Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Rude Boy

Picture rud004 shows the Brixton Labour exchange (known to us locals as 'The Old Dolehouse') on Coldharbour Lane. Nothing left of it now, or it's other life as a squat, just an empty site (see my panorama, taken in March 2008) . We await 'The Developers'.




For those with an interest in such things: The history of Brixton and the metamorphosis of The Old Dolehouse into The CoolTan Arts Centre. Try the super site, Urban75. http://www.urban75.org/brixton/features/cooltan.html.


Guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye of any local totter, squatter or Del Boy....

Brother Brian.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Paul Newman has died at the age of 83

In August, the US press reported that Newman had finished chemotherapy and told his family he wanted to die at home. The former chain smoker is said to have developed lung cancer. He is survived by his older brother Arthur.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Tiger Bay

Reports on the film/filming of ‘Tiger Bay’ in the South Wales Echo (SWE available on micro-fiche in the Library):

3/3/1959 - article headed 'Cardiff Town Clerk hits out at film of 'Tiger Bay' - the clerk Mr S Tapper-Jones is clearly concerned that the film will adversely affect developer's perceptions and he speaks out against the film at the opening of a public enquiry into the proposed compulsory purchase of 9 and a half acres of land in the Butetown North development area - "I am glad of the opportunity to stress the profound concern of the city council collectively at the gross manner in which the impression of the type of life in this neighbourhood has been misrepresented merely for the depraved taste of people who like sensational pictures, ". But a secondary reports relates that Cardiff City Council will make no further protests after learning that the MP for Cardiff South East (James Callaghan) had been told that the film title could not now be changed.

4/3/1959 - article headed 'Butetown not worst area in Cardiff, inquiry told' - article about whether the houses in the proposed development area are unfit for habitation (as the council would have it) or not.

4/3/1959 - another article headed 'Cardiff's night of the stars' refers to the intended world premiere at the Gaumont Theatre on March 23rd for the film, "which has stirred up more controversy than any other picture the Rank Organisation has made in years".

16/3/1959 - 'Do You Know the Star?' - star silhouettes competition run by the Gaumont Theatre in run up to premiere, winner each day receiving a food hamper.

21/3/1959 - 'Can You Pick the Star?'- as above

23/3/1959 - article headed 'After the words - now the film can speak' by Gordon Tucker: " ... I am convinced that the controversy began on fears that were without foundation and grew out of all proportion. The clips of the film I saw at Pinewood Studios in no way backed up the allegations of the anxious Butetown mothers. It was their protestations to the film's publicist, New York-born Miss Ruth Lipton, that started the storm of words. Miss Lipton's assurances that 'Tiger Bay' would show the area's inhabitants "not as simple coloureds or something worse, but a people of dignity" did not placate them. Verbal gale cones were hoisted when the debate spread from Butetown to the city council chamber and even to television via the district's Member of Parliament, Mr. James Callaghan. The title perturbed many of them. It was even suggested that intending visitors to this city - not knowing that Tiger Bay had its teeth drawn many a moon ago - would be scared away ....The film's director, stocky J. Lee Thompson, is too brilliant a man to waste his talents producing a sleazy little package of social evils. ....This has been on economy budget effort. To find the artiste for the killer's role, Ranks took an open cheque book to the Continent and came back with a short-term contract autographed by Horst Buchholz. And Yvonne Mitchell - the star of 'Woman in a Dressing Gown' - was signed for a role lasting a couple of minutes! Cardiff owes a debt of thanks to a slightly-built Asiatic named Sanny bin Hussan, who lives at Stacy Road, Roath. He was indirectly responsible for the film ever being made here. 'Tiger Bay' producer John Hawskworth [sic] (who also collaborated on the script) came here to test Sanny bin Hussan for the part of a Malayan village leader in 'Windom's Way'. He signed up Sanny bin Hussan - and discovered Butetown in the process. The place stuck in his mind until the time when a location was needed for this story. And Mr Hawkesworth didn't hesitate ....".

