New Films Sent in

Sent in today by a Mary Millington fan, as many of us were:

Come Play With Me, 1977, Mary Millington, Alfie Bass, Irene Handle, George Harrison Marks, Ronald Fraser, Cardew Robinson, Rita Webb, Henry McGee, Valentine Dyall. London, Oxfordshire, Sussex.

Great Rock and Roll Swindle, 1980, Mary Millington, Liz Fraser, Ronald Biggs, Sid Vicious. Highgate, Highgate Cemetery, Swain's Lane, Highgate, Kings Road, Chelsea, Marylebone Station, Soho, Tower Bridge, London, Northampton, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, (imdb).

Mary, Queen of the Blues, 1979. London, Mayfair.

Playbirds, 1978, Mary Millington, Windsor Davies, Derren Nesbitt, Kenny Lynch. Newmarket, London, Soho.

What's Up Superdoc? 1978. Harry H Corbett, Hughie Green. Soho, London and Surrey.

Keep it Up Downstairs, 1976. Diana Dors, William Rushden. Knebworth House, Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

Intimate Games, 1976. Mary Millington. Oxford.

Which was the film that I saw in my youth with three naked girls running down the steps of the Bloomsbury Shopping Centre, just off Russell Square in London? Anyone remember? Perhaps it was one of the above?

NEW FILM ONLINE: "The Rebel"

Year: 1961

Stars: Tony Hancock, George Sanders, Paul Massie, Margit Saad, dennis Price, Irene Handl

Director: Robert Day

Locations: London, Paris, Monte Carlo

Plot: Anthony Hancock gives up his office job to become an abstract artist. He has a lot of enthusiasm, but little talent, and critics scorn his work. Nevertheless, he impresses an emerging very talented artist.

Number of Stills: 18
Number of 'Now' Shots: 9

New Films Just Arrived

The following films have just arrived, to be loaded on to the site in the not too distant future:

Great Day (1945)
Man of the Moment (1955)
Out of the Clouds (1955)
Red Shoes (1948)
Seven Sinners (1936)
Tawney Pipit (1944)

Are there any you need? Want to swap?

JT

HOW TO KNOCK DOWN GEORGIAN BUILDINGS AND HISTORIC FILM LOCATIONS, WITHOUT ANYBODY NOTICING

The Kingsway, Swansea, has plenty of modern, thrusting buildings, but not so many Georgian ones…In fact the last ones were just pulled down, so now it doesn’t have any!

These shops came through two world wars, but were no match for Swansea Council and the developers.
Reel Streeters will know that ‘Only Two Can Play’ was filmed here in Christina Street, around 1962.


It was all a bit knocked about, even then.

Give them a few more years of neglect and by 2008 they looked like this:

Hard to see the fabric of the buildings, behind all the tat, isn’t it?

May 2009 and the scaffolding goes up:


Watch it all come down...

All gone... poof!

Am I a silly old thing to care?
I suppose so... We must all ‘get with it’, now.

It’s just that this corner was a nice little shopping precinct, as it was set back off the road.


Peter Sellers, Kingsway Swansea, 1962.
Picture courtesy of David Roberts from his book ‘Thank You For The Days, Swansea’ (that’s Entertainment).

I could have imagined a photo or two of Kenneth Griffiths and Peter Sellers, even a few words pasted up about the film.
Maybe something about the history of that part of town too (I’m sure the site has been occupied for hundreds of years).
With the shops restored to all their glory, it would have been a real treasure and asset to the city.
All it needed was not to knock down the frontage, the interior of the buildings could have been as thrusting and modern as you like.

All gone now and never coming back.

Thank you, Swansea Council for looking after our heritage...Not!

Brian Tunstill.

Film centre gets government funds

The Tate extension is expected to be completed in 2012.
The government has approved funding for a National Film Centre on London's South Bank.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the funding highlighted the government's "continuing support for the arts", and on Friday the government confirmed it would provide £45m to help fund a National Film Centre, a long-cherished project of the late film director and former BFI chairman Anthony Minghella.
The centre will provide a new home for the British Film Institute and become a venue for key film events, such as the opening night of the London Film Festival and global premieres.
It is expected to house five digital cinemas and is destined for completion in 2015.
Further investment will come from the London Mayor's office, which has promised £5m, the sale of the BFI's current London offices and outside investors.
"Britain has achieved worldwide respect for its innovative and vibrant film industry," said the prime minister.
"The commitment to the new BFI National Film Centre demonstrates the government's continuing support for the arts in Britain, and our determination to invest in leading creative industries as part of our economic recovery."
The investment comes on top of £25m that the government has already committed to preserve for the nation the BFI's internationally-acclaimed film collection.
A spokesman for the BFI said: "We're absolutely delighted that we can start to move forward and realise our long-term strategy.
"Film is up there with other art forms such as dance and opera and the visual arts. It is high time that film got a centre worthy of the form."

The Dam Busters

Charles Moorhen suggests that it is worth noting that one of the pilots from the actual 'Dam Busters Raid', is buried in the churchyard of 'St. Michael's and All Saints Church' in Clifton Hampden village, near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, England.

The Fast Lady

The scene where Murdoch Troon (Stanley Baxter) and Claire Chingford (Julie Christie) are kissing in the Bentley, as it slips backwards into the water, was filmed at Frensham Common in Surrey, England, just off the A287 road between Farnham and Haslemere.

Info kindly supplied by Charles Moorhen.

NEW FILM: Hunted

Year: 1952

Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Jon Whiteley, Elizabeth Sellars, Kay Walsh

Director: Charles Crichton

Locations: London, Stoke-On-Trent, Portpatrick (South Ayrshire)

Plot: A fugitive from justice teams up with small boy fleeing from unhappy home and they travel across the country.

