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Sir Michael Elias Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in west London from 1938 to 1956. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film studios of the day. In an industry short of Hollywood-style moguls, Balcon emerged as a key figure, and an obdurately British one too, in his benevolent, somewhat headmasterly approach to the running of a creative organization. He is known for his leadership, and his guidance of young Alfred Hitchcock.
Balcon had earlier co-founded Gainsborough Pictures with Victor Saville in 1923, later working with Gaumont British, which absorbed their studio. Later still he worked with MGM-British. In 1956 he founded a production company known as Ealing Films, and later headed British Lion Films. He served as chairman of the British Film Institute production board to help fund and encourage new work.
Balcon was described in his obituary in The Times as a "pioneer of British films" who "had courage, energy and flair for showmanship".
The studio, recently vacated by the Hollywood company Famous Players–Lasky (later Paramount Pictures) was small but well equipped and fully staffed. A young Alfred Hitchcock was one of its employees. Balcon gave Hitchcock his first directing opportunity, and Gainsborough gained a reputation for producing high-quality films.
Balcon's independence had eroded and Gainsborough became an extension of the Gaumont Film Company. Still, between 1931 and 1936, Balcon produced a number of classics, including a string of Hitchcock successes, such as The 39 Steps and Man of Aran; directed by Robert J. Flaherty the latter was known as 'Balcon's folly' for going well over budget.
He also helped individuals escape Nazi Germany as persecution of Jewish citizens increased, including the actor Conrad Veidt, who had starred in his 1934 film Jew Suss. By 1936, Gaumont was looking for an entry into the American market. Balcon spent several months in the United States forming links with the big Hollywood studios.
On his return, he found Gaumont in financial ruin and joined MGM-British Studios that November. His assistant Edward Black took over the studio. The year and a half Balcon spent at MGM British was a trying period for Balcon, who clashed frequently with studio head Louis B. Mayer. During this period, Balcon lived at 57a Tufton Street, Westminster. Today a commemorative plaque marks his former home.
Went the Day Well?, Dead of Night, Undercover (1943), and the Ealing Comedies were released during his time there. Other films from the studio include Dance Hall (1950) with Petula Clark and Diana Dors; and The Blue Lamp (also 1950), whose lead character, George Dixon, was named after Balcon's grammar school. This character was later used in the long-running television drama Dixon of Dock Green.
In his 1969 autobiography, Michael Balcon Presents… A Lifetime of Films, he wrote that his years at Ealing Studios were "the most rewarding years in my personal career, and perhaps one of the most fruitful periods in the history of British film production."
Besides Hitchcock, Balcon worked with Basil Dearden, Michael Relph and many other significant figures of British film. He was Knight Bachelor in 1948 for his services to the industry.
In 1944, Ealing Studios was taken over by the Rank Organisation. In 1955 Rank sold the studio to the BBC. As a result, Balcon left Rank in 1956 and set up the production company Ealing Films, striking a distribution and production deal with MGM. Balcon's company would shoot films at MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood and MGM would handle the worldwide distribution of the films.
In 1959, Balcon became chairman of Bryanston Films, a subsidiary of British Lion Films.p. 220 Barr, Charles. Ealing Studios, University of California Press, 1998 The firm went bankrupt in 1963. Balcon took over British Lion Films.
He was proud to be associated with the British New Wave; the last film on which he worked as executive producer was Tom Jones (1963), after which he continued to encourage young directors, serving as chairman of the British Film Institute production board and funding low-budget experimental work. He was later appointed to the Board of Governors of the British Film Institute.
In 1938, Balcon wrote an article in The Cine-Technician, the journal of the filmmakers union, titled 'I wish I could join' in which he criticised the working condition under which films were made and was instrumental in improving these conditions and increasing the salaries of people working on film sets.
In 1946, Aileen was appointed an MBE for her war work.
Their daughter Jill Balcon became an actress. She met Anglo-Irish poet, Cecil Day-Lewis, and the two started a relationship, marrying in 1951. (He was twenty years older than she and already married when they met. He had two teenage sons, and a mistress.) Michael Balcon was deeply unhappy about the marriage, and became estranged from his daughter as a result. "Obituary: Jill Balcon", The Guardian
In 1977, Balcon died at Upper Parrock, a 15th-century house set on a Sussex hilltop near the Kent border. He and his wife had lived there since the Second World War. He was cremated and his ashes buried there.
He was a life-long friend of director Charles Frend with whom he collaborated on a number of Ealing Studio films.
| 1933 | I Was a Spy | |
| 1933 | Leave It to Smith | |
| 1933 | The Constant Nymph | |
| 1934 | Princess Charming | |
| 1934 | Evergreen | (uncredited) |
| 1934 | Along Came Sally | (uncredited) |
| 1935 | The 39 Steps | |
| 1935 | Stormy Weather | |
| 1935 | Things Are Looking Up | |
| 1936 | The First Offence | |
| 1936 | Secret Agent | |
| 1936 | Tudor Rose | |
| 1937 | Doctor Syn | (uncredited) |
| 1938 | A Yank at Oxford | |
| 1940 | The Proud Valley | |
| 1941 | The Ghost of St. Michael's | |
| 1941 | Turned Out Nice Again | |
| 1942 | The Foreman Went to France | |
| 1942 | Went the Day Well? | |
| 1944 | For Those in Peril | |
| 1944 | Champagne Charlie | |
| 1944 | The Halfway House | |
| 1945 | Dead of Night | |
| 1945 | Pink String and Sealing Wax | |
| 1946 | The Captive Heart | |
| 1946 | The Overlanders | |
| 1947 | Hue and Cry | |
| 1947 | It Always Rains on Sunday | |
| 1948 | Saraband for Dead Lovers | |
| 1948 | Scott of the Antarctic | |
| 1949 | Whisky Galore! | |
| 1949 | A Run for Your Money | |
| 1949 | Kind Hearts and Coronets | |
| 1949 | Passport to Pimlico | |
| 1950 | The Magnet | |
| 1950 | The Blue Lamp | |
| 1951 | The Lavender Hill Mob | |
| 1951 | The Man in the White Suit | |
| 1952 | Mandy | |
| 1953 | The Cruel Sea | |
| 1954 | The Maggie | |
| 1955 | The Ladykillers | |
| 1955 | The Night My Number Came Up | |
| 1956 | The Long Arm | |
| 1957 | The Shiralee | |
| 1957 | All at Sea | |
| 1958 | Dunkirk | |
| 1959 | The Siege of Pinchgut | |
| 1959 | The Scapegoat | |
| 1961 | The Long and the Short and the Tall | |
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