23/3/1959 - articled headed 'Mayor wasn't invited to Tiger Bay' - "Although some officials of Newport Town Council have been invited to tonight's world premiere of the film 'Tiger Bay' at Cardiff the Mayor and Mayoress of Newport have not. Parts of the film were shot in Newport and members of the cast met the mayor in his parlour. .....".

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Hollywood 'paid fortune to smoke'

Tobacco firms paid huge amounts for endorsements from the stars of Hollywood's "Golden Age".

Industry documents released following anti-smoking lawsuits reveal the extent of the relationship between tobacco and movie studios. One firm paid more than $3m in today's money in one year to stars. Researchers writing in the Tobacco Control journal said "classic" films of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s still helped promote smoking today.

As in the 1930s, nothing today prevents the global tobacco industry from influencing the film industry in any number of ways.

Virtually all of the biggest names of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s were involved in paid cigarette promotion, according to the University of California at San Francisco researchers. They obtained endorsement contracts signed at the times to help them calculate just how much money was involved.

According to the research, stars prepared to endorse tobacco included Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, John Wayne, Bette Davis and Betty Grable.

Deals dated from the start of the "talkie" era, with "Jazz Singer" star Al Jolson signing testimonials stating that the "Lucky Strike" brand was "the cigarette of the acting profession". "The good old flavor of Luckies is as sweet and soothing as the best 'Mammy' song ever written," he wrote.
One of the key documents uncovered by the researchers was a list of payments for a single year in the late 1930s detailing how much stars were paid by American Tobacco, the makers of Lucky Strike. Leading ladies Carole Lombard, Barbara Stanwyck and Myrna Loy were handed $10,000, equivalent to just under $150,000 in today's money, to endorse the brand, as were Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and Robert Taylor. Together, the annual price of paying actors was $3.2m in 2008 terms.

In some cases, tobacco firms would pay movie studios to create radio shows which featured their stars' endorsements. American Tobacco paid Warner Brothers the equivalent of $13.7m for 1937's "Your Hollywood Parade", and sponsored The Jack Benny Show from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s.

The latter featured stars such as Lauren Bacall giving carefully scripted testimonials. The researchers, led by Professor Stanton Glantz, said that the effects of the millions poured into Hollywood by "Big Tobacco" could still be felt today, despite a recent self-imposed ban on promotion within films.
They say that smoking imagery in films can influence younger people to start smoking. They wrote: "As in the 1930s, nothing today prevents the global tobacco industry from influencing the film industry in any number of ways."
"Classic" films with smoking scenes, such as "Casablanca" and "Now, Voyager", and glamorous publicity images helped to "perpetuate public tolerance" of on-screen smoking, they said. UK anti-smoking group ASH said that while smoking imagery could not be "outlawed completely", there was an argument for clearer warnings before films.

STARS PAID TO PROMOTE LUCKY STRIKE - 1937/8
Actor US$ paid (2008 equivalent)
Gary Cooper 10,000 (146,583)
Joan Crawford 10,000 (146,583)
Henry Fonda 3,000 (43,975)
Clark Gable 10,000 (146,583)
Bob Hope 2,500 (36,646)
Gertrude Lawrence 1,750 (25,652)
Carole Lombard 10,000 (146,583)
Myrna Loy 10,000 (146,583)
Fred MacMurray 6,000 (87,950)
Ray Milland 2,000 (29,317)
George Raft 3,000 (43,975)
Edward Robinson 3,000 (43,975)
Barbara Stanwyck 10,000 (146,583)
Gloria Swanson 1,500 (21,988)
Robert Taylor 10,000 (146,583)
Spencer Tracy 10,000 (146,583)

Source: Tobacco Control 2008

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/7632963.stm

Published: 2008/09/25 00:51:33 GMT



Saturday, September 20, 2008

'The New Southgate' later 'The Coronation Cinema'

Brian also found this extract on the "British History Online" web site: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=26938

