Escape! (1930)

Anecdotes

Escape! is a 1930 British crime film directed by Basil Dean and starring Gerald du Maurier, Edna Best and Gordon Harker. It was based on the 1926 play of the same title by John Galsworthy, which was adapted again as a film in 1948.

Production

Escape! was the first film produced by Associated Talking Pictures (ATP), a company formed by Basil Dean, a prominent theatre director who had recently been increasingly involved in film, enlisting the distinguished actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier as the company's chairman.

Dean knew this presented a major opportunity to demonstrate to the American studios that prestigious films could be produced in England, setting to work on engaging a high-profile cast with experience of the theatre. His first choice for the central role of Capt Matt Denant was Colin Clive, who turned Dean down in order to travel to Hollywood where he was to star in the role of Henry Frankenstein, creator of the monster in Universal's wildly succ…

For his supporting cast, Dean approached actors from the stage production, reducing the time needed to dedicate to rehearsals. Austin Trevor who had played the role of the Parson in London's West End in 1926 and New York City on Broadway the following year, reprised the role one more.

As ATP did not yet have their own production facility (Dean would soon develop a full sound studio at Ealing Studios), Beaconsfield Studios, recently equipped to make sound films, was used instead. Dean's intention was to use Escape! to showcase England's picturesque scenery, with shoots arranged for Hyde Park Corner, a variety of locations around Dartmoor, and hunting scenes filmed in the village of Wansford.

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