Mayflower Pictures

Mayflower Pictures (legally The Mayflower Pictures Corporation, Limited and usually referred to simply as "Mayflower" by its producers) was a British film production company formed by producer Erich Pommer and actor Charles Laughton. It was active from 1936 to 1940, during which time it produced three films, all starring Laughton: Vessel of Wrath (1938), a comedy directed by Pommer co-starring Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester and Robert Newton; St. Martin's Lane (1938), a comedy drama directed by Tim Whelan co-starring Vivien Leigh and Rex Harrison; and Jamaica Inn (1939), an adventure thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock co-starring Maureen O'Hara and Robert Newton. Its films were mostly lensed at Elstree Studios with little on-location shooting, and were distributed in the United Kingdom by Associated British Picture Corporation and in the rest of the world by Paramount Pictures.

The company was noted for seeking top talent in the industry to work on its films and produced what was considered at the time major motion pictures in the British film industry. In 1938, it was described by the Evening Chronicle as "Potentially the most important unit working in this country." With the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939, Laughton and Pommer attempted to move Mayflower Pictures to Hollywood, with bidding offers coming from Paramount Pictures and RKO Radio Pictures. The pair instead signed individual contracts with RKO Radio Pictures and put the company on an indefinite hiatus, eventually dissolving it in 1940.

In 1949, Maxwell Setton and Aubrey Baring relaunched the company after purchasing Laughton and Pommer's remaining interests. Under their ownership, Mayflower Pictures produced seven more films: The Spider and the Fly (1949), a crime drama directed by Robert Hamer starring Eric Portman, Guy Rolfe, and Nadia Gray; Cairo Road (1950), an adventure crime drama directed by David MacDonald starring Portman, Laurence Harvey, and Maria Mauban; The Adventurers (1951), an adventure directed by MacDonald starring Dennis Price, Jack Hawkins, and Siobhán McKenna; So Little Time (1952), a romantic drama directed by Compton Bennett starring Marius Goring and Maria Schell; Appointment in London (1953), a war drama directed by Philip Leacock starring Dirk Bogarde, Ian Hunter, Dinah Sheridan, and William Sylvester; South of Algiers (1953), an adventure directed by Jack Lee starring Van Heflin, Wanda Hendrix, and Portman; and They Who Dare (1954), a war drama directed by Lewis Milestone starring Bogarde, Denholm Elliott, and Akim Tamiroff. All but So Little Time were written by Robert Westerby.

Unlike the first series of films made in the 1930s, the new wave of productions was mostly filmed on location, with occasional shooting at Pinewood Studios, Shepperton Studios, and Elstree Studios. Its films were distributed variously in the United Kingdom by General Film Distributors, Associated British-Pathé, and British Lion Films, while in the United States and Canada, each film had a different distribution deal with Universal-International Pictures, Realart Pictures, Lippert Pictures, Associated Artists Productions, United Artists, and Allied Artists Pictures. This iteration of the company closed down in 1954.