Cinema shows were held in the Grove and at the central hall in Southgate in 1909, (fn. 52) and in King's hall, Lower Edmonton, in 1913 and 1916. (fn. 53) The Edmonton cinematograph theatre opened in Fore Street, Lower Edmonton, in 1911 and closed between 1926 and 1937. (fn. 54) The first large cinema built in Middlesex was the Alcazar, which opened in Fore Street in 1913; it was modernized in 1934, damaged in 1942, and pulled down by 1952. (fn. 55) Other permanent cinemas in existence by 1913 were Queen's hall in Green Lanes, Palmers Green, which closed in 1967 (fn. 56) and the New Southgate, later the Coronation, cinema in High Road, New Southgate, which had closed by 1958. (fn. 57) In addition to the two converted theatres, (fn. 58) there were the Palmadium in Green Lanes, Palmers Green, open by 1922 and demolished between 1948 and 1963, (fn. 59) the Capitol in Green Lanes, Winchmore Hill, in the 1930s, and the Odeon at the Bourne, Southgate, open by 1935 and closed by 1973. (fn. 60) The Regal in Silver Street (fn. 61) and the ABC, formerly the Ritz, in Bowes Road, (fn. 62) opened in 1934 and were still in existence in 1974.

Coronation Cinema, Southgate N11 (part 2)

Brian Tunstill found this on the Cinema Treasures site: http://cinematreasures.org/theater/15175/

Coronation Cinema
84 Station Road, New Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom N11

The Coronation Cinema was located on the corner of New Southgate High Road (today known as Station Road) and Upper Park Road. It was built by its independent operators as a replacement to the adjacent Coronation Picture Palace which became a dance hall.

It opened on 30th September 1930 and was designed in a modest Art Deco style by noted cinema architect Robert Cromie. Seating was provided on one floor, but there was a small raised box at the rear which contained a few seats. There was an orchestra pit and a seven foot deep stage with three dressing rooms provided. Patrons purchasing tickets for the cheaper seats at the front had their own paybox located on Upper Park Street.

The Coronation was always a second run cinema and it was closed on 24th October 1952. The building became a store and offices for Eastern Gas and was demolished in 1970 when the entire Eastern side of Station Road (including the adjacent older Coronation Picture Palace) was redeveloped for housing to be built on the site.
Contributed by KenRoe

Friday, September 19, 2008

Coronation Cinema, Southgate N11

For the attention of John.

Were you able to obtain a photograph of the exterior of the cinema?

.........sadly, no. But you could enquire of the Gas Board? Electricity Board? who at one time owned the premises or the Local Council who would have issued permission for demolition? Local library archives? Local history and social studies groups?

I would dearly like to obtain a copy as my father, Wilfred (Billy) Batt, managed it from 1936-37 until some time in the war time era.

..............when, I as a small child, lay on the floor, under the seats
when a doodlebug, a V1, cut its engine, prior to falling to earth, and
moments later crashed near the Standard Cable Works in Friern Barnet.
Dusting ourselves down we continued to watch a George Formby film!


I have a photo taken in the foyer of the cinema showing various members of
staff, including my father. The photo was taken during one of the donation drives for sevice men that was a regular feature at that time.

............scan a copy and we'll blog it. It might just stir some memories
somewhere.


I would be happy to email a copy to you if of any interest.

..........yes please

Unfortunately my own search for an exterior shot have drawn a blank.

.........if it was easy, someone else would have done it long ago. Keep
plugging, you'll get there.

Ciao

John


Best regards

Nigel A. Batt

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Villain and The Medusa Touch

Villain - The scene where chasing cars nearly mow down a crocodile of school children was shot as the cars turned from Boundary Road, into Marlborough Hill, London NW8, George Elliot School. I recognised it because I used to go to an adjacent school Kynaston Comprehensive.

The Medusa Touch - The London buses had me puzzled as the location for the Cathedral that collapses was actually Bristol Cathedral.

Robert Heron.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

So Well Remembered

Maybe we should call this film "So Easily Forgotten". The good Burghers of Macclesfield, perhaps we can refer to them as "Maccy Burgers", despite endless telephone calls, correspondance and visits to public offices, libraries and local historians and Macca's finest, the local cops, we have been unable to raise any local interest in this outstanding film. What a shame, can anybody else help?

