Film Movie Filming Locations

SCREEN GRABS for Location Oriented Films and Movies

2011-06-30T05:08:00.000-07:00

Providing Tourist Related Destinations influenced by feature films

We’re still waiting for your contribution to Reelstreets, You remember, you did offer.

So, an easy way to grab the stills. Look up your favourite film by name, in Google, eg. Kes, with youtube added. “Kes utube”.
You will often find a series of excerpts / trailers etc. from the film which will enable you to pull the “then” shots.
Run the film and press the “full screen” tab; often under the screen movie picture, on the right, four tiny arrows pointing outwards to the corners.
When you have a screen full of the scene you want to capture or grab, you will need to press the key which possibly says Print / Screen or something similar, perhaps Prt/Scrn. This button is usually on the top row in the keyboard, the “F” row, it is usually on the right hand side and often third key in from the right. Press this in conjunction with the Alt key, often on the bottom line of the keyboard, third button in from the left..

So for a screen grab, enlarge the movie to full screen size, when the required scene is playing, click Print/Screen and Alt to capture a picture.

Pause the screen whilst you deal with the picture you have grabbed.

To exit “full screen” mode pres Esc, top right on the keyboard.

Open Photoshop and click File/New, top right of screen, you will then be offered an option to open a new page, click yes, then Modify/Paste, and presto your pic appears on screen!

Sharpen/adjust brightness/contrast/colour as required and give it a file reference corresponding to the film’s title. Save the pic with the new reference initials and number the frames in sequence, as a .jpg file, at medium resolution, and do this for each scene containing different architectural detail.

Later, again in Photoshop, resize the pic to a width of 420 pixels, height about 315.
The image size MUST be less than 50KB, or else our robot will reject it, will visit you in the night, and subject you to unspeakable cinematographic torments. You have been warned!

For those of you who delight in unspeakable torments, there are many other sites available!

With my computer I can only grab one scene at a time, which I then need to download before grabbing the next one. I prefer to run the film on “pause” and shift the time button, usually a red indicator on the time line at the bottom of the screen, scene by scene, in a “frame freeze mode”. This, for me makes it simpler to grab the frames. When in pause/freeze frame mode the time line will usually fade from the screen after a second or two, as one doesn’t wish to copy that.

When you’ve done all the outside location shots from the film, tell us, and we’ll give you the passwords necessary to load “your” film on site, www.reelstreets.com.

LETTER to BREZHNEV,

2011-06-28T01:19:00.000-07:00

A film location guide to Liverpool.

Two Russian sailors, Peter and Sergei, arrive in Liverpool for one night ashore. Peter can speak a bit of English but it's enough to pull two local lassies, Elaine and Theresa. Elaine and Peter immediately fall in love, but in the morning the two boys must leave with their ship. Elaine can't forget him and writes the letter to Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, asking him to make it possible for them to meet again.
It was suggested to Liverpool Tourist Office that we would give them some free space on site; film induced tourism and all that; yes, GIVE / FREE space to promote their city. But after three or four emails, and three or four responses from robots assuring us that they would contact us within a few days, nothing. So much for the Liverpool Tourist Office in their attempts to lure tourists in these hard times. They are constantly bleating that tourism numbers are down, hotels, pubs and restaurants are suffering, etc., etc. But to take up our FREE offer was too much for them to bother with.
An advert on each of the Liverpool located films that appear on our site, to promote their city to film fans, might just bring in a few people. But, sadly they have too much else to do, making tea, organising the staff outings, holidays, sick leave and the rest, to waste time on promoting their city on the half dozen film location sites that we have about Liverpool.
________________________________________
At the same time Bolton Tourist Office was approached with our FREE offer to place space on our site, Spring and Port Wine, but again nothing, except of course the ubiquitous robots. Perhaps Bolton, unique in the British Isles, has an overwhelming number of visitors banging at their doors, I somehow doubt it. However despite the incumbents in the Tourist Board, Spring and Port Wine is a really interesting exploration of Bolton as it was.

WHY DO YOU DO IT?

2011-06-20T03:50:00.000-07:00

This was a question asked yesterday at breakfast at La Preghiera, Umbria, Italy, where we live, the lady who posed the question was actually staying in Villa Moscatelli, our adjacent but smaller house, and she was one of the last guests left over from the wedding we had just organised in our grounds and chapel.

We were discussing the local historical attractions of Assisi and Saint Francis, Perugia and Perugino (and not just the Baci chocolates), Montone and the strong-arm Fortebraccio, Caprese and Michaelangelo, Cortona and Under the Tuscan Sun, Lake Trasimeno and Hannibal and a few other local worthies. During the conversation vintage postcards, lead soldiers, local house sales and renovations, and film locations, were gently promoted.

Why do you do it, was the question directed at me by a lady of mature years with whom I had briefly discussed the merits of Reel Streets. We both agreed on the nostalgic aspect for the old stars and their films, but the lady had never considered the then and now association of the locations used in the films, the changes in the buildings, the shops, the vehicles, the clothes, the behaviour, the culture, the very way we now live and react to the world and the people around us, that has changed, and is continuing to change, during our lifetimes

Imagine, the Western cultures coming to the aid of the Arab nations. Sixty years ago they were peoples in the way of the pursuit of the Italian and German forces, and if a few hundred, or a few thousand got killed and all their houses destroyed, tough. And what if Mussolini’s troops invaded, massacred and gassed a few thousand Ethiopians, Somalis and Eritreans, not really any of our business, or that of the League of Nations.
Sixty years before that, we, the northern Europeans, were actively attempting to destroy or enslave the African peoples. Us, the Brits in Egypt and the Sudan, the French and Spanish in Morocco, and a bit further south the Belgians in the Congo, the Germans in West Africa, and us, actually fighting our own kind, northern Europeans, the God-fearing and Christian Dutch in South Africa.

