Sir John Mills

From the Guardian Unlimited site
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Sir John Mills dies aged 97
Oscar-winning actor Sir John Mills has died at the age of 97, a star ofmore than100 films, Sir John, who was knighted in 1976, will probably bebest-remembered for his patriotic roles in such films as Ice Cold in Alex,Above Us the Waves, Dunkirk, Scott of the Antarctic and Tunes of Glory - oneof his personal favourites.

He died earlier today at his home in Denham, Buckinghamshire after a shortillness.
The archetypal English gentleman, Sir John graced stage and screen formore than 60 years, starting as a £4-a-week chorus boy at the LondonHippodrome in 1929.

His greatest triumph was winning a Hollywood Oscar in 1971 for playing a deformed mute in Ryan's Daughter. Sir John, who was born in February 1908 in Felixstowe, south-east England,starred in a succession of David Lean films - In Which We Serve, This HappyBreed, Hobson's Choice and as Pip in Great Expectations. He is survived by his wife, playwright Mary Hayley Bell, his son,Jonathan, and daughters Juliet and Hayley, both actors.

Look Back in Anger

The market shown in the film is Romford Market.
~ Verene

School for Scoundrels

'I can confirm positively the location of the apartment building used as the Ian Carmichael character's home to be Thurlby Croft, Mulberry Close, London NW4. The location of the garage used by Peter Jones and Dennis Price as the shady car dealers has long eluded me. I suspected the Edgware Road. Further research now leads me to believe that it was on the A404 Pinner Road, Harrow, adjacent to Oxford Road.

I don't get up to the 'smoke' that often but will try for photo evidence next time I do. Perhaps there is someone in the vicinity who could oblige? '

Alan Gowdy

Passport to Pimlico

Hi, Have just had a look at the photos for Passport to Pimlico.I lived in Centaur Street which was off Hercules Road, until1946/7.

Photo 2. Shows the railway bridge which is over the start ofCarlisle Lane at the junction with Hercules Road.

Photo 3. Is in Sail Street on opposite side of Lambeth Road,virtually where Hercules Road would continue into.Incidently the tall chimney in centre shot was the one remaining part of Fields Soap Factory which was bounded byCarlisle Lane, Royal Street and Upper Marsh (now flats).

Photo 4. Once again in Sail Street, the railway bridge isover Lambeth Road.

Photo 5. At Sail Street and Lambeth Road junction.Photo 10. As photo 5, railway bridge is over Lambeth Road.Photos 11, 12 & 12now. Definately NOT Hercules Road. Most likelyLambeth Road, although it could be Kennington Road.

The church spire (centre right) leads me to believe that the 'Lido' was probably the paddling pool in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park(Bedlam Park), where the Imperial War Museum is situated.This would make it Lambeth Road.
Regards, Peter Mitson

'Holiday Camp' (The Huggets) 1947

John & Brian,
Found your site yesterday, of great interest to myself and my colleague, as for several years we have taken students to London on residentials and in our free time visited locations of British films.

I can offer some further information on the 1947 film ‘Holiday Camp’ starring Jack Warner. The opening scene of the train arriving at the station was in fact filmed at Sandsend, just above Whitby in North Yorkshire.

Butlins Holiday camp at Filey had its own purpose built railway station, but this was a rather austere site, and was located a distance from the sea. I suppose Sandsend was chosen as the station was located on a ledge with the sea below, and had a nicer feel to it. The station itself was closed in 1958, but still survives virtually as it appears in the film and is now a private dwelling.

You can now walk along the trackbed of the old line, following the path the train took, as it now forms part of the Cleveland Way.

Hope this information is useful, keep up the good work.

David Bower

Locations in This Sporting Life

I *think* that Bolton Abbey, northwest of Ilkley, was the place where Machin and Mrs Hammond spent a day out in the country. In those days, they could have gone by train from Wakefield to Bolton Abbey.Near the end of the film, when the rugby team are on the coach on the way back from a match, a sign to the newly-opened Stourton railway marshalling yard in south-east Leeds is seen briefly as the bus passes under a railway bridge.

By the way, I've just seen the email you sent me in January about my Ladykillers site http://fp.martinunderwood.f9.co.uk/Ladykillers. I've added a link to Reel Streets from there.

I'm sure I'll have many happy hours looking up the locations used in all my favourite films on Reel Streets!
~ Martin Underwood

A Run for Your Money

'I don't know if you already have this information.The scenes where they come in and out of flats in 'A Run for Your Money' wereshot at Cambridge Court, on the north side of Sussex Gardens in Paddington. Next to the Edgware Road, where they also shot scenes. I was living almost opposite at the time.