The Offence (1972)

Hi John,

Here as promised is the information promised to you regarding The Offence (1972) starring Sean Connery, it was filmed in our home town, Bracknell, Berks.

Paul Hart took the photos and gathered the information for you.....

Kind regards,

Anne Cooper


In the Scene 8 min 55 seconds into the film, behind the lady walking along with her shopping basket, you can see in the back ground the Point Royal town block where Sean Connery’s character lives.

Scene pictures
23 minutes into the film the unmarked police car stops in the town high street, this location is in Bracknell town centre High Street at the junction of Crossways and Charles Square as depicted in Picture 2


24 min 55 seconds into the film Sean Connery is walking through the Crossways located between Bracknell High street and Bracknell Broadway as shown in pictures 10, 11 & 26




24 min 12 seconds into the film Sean Connery’s Character walks down the stairs of the upper Broadway, Bracknell by the Chip shop to talk to a suspect who has just bought some chips. See picture 1 & 8



As Sean Connery walks along talking to the suspect with his chips, they stop along the Broadway with Sean Connery asking for a chip as shown in pic 20 & 21



25 min 7 seconds into the film the marked Police car drives along the ring road that goes around Bracknell town centre. It passes the Red Lion pub. Bracknell Ring road. as shown in pictures 15 & 16 and the now gone Cinema (showing Please Sir the Film) next to the Cinema is the shop showing the Bracknell Times newspaper on it’s sign.



Reverse scene shot picture 14


25 min 22 seconds into the film the Police car stops and the Police officers observe the drunk guy (Ian Bannen’s character) walking along the Bracknell. Broadway. upper walkway, ironically this is above the chip shop where Sean Connery was 1 minute earlier in the film. Pictures 22 & 23



26 min 15 seconds into the film as Ian Bannen staggers down the Broadways spiral walkway as shown in pictures 22 & 23

Pictures of the spiral walkway where Ian Bannen is carried over by the
Police officers 17, 18 & 19




27 min 42 seconds into the film the so called police station which is actually Bracknell Library as shown in picture 5 & 6



As shown in pictures 3 & 4 the car park next to the Police station again this is the car park next to the Library where Sean Connery gets into his car to drive home.



44 min 54 seconds into the film Sean Connery drives home and enters the car park under his home. This is the underground car park of Point Royal car park that is located underneath the Point Royal tower block Easthampstead, Bracknell.
See picture 13 & 27



46 min 3 seconds into the film Sean Connery exits the lift at his home, this scene is actually shot within the Point Royal tower block with it’s distinctive internal layout.
The internal scenes of his home are again shot within one of the flats within the Point Royal tower block with it’s distinctive shape. As shown in pictures 13 the shape of Point Royal tower block.

1hr 4min 51 seconds the Police car exits the underground car park with Sean Connery in custody again picture 27

Friday, September 12, 2008

Sparrows Can't Sing

1) The family home is located in Cowley Gardens, Stepney

2) There are two nice photos of the road in the 1990 railway book titled "Great Eastern in Town and Country" in the article "Mean Streets", which covers Fenchurch Street to Shadwell line.

3) The photos feature the railway arch, in the twenties, that crosses th raod and has nice views both north and south. The arch is featured quite prominently in the film.

4) The main evidence is the distinctive housing in the road that was a design based on model housing supported by the Prince Consort and displayed at the Great Exhibition in 1851. The design was later rebuilt.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Ipcress File, "Drinka Pinta Milka Day"

This piece from the Harry Palmer movie site:

The location in London where Carswell is shot in his car was found by Keith:

Upper Thames Street at the junction with Queen Street Place. I only added pictures.

This was what Keith left on the messageboard:

"Been irritated for years that I couldn't identify the location used for the scene where Carswell is shot in the blue Ford Zephyr. Penny finally dropped.

