In the Studio and on Location: Mapping Pinewood’s Culture in 1947–1950

This chapter focuses on films produced by the Independent Producers at Pinewood during 1947, a key year in which the film industry was under great pressure to produce more films. It examines in detail the new techniques and approaches to set design in the films Blanche Fury (1948), The End of the River (1947), The Woman in the Hall (1947), Oliver Twist (1948), The Red Shoes (1948), Esther Waters (1948) and London Belongs to Me (1948). Experiments in Technicolor design in particular emerge as an important theme, and also techniques used for films shot primarily on location. The chapter concludes with an overview and assessment of the immediate post-war years when Pinewood supported many productions whose art direction practices and working methods were very much situated in the exigencies of post-war shortages and studio rehabilitation.