and Central Television. In the mid-1980s and 1990s they became involved in more co-productions and television work again. [See Variety [Europe. Profile]. 28th September 1992. for a profile and history of the company and its personnel - [held in organisation cuttings file in BFI Library].