It is Upper Thames Street E.C.4 @ the junction with Queen Street Place, left of the lights, & Queen Street to the right of the traffic lights. The car is travelling west towards what is now Blackfriars underpass. The give away features are the church he drives past, laying back from the road (I believe it is a Christopher Wren church), & the building to the immediate right of the church as you view the scene. The bridge he passes under is called Cannon Bridge & there is an office block built on top these days. This leads to Cannon Street railway station.All the other buildings near the church are gone.

The building to the left of the lights (Queen Street Place) was used by the OXO company in 1965 - the second 'O' is obscured by the traffic light post, no product placement allowed in 1965 eh? The building is still there however. To the right of the lights (Queen Street) the buildings have been swept away & rebuilt. It is now closed to traffic & a barrier prevents access.

Ahead is the continuation of Upper Thames Street. It has since been widened so that the road as it was then is now the westbound half of a dual carriage way. The buildings on the right behind the "Drinka Pinta Milka Day" poster have been demolished & the eastbound half of the dual carriage way created in their place.

So now we know." Keith

http://members.tripod.com/keesstam/tifloc.html#The%20Ipcress%20File%20filmlocations for more locations.


Competition

.......... well not really because you will all get a prize!

Do you usually read this blog?

Can you answer the following questions...............-

1) What was Michael Caine's character called in the Ipcress File?
2) What is the real name of the older girl in the Railway Children?
3) What is the name of the bridge that appears so often in British films, Repulsion, Night and the City, The Man Who Never Was, Victim, and probably a few others?
4) Who wrote the mouth-organ, OK, harmonica, music for Genevieve?
5) Which was the town in which Billy Liar dreamt, or dreamed?

Answer these five questions and also tell us if you have ever appeared in a film, or if you know of any film locations that we haven't yet put on-line, and we'll give you a prize.

And the prize............ a one month free subscription to Reel Streets............ worth.......... a fortune!

Sunday, September 07, 2008

La Lollobrigida revisits stardom with sculpture show


Italian movie icon Gina Lollobrigida will be flashing her artistic talents in this Tuscan town, with an exhibition devoted to her sculpture.
Pietrasanta, a coastal town north of Lucca, is to showcase 30 bronze, marble and plastic sculptures by the actress.
The pieces will go on display later this month in the 14th-century Sant'Agostino Church, now an exhibition space, as well as outdoors in the central Piazza del Duomo.
The collection, the result of over ten years' work, is clearly inspired by the 81-year-old star's cinema career.
Many of the sculptures are portraits of her most famous screen characters.
A five-metre-high bronze statue, completed in 2002, will hold pride of place in Piazza Del Duomo. This depicts La Lollo as the gypsy Esmeralda opposite Anthony Quinn's Quasimodo in the 1957 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
A marble statue recalls the role that first won her international acclaim, the headstrong ''La Bersagliera'' in Pane Amore e Fantasia (1953).
Another marble piece 'La Amica' pays tribute to Lollobrigida's friendship with Marilyn Monroe while living in Hollywood.
But the exhibit also highlights the Italian's concern with the wider world, with a piece entitled Il Mondo per i Bambini (The World for the Children), recalling her years of work with UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders.
This is not the first exhibit of sculpture by La Lollo, who is an honorary citizen of Pietrasanta where she has had an artist's studio for the last ten years.
A travelling collection of her work wrapped up with an exhibition in Moscow's Pushkin Museum in 2003.
But while her sculpting talents have only come to public light in recent decades, La Lollo has had a lifelong passion for art.
As a young woman, she set her heart on an artistic career, winning a valuable scholarship to study sculpture and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, before turning to acting.
In April 2000 she told Parade magazine that she ''studied painting and sculpture at school and became an actress by mistake''.
In 1992 she represented Italy at the Seville Expo with a sculpture entitled Living Together, showing a child on an eagle, intended to represent harmony between humankind and nature.
Then French president, Francois Mitterrand, complimented her on the piece, later awarding her the Legion of Honour for artistic merit.
Gina Lollobrigida was born in 1927 in Subiaco, a town near Rome. She first came to the attention of Italian film directors as a beauty queen, after coming third in the 1947 Miss Italy competition.
Her Hollywood breakout film was the 1953 John Houston movie Beat the Devil although today she is still best known for the ''Pane, Amore...'' series
She rose to fame on the back of her prototype Latin beauty and her short ''tossed salad'' hairstyle. A kind of curly lettuce was even named ''Lollo'' in her honour.
In the 1970s she drifted away from acting but became a highly successful photographer and photojournalist, once scooping an exclusive interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The exhibition runs in Pietrasanta from September 20 until November 16, after which it will tour the US.

www.italymag.co.uk

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

More on the Wants List...