Number of Stills: 25
Number of 'Now' Shots: 12

Kaleidoscope

Now yer see it. Now yer don’t. Repeated for your interest and entertainment.

Just to show how feature films are often assembled from a series of un-connected scenes, that may, or may not, be filmed on the same day, we offer a small selection from Kaleidoscope, made in the1960’s with Warren Beatty, Susannah York, Murray Melvin & Eric Porter. The continuity person was listed as Constance ( Connie) Willis, and hopefully dear Connie went on to greater things outside the film industry. But no, she is listed on imdb as having organised the continuity in some 50 films! So obviously a bad day at the studio.

The action takes place in the office of a British Intelligence Officer, MI5, 6 or even 007. But the real interest in this scene is the print of W G Grace, the Grand Old Man of English Cricket, and the Vanity Fair print by “Spy”, Leslie Ward, which was one of the most desirable ever produced.

In the pic101 the hero is being coerced into acting on behalf of the UK government in order to obtain evidence against a master criminal. The back wall has a “Spy” print on the left of a dark mirror. Nothing appears behind our young hero’s head.
101

By the time we reach 102, when Melvin enters the room, the objects on the desk have changed position and the WG Grace picture is hanging on the wall. In pic 103 the print is in position. In 104 it’s gone, and the cigarette box and the other objects have changed place.
102
103
104

In pic 105 the print is back, but in 106 it’s gone again, and the poltergeist has been at work on the desk top. And finally in 107 Dr W G is restored to his rightful position.
105
106
107

So obviously the scenes which included Melvin were shot at a different time to those when Beatty was by himself, and the continuity person’s brain had slipped into neutral.

The Vanity Fair cartoons were a series of beautiful caricatures printed in the period 1880-1913 on fine art paper of “Men of the Day”, and there were also a few women included in the long running series. The W G Grace print now has a value of hundreds of pounds, but there are many others which retail for only £20.00 or so. More information is to be found on www.soldierssoldiers.com.

Future Cinema Releases Locations

The film Sherlock Holmes, which stars Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, is set to be released in December and coincides with the 150th anniversary of the birth of Conan Doyle, the original author.

Tourist offices throughout Kent, where much of the film was made are counting on the film inspiring visitors to visit Kent locations linked to Conan Doyle, including some featuring in the movie such as Chatham's historic dockyard. Kent also hosted the films Long Memory, Gravesend; A Canterbury Tale and Green Grow the Rushes, set in New Romney and surrounding countryside.

Other Kent places with Conan Doyle connections include Margate; where they filmed part of the Big Sleep; Whitstable and Dover, where Girl With Pistol was partly shot. The film, directed by Guy Ritchie, also used St Paul's Cathedral, Liverpool Docks, with The Magnet and Clouded Yellow and Manchester with Kind of Loving, A Taste of Honey, Hell is a City and Billy Liar.

In May 2010 yet another version of Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Vanessa Redgrave and William Hurt, will hit the silver screen. Locations used in the movie include Sherwood Forest, which has trees, in Nottinghamshire; Virginia Water in Surrey, which has more trees, but perhaps of a different variety and Bourne Woods in Farnham, Surrey, with, would you believe even more trees. Perhaps a tree spotters guide could be incorporated into ReelStreets. ReelTrees.com?

The VisitEngland hopes that these and other movies will help the continuing trend of more people touring in their own country, and foreigners coming specifically to walk in the footsteps of the stars. It’s called Film Induced Tourism see the blog/article 22 August 2009. Visit England, This England and all the tourist agencies and offices should be taking space on ReelStreets to promote their local areas.

A remake of the 1947 film Brighton Rock; where they also made Quadrophenia; which starred Richard Attenborough, begins shortly and will include scenes in the Sussex seaside resort of Eastbourne; Millions Like Us. So why don’t they, with rare genius call it Eastbourne Rock, or for one of the biggest rocks why not Beachy Head! Lost and the Chalk Garden were shot in, on or around.

Nowhere Boy, John Lennon's childhood, is released in December and includes locations from Liverpool; Flight of the Doves, Beyond this Place and Violent Playground; and Blackpool; Sing As We Go, Taste of Honey & Forbidden.

In February 2010 The Wolf Man, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt, is released. Locations for this movie included the Yorkshire towns of Doncaster, Tread Softly Stranger and used in the opening scenes of The Cinema of Darkness; Barnsley, Kes of course and Sheffield; Girl With Pistol as well as Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.

And, talking of Hammersmith…………..who was talking of Hammersmith?.........Cassandra’s Dream was partly shot there, and the uncanny connection with twenty other films and a number of missing persons is the story gruesomely revealed to the audience in the Cinema of Darkness

Original info from uknews/yahoo.com

Boys in Brown

'Booth' building on corner of York Way and Camden Road (bib005).

I just wanted to get in touch, this is my flat! Since I moved in, I've been trying to find out the building's history and why it says 'Booth' above my front door! I had no idea it had been in a film! I'll have to look out for it. Thanks for helping me solve the mystery!

Leah Mitchell

Recent Additions

Here is a list of some recent additions to our library, to be loaded on to the site in the not too distant future...

Brandy for the Parson (1953)
You're Only Young Twice (1953)
Carry On sergeant (1958)
Back room Boy (1942)
Smokescreen (1964)
Jigsaw (1963)
Look Up and Laugh (1935)
Somewhere in Camp (1942)
Somewhere in England (1940)
Somewhere on Leave (1943)
Somewhere in Civies (1943)
It's a Grand Life (1953)
Holiday With Pay (1948)
Tunes of Glory (1960)
Looking on the Bright Side (1932)