Britain
In 1932 Korda founded London Films with Big Ben as the company logo. The company's releases included The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Rembrandt (1936), both of which starred Charles Laughton and were directed by Korda. Other successes included The Four Feathers (1939), Q Planes (1939), The Thief of Bagdad (1940). Korda's brothers Vincent, an art director, and Zoltan, a film director, were involved with his projects.
In 1937, Korda retained Brian Hurst to direct a resurrected project, "Lawrence of Arabia". Hurst was about to leave on a trip to Jerusalem to scout locations when Korda cancelled the trip, saying the Palestinian government refused to permit large gatherings of Arabs and they could not make the film without Arab extras. A screenplay, co-written by Hurst, Miles Malleson, and Duncan Guthrie, was completed in October 1938.
Korda bought property in Denham, Buckinghamshire, including Hills House, and planned to build film studios on the property. London Film's Denham Film Studios was financed by the Prudential and opened in 1936. Korda though soon had financial difficulties and management of the Denham complex was merged with Pinewood in 1939 becoming part of the Rank Organisation.
Wartime in Europe meant The Thief of Bagdad had to be completed in Hollywood where Korda was again based for a few years. While in the United States, Korda produced and directed That Hamilton Woman (1941) and supervised Jungle Book (1942), a live action version of the Kipling story directed by Zoltan Korda.
In 1942, Alexander Korda was knighted for his contribution to the war effort, the first film director to receive the honour.
He returned to Britain in 1943 as production chief of MGM-London films, with a ₤35 million, 10-year programme. The scheme ended after one year, one film and a ₤1million loss to MGM.
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