Michael Balcon became a film producer
of movie mogul standing and reputation, knighted for his services
to the UK film industry. Initially with Victory Motion Pictures,
and later with Gainsborough
Pictures, Gaumomt-British, MGM-British, and Ealing Studios, Sir
Michael Balcon was one of a tiny number of Hollywood style film
producers active in the UK in the middle of the 20th century,
gathering together creative teams of writers, directors, actors,
musicians, designers and technicians in a way that is unparalleled
in British film history. Balcon discovered Hitchcock and produced
all of his UK films; he oversaw the output from Ealing Studios in
the 1940's and 1950's, which is undeniably at the centre of the
British film industry's most prestigious period - and, above all,
it stands as the significant achievement of Sir Michael Balcon.
Let's remind ourselves of the wonderful Ealing films which
Birmingham 's film knight, Sir Michael Balcon, produced - HUE AND
CRY,THE LADYKILLERS, PASSPORT TO PIMLICO, THE BLUE LAMP, THE
LAVENDER HILL MOB, WHISKEY GALORE etc. And in an affectionate nod
and a wink to his Birmingham up bringing, he named the policeman in
the movie THE BLUE LAMP after his old school, the George Dixon
School (later to materialise as the eponymous copper in the
television series, DIXON OF DOCK GREEN.)