Published in Windlesora 32 (2016)
© WLHG 2016
The 1944 pantomime programme lists two mportant film industry personalities. Vincent Korda and Ferdinand Bellan.
Korda was born in Hungary, but came to Britain with his brothers Alexander and Zoltan in the 1930s. They all worked in the film industry, but Sir Alexander Korda, a prolific film maker, is probably the most famous. Vincent became a distinguished Art Director and Production Designer. He won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for The Thief of Baghdad (1940), and was nominated for three more. His other most notable works are Things to Come (1936), and The Longest Day (1962).
Bellan was born and worked in the film industry in Austria in art direction, but moved to Britain in 1933. He was hired as a production designer by various European producer emigrants such as Toeplitz, Pascal, and Korda, but he never achieved the level of success he had known before. Although his work was outstanding, he had to be satisfied with the position of assistant or associate on many films, and was uncredited on many more. His work can be seen in various Korda films such as Doro Pass, Four Feathers and The Thief of Baghdad, as well as others such as Major Barbara, The Third Man, Becket, Cleopatra, The Quiller Memorandum, and Ann of a Thousand Days.
Windsor Local History Group 