I've been doing on-off research into 'Yangtse Incident' (as an expansion of my webpage about HMS Amethyts's ship's cat), and found that - luckily - the logs of the ships used in the filming are at the National Archives, so they've provided quite a bit of useful information on how the "at sea" scenes were shot.

..............did you ever see the Sand Pebbles, Steve McQueen , and 55 Days in Peking, Charlton Heston, or even my soldiers and sailors on www.soldierssoldiers.com?

I ended up with a bit more spare time than expected last night, so I'm able to send the first batch of discs today, as follows:

'Silver Bears'
'The Clouded Yellow'
'Gumshoe'
'Rogue Male'

....................my God, what speed, what efficiency! Thanks.

The last copy is NTSC, as it came from an American DVD, and I already had an intermediate file I could quickly copy from. If it doesn't play OK for you, let me know and I'll encode a PAL Euro-standard replacement.

................Goodness, and a techy as well!!

If we count the first title to cover a six month subscription,

.............yes

and the second and third as excanges for 'Otley' and 'The Liquidator',

.............yes

I'll work out the remainder once I've checked the lists again.

............OK

Thanks

John



Best Wishes,

Nick

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Re: Various things on your wants list

I don't doubt the work that was put into Glyn Horton's book on British railways in feature films. I sure he knows his stuff about railways in general, but the Underground coverage does let it down a bit. I've already covered some of it in my own blog:

http://nickcooper625.blogspot.com/search/label/The London Underground in Films and TV

>> I was trying to pin down some detail on 'The Yellow Balloon' (tearing my hair out >> trying to ID the Underground stations used!), ended up at your site again, and got
>> even more distracted.
>
> ..............yes "Yellow Baloon" is on the list to be added, one day,
> along with more than 700 other films!!! Maybe Simon can help. I've
> copied him into this email.


I initially thought that from the size of the platform tunnels it was shot at Essex Road the old Northern City Line between Finsbury Park and Moorgate, but a quick recce last week on my way home disproved that. It's maddening because it's one of the best uses of a station in afilm, but it's too damned dark to be certain of anything beyond the fact that it is actually a real station and not a set!

There are definitely a few things you have that I need - especially 'Otley' and 'The Liquidator' - I'll have a more detailed look and let you know. Of course, this is where I admit that I'm not actually subscribed to your site at the moment, so if one of the copies I can do can cover me for six months, that would be great.

Obviously all of the above is quite a large amount, so I can send them in
prgressive batches. 'Gumshoe', 'The Clouded Yellow', 'Rogue Male' and
'Silver Bears', due to the media they're already on, I should be able to
get in the post to you before the end of the week. Apart from those, do you
have any particular "priorities" as to which order you'd like the rest in?

I've just rechecked the lists on your website, and I also have:

Half a Sixpence (my other half may be able to help with the Tunbridge Wells
locations)
Lawrence of Arabia
Quatermass Experiment
Letter to Brezhnev (I think I have a Betamax copy of this, somewhere)
The Cruel Sea (another 'Daily Mail' DVD I think I have a spare of)

>> Incidentally, the Underground scenes in 'Manhunt' are all firmly studio
>> based.
>
> .............OK
>
> I also recently acquired the 1978 BBC TV film under the original
>> title of 'Rogue Male', which has a lot of nice London location work.
>
> .................better and better
>>
>> Incidentally, I noticed in the London A-D list that you seem to have
>> 'Bulldog Jack' down as 'Brighton Rock'!
>
> ..............who can we blame................except me? An appalling
> error, or human frailty?
>
> ..............To err is human, to forgive..................
>
> .............I hope that our thousands of hours of work somewhat
> ameliorate this small error, which we'll correct, now that we know.


