After Office Hours [Unseen]

An unseen film. On the 6 August 1931 the Kinematograph Weekly, announced that Alfred Hitchcock ‘may direct John van Druten’s excellent play, “London Wall,” for B.I.P.’ Hitchcock did not direct and that is presumably why this film remains ‘unseen’. The 10 December issue noted that the film ‘goes into production under the direction of Thomas Bentley next week.’ During production the film was retitled After Office Hours with the same publication reporting that ‘some unique scenes were obtained the other night in Highgate tube station, which contains the most-up-to-date escalator on the Underground. The escalator travels at a hundred feet a minute, is 150 ft. in length, and has 114 steps. In the course of filming, the artistes walked up and down what is thought to be equivalent to over three times up the Monument. Frank Lawton and Heather Angel were among the artistes in the sequence.’ On 21 April the journal noted that the director is ‘still adhering to his firm resolve to put before filmgoers London’s great outdoors, [and] took his entire “After Office Hours” unit to the Forest Hill tramway depot this week, where they embarked on a tram which sailed merrily up and down the High Street for hours on end. Scenes were shot upstairs, downstairs, inside, outside and even underneath the tram.’ When the journal reviewed the film, 7 July 1932, it noted that the ‘London exteriors are very well shot.’