Elstree Calling

Alternative title: Hello Everybody
Synopsis: Feature film variety revue. A collection of party pieces by a host of British variety stars (Will Fyffe, Cicely Courtneidge, Jack Hulbert, Tommy Handley). Throughout there is a running gag with Donald Calthrop, who is trying to elevate the tone of the show by putting on Shakespeare. Having been interrupted several times throughout the picture, while sneaking in extracts from Henry V and Hamlet, towards the end he gets to put on a spoof of the Douglas Fairbanks/Mary Pickford THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1929). Calthrop (Doug/Petruchio) arrives by motorbike to ask for Mary/Kate, played by Anna May Wong. She responds by throwing furniture at him and then a succession of custard pies, one of which hits Shakespeare (Gordon Begg) as he enters. [With acknowledgment to McKernan & Terris op cit for the description].
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Film
Technical information: Black-and-white / Sound
Year of release: 1930
Duration: 86 mins; 7,783 feet

Director

Adrian Brunel

Producer

Walter C. Mycroft

Cinematographer

Claude Friese-Greene

Writer

Adrian Brunel; Val Valentine; Walter C. Mycroft

Music

Contributor

Alfred Hitchcock

Cast

General: Alfred Hitchcock is credited on screen with ‘sketches and other interpolated items’. Adrian Brunel in his autobiography Nice Work describes how he originally shot The Taming of the Shrew spoof only to have John Maxwell, the producer, reject it for not being funny enough. Brunel states that Hitchcock was brought in to re-shoot the sketch. Hitchcock is believed to have directed the George Harker sketch, The Taming of the Shrew, and the ‘thriller’ sketch with Jameson Thomas.
History: Released in the US with the title HELLO EVERYBODY; it was truncated to about half the original running time.
Reviews: McKernan, Luke and Olwen Terris. Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in the National Film and Television Archive. London: BFI, 1994 (p.157-8).