| Biography | Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), originally British International Pictures (BIP), was a British independent film production, distribution and exhibition company active from 1927 until 1970. ABPC also owned approximately 500 cinemas in Britain during 1943.
The company was founded during 1927 by Scottish solicitor John Maxwell after he had purchased British National Studios and their Elstree Studios complex and merged it with his ABC cinema circuit, renaming the company British International Pictures. He appointed Joseph Grossman, formerly manager of the Stoll Studios, as his Studio Manager. Under Maxwell's paternalistic management the company prospered and during 1937, after acquisition of British Pathé, the company was renamed Associated British Picture Corporation and was in a position to control production, distribution and exhibition of films, and challenge American dominance of the industry. However, after Maxwell's death in 1940, his widow Catherine sold a large number of shares to Warner Brothers, who, although the Maxwell family remained the largest shareholders, were able to exercise a measure of control.
During their early years the company's most prominent work was that directed by Alfred Hitchcock, including his 1929 feature Blackmail, which is regarded commonly as being the first British all-talkie. Hitchcock left the company in 1933 to work for rival British Gaumont.
Much of the output of the studio was routine and decidedly British, which restricted its success outside the UK, but after World War II, the company contracted with Warner (by now the largest shareholder, owning 40% of the studio[2]) for the distribution of its films in the United States and the company was to produce some of its best and most well-remembered work during this period, including films such as The Dam Busters (1954), Ice Cold in Alex (1958), and Summer Holiday (1963).
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