One of those things - no matter how much you work on something, no matter
how many times you read it, you can overlook something quite obvious. I
went through dozens of drafts of the booklet for the 'Things to Come' DVD,
and it passed through various hands at the publishers, but there were a
couple of errors that were only noticed by the graphic designer as he was
laying out the final version!

Nick

Various things on your wants list

Dear John,

Although I really should be doing stuff for my impending wedding (13 Sept!),

................weddings you can organise any time, we've done eight this year at www.lapreghiera.com, but websites and films are MUCH more important! Just don't let your intended read this email!

I've been a bit distracted working on a major revamp of my website about the London Undergound in Films & TV. I hadn't done much with it in the last couple of years, mainly because I was working on a very protracted DVD release of 'Things to Come', and then got involved in a BBC4 documentary about the Underground (inclduing its use as a film location).

...................all good grist for our blog, thank you.

Anyway, with those projects out of the way, I was particularly spurred into revisiting the Underground site by reading Glyn Horton's book on British railways in feature films, which unfortunately contains some appalling misidentifications of stations (e.g. 'Seven Days to Noon').

.............so, can you correct him? Tell us the errors. And never forget that those who can...........do. Those who can't ............criticize. The fact that this person has put in hundreds of hours producing a book at all, is a magnificent achievement, so, be tolerant, and advise him for the next edition.

I was trying to pin down some detail on 'The Yellow Balloon' (tearing my hair out trying to ID the Underground stations used!), ended up at your site again, and got even more distracted.

..............yes "Yellow Baloon" is on the list to be added, one day, along with more than 700 other films!!! Maybe Simon can help. I've copied him into this email.

Looking through the film lists, from memory I definitely have the following that you have in black on your site:

..............which means that we want them please.

The Gentle Gunman [PAL VHS]
Gert and Daisy's Weekend [PAL VHS]
Gumshoe [PAL DVD from digital broadcast]
Love on Wheels [NTSC VHS]
1984 [1956 - NTSC VHS]
Manhunt [NTSC VHS]
The Passionate Friends [VHS]
Piccadilly [NTSC DVD]
The Red Shoes [PAL DVD]
Silver Bears ['Daily Mail' freebie I have spare]
The War Game [PAL DVD]
The Clouded Yellow [PAL DVD from digital broadcast]
Rita, Sue and Bob Too [VHS]
Passionate Summer [VHS]

I can transfer all of these to DVD-R, in the case of the NTSC copies either as that, or converted to PAL.

..................er, yes, I think so..............as long as they play, then all is well. My swaps are those tapes that are listed in red or green, and I'll send you your requirements as soon as I receive your discs/tapes.

Incidentally, the Underground scenes in 'Manhunt' are all firmly studio based.

.............OK

I also recently acquired the 1978 BBC TV film under the original title of 'Rogue Male', which has a lot of nice London location work.

.................better and better

Incidentally, I noticed in the London A-D list that you seem to have 'Bulldog Jack' down as 'Brighton Rock'!

..............who can we blame................except me? An appalling error, or human frailty?

..............To err is human, to forgive..................

.............I hope that our thousands of hours of work somewhat ameliorate
this small error, which we'll correct, now that we know.

...........Good to hear from you

...........Best wishes

...........John


Best Wishes,

Nick Cooper

Monday, September 01, 2008

Alfie

Hi John,

Glad I'm back!

I was wondering if you could add a couple of pictures to the Alfie locations,

...................yes, always happy to do so, pull the stills and we'll add them

I'd love to know the pub and river used where he takes Alfie Bass's wife on the river and there is a scene where the Rolls Royce goes over a bridge, I would love to know where that is as well.

................so would we. Do some research, and in the meantime I'll blog your letter. You never know, maybe there is someone out there who knows

.............Ciao

..............John


Cheers,

Colin.