Elstree Calling [DVD] : Tommy Handley, Gordon Begg, Teddy Brown, Helen Burnell, Donald Calthrop, Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, The Charlot Girls, Bobbie Comber, Cicely Courtneidge, Will Fyffe, Andr? Charlot, Jack Hulbert, Elstree Calling, Elstree Calling, Andr? Charlot, Tommy Handley, Gordon Begg, Teddy Brown, Helen Burnell, Elstree Calling, Elstree Calling

Released in 1930 by British International Pictures in response to the lavish revues being produced by the major Hollywood studios, Elstree Calling was Britain's first musical film.

This all-star vaudeville show features performers drawn from some of the era's most popular London productions, including Cicely Courtneidge, Anna May Wong, John Longden, and music-hall veterans Will Fyffe and Lily Morris.

Compèred by Tommy Handley, the film presents nineteen comedy and musical sketches in the guise of a 'live' television broadcast; Alfred Hitchcock - then under contract to BIP - was responsible for creating the sketches and linking material.A fascinating snapshot of the earliest years of the British musical film and rarely seen since its original release, Elstree Calling is made available here in a brand-new transfer from the original elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.

Several sequences in the film were originally artificially coloured using the Pathécolor system and those colour sequences are intact here.