In the 1930s and 1940s, the facility as ATP and then Ealing Studios produced many comedies with stars such as Gracie Fields, George Formby, Stanley Holloway and Will Hay, who had established their reputations in other spheres of entertainment. The company was also instrumental in the use of documentary film-makers to make more realistic war films. These included "Went the Day Well?" (1942), "The Foreman Went to France" (1942), "Undercover" (1943), and "San Demetrio London" (1943). In 1945, the studio made its influential chiller compendium "Dead of Night".