Perhaps you could help me? in the Paddington area in late forties/early fifties I recall (I hope correctly) a film with John Mills, where a mews had ben re-signed as Pa(e?)yton Place. This was near Sussex Square. Does this ring any bells at All?

I also recall that some of Genevieve was shot in Hyde Park along by the Serpentine near the boat-house. This was with the car mounted on a flat trailer, although I only saw them clearing up and not the actual shooting.'
Regards,Peter Mitson

Bitter Harvest

Hi Jon
The scenes early in Bitter Harvest, where Terence Alexander stops to buy cigarettes and the young lady runs in the rain for a bus, are recorded in Senghenydd, Caerphilly, South Wales.

The daughter of the owner of the bus company still lives in the village and runs a shop (no, not the 'pretending' shop in the film)

As a child, I remember my father telling me about the event with the local fire brigade providing the Rain!! Regards

Emlyn Huish

Quadbod

Terry & Sue (both actors by profession) transformed what was originally a part-time hobby into a virtually full-time business in the year 2000, buying and selling pre-1990 UK film posters, stills and brochures. Their website at www.quadbod.co.uk is updated regularly. They combine their online activities with a very busy schedule of appearances at Collectors Fairs across the UK - including Antiques & Collectors Fairs outside the usual circuit of media-related events, enabling them to introduce the delights of poster-collecting to a much wider audience! If you're searching for a particularly elusive item - or if you have original memorabilia for sale - contact them on info@quadbod.co.uk - they'll be pleased to hear from you!

Medusa Touch Bristol Locations

Bath/Bristol locations

Medusa Touch - The stills you show are not Bristol, but the Cathedral scenes are in Bristol

Andrew Williams
(Bristol, England)

Herbert Smith

Hello John and Brian,
here are a couple of movies and locations for you:-

Weaker Sex (1948) Roy Baker Directed, location was at Margate Kent.
Tawny Pipit (1944) Directed by Bernard Miles, location was Lower Slaughter, Boughton on the Water, Gloucestershire.

You might want to add Herbert Smith memorial site to your links page underDirector/Producer, have a look at:- http://www.frenchpix.com/herbert.html
thanks and All the best from Barrie.
www.frenchpix.com

Hunted Locations

From David Rayner in Stoke-on-Trent, England.
Sunday, April 3rd, 2005, 9:12 pm.

HUNTED (1952) starring Dirk Bogarde and Jon Whiteley
London (various locations);
Stoke-on-Trent at the following locations around the city:
Oxford Street, Penkhull (lodging house);
Honeywall, Penkhull;
Sutherland Road, Longton;
Burslem, The Potteries Loop Line (railway scenes);
Scotland: Portpatrick (escape on fishing boat scenes).

The following information on your site is incorrect: The Long and The Short and The Tall (1960) starring Richard Todd, was not filmed in Nottingham as you state. It was set in World War II Burma and was filmed entirely in the studio at the ABPC studios at Elstree, Hertfordshire.
I hope this is of some use to you.

Best Wishes

David Kossoff

David Kossoff, who died yesterday, 24/03/2005, aged 85, was a versatile actor best known for his role as Alf Larkin in the television series The Larkins, and a charming exponent of Jewish humour, manners and aspirations.
Kossoff's gentle, lugubrious delivery would be laced with irony and self-deprecating humour which was never without a wry kind of dignity; on radio and television he told Bible stories with a particular warmth.
Apart from his cosy retelling of Bible stories, he was best known on the small screen for his successful collaboration with Peggy Mount on The Larkins. But although the programme was a hit, and though he also had memorable roles in films such as A Kid for Two Farthings and The Bespoke Overcoat, it was the theatre which was closest to his heart.
The son of Russian parents, David Kossoff was born on November 24 1919 in London, and trained at art and architecture schools, including the Northern Polytechnic. He worked for a time as a commercial artist, a draughtsman and a furniture designer, before trying his hand at technical illustration and aircraft design. But by the age of 23, he decided to try his luck on the stage.
Kossoff played Sam Tager; later that year he had a great personal success in Wolf Mankowitz's one-act play The Bespoke
David Kossoff married, in 1947, Margaret (Jennie) Jenkins. She died in 1995. They had two sons, one of whom survives him.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005

Lancashire Locations

Some of 'Girls Night' was filmed in Rawtenstall Lancashire
http://www.reel.com/movie.asp?MID=127447

......................thanks for this but our cut off point is 1980's, good try though.

And Whistle down the Wind had scenes shot around Burnley Lancashire

..................this I'm surprised at. Most sources suggest Gloucestershire for the countryside. My people came from the Burnley area in the 1800's, Brierfield to be exact. Some time before films were made. John Tunstill