Today, happily, many of us lean over backwards to assist those in need, we are more ready to accept into our homes and families those persons of a different cultural background, of a different religion and of a different skin colour.

But the question was, “Why do you do it”? These old films, what is the attraction of these old sites, these locations? I turned the question around and asked the lady why she was going to visit Assisi in the morning and, with her husband, the site of the Roman battle at Trasimeno, tomorrow. “Ah, because I have a deep interest in Saint Francis, and my husband just loves military history”.

“So, walking in the footsteps of the famous. This is historically induced tourism”, I suggested. “Just so”, she readily agreed. Had the lady ever been to Haworth , Bronte’ countryside? “Oh yes, and we loved it”. But the Bronte’ area is based on the sisters’ success as novelists, which was fiction, not fact, I pointed out. “Oh yes, but it was lovely to walk among the lanes and imagine it all” said the lady. Tourism induced by fiction I suggested. “Yes”, the lady sighed, “but so romantic”.

So, I said, the reason why we do it is a combination of romance, fiction, nostalgia, history and interest, can I offer you the DVD of “Brother Sun, Sister Moon” for you to view before you go to Assisi, and even “Romeo and Juliet”, Zefferelli’s masterpiece, before you go off to Bologna? Oh, We’ve seen that, that’s why we want to go there.

Exactly, I said, film induced tourism. Fiction by Shakespeare, interpreted by Zefferelli, made into “fact” by the studio publicity men, and underpinned by the tourist office of Bologna. “Oh yes, said she, so romantic, so sad”.

And that, said I, is why, in part, we do it.
www.reelstreets.com
www.lapreghiera.com
www.villamoscatelli.com
www.weddingsumbria.com

The Nation's Locations

2011-06-20T03:28:00.000-07:00

OK, so you want to see your favourite film on ReelStreets.

If you’ve got the film on tape or disc, run it through your computer using a free “frame-grabbing” programme such as GOM.

Follow the resizing and “tweaking” process outlined in our How to Submit section on our Home Page. Title the pics in lower case, size them and send them in as an email attachment.

If you haven’t a copy of the film do a Google search for the title and you will often find sites which will let you look at highlights of the film, trailers and sometimes the complete movie. Either copy these to your hard disk, and using the GOM programme above select the required snips or grabs, size, tweak and title and send in, or grab the still directly from your screen by pressing the button, normally on the very top line of the keyboard, on the right hand block of three, the left hand key which should have Print / Screen or something similar printed on it.

Open Photoshop or some thing similar, press File / New and you will probably be asked to confirm a picture size usually pre-determined by the computer to correspond to the picture you have just “grabbed”. Click Yes / Ok, then Modify / Paste and, CARAMBA!, the picture appears before your very eyes. Tweak / title and send in.

Easy Peasy.

John Tunstill
www.reelstreets.com

Film / Movie Locations / Sites, Locations of the Nations

2011-06-20T03:22:00.000-07:00

OK, so you want to see your favourite film on ReelStreets.com.

If you’ve got the film on tape or disc, run it through your computer using a free “frame-grabbing” programme such as GOM.

Follow the resizing and “tweaking” process outlined in our How to Submit section on our Home Page. Title the pics in lower case, size them and send them in as an email attachment.

If you haven’t a copy of the film do a Google search for the title and you will often find sites which will let you look at highlights of the film, trailers and sometimes the complete movie. Either copy these to your hard disk, and using the GOM programme above select the required snips or grabs, size, tweak and title and send in, or grab the still directly from your screen by pressing the button, normally on the very top line of the keyboard, on the right hand block of three, the left hand key which should have Print / Screen or something similar printed on it.

Open Photoshop or something similar, press File / New and you will probably be asked to confirm a picture size usually pre-determined by the computer to correspond to the picture you have just “grabbed”. Click Yes / Ok, then Modify / Paste and, CARAMBA!, the picture appears before your very eyes. Tweak / title and send in.

Easy Peasy.

John Tunstill, www.reelstreets.com

Film & Movie Filming Locations

2009-09-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

Most of the actors of the silver screen's golden age have long since gone to the eternal critic. Many of us who grew up admiring their work at the local "flicks", or "pictures"; have remained enthusiastic about their achievements; and now a growing band of younger filmgoers are recognising the entertainment, and also the social, values, inherent in these old films or movies. This article is concerned with the British Cinema in the sixty years between the 1920's and 1980's, which perhaps really was the "Golden Age"; but more, it is concerned with scenes which were shot outdoors in recognisable built-up locations, and which incorporated some of our favourite actors and actresses, and how those places have changed in the intervening years.
Many early films or movies were shot outdoors; the film of Queen Victoria's Jubilee procession makes fabulous viewing; but here the investigation is of full length features, classic movies and cult films, not documentaries, and remembered "stars". "Two Lancashire Lassies in London" was made in 1919, but where is it, who has seen it, who has a copy and who remembers it? Perhaps "Underground", Alissa Landi, 1928, and "Piccadilly", with Anna May Wong, in 1929, may have been the earliest examples that combine the three principles, length, stars and architecture.
Apart from the entertainment value in these old films, the makers, the directors and producers, unintentionally captured a way of life now superseded. Valuable historical and social lessons can be learned from a study of these wonderful moving images; the language, the accents, and the idioms; the buildings and their architectural detail; the damage caused by the war years; and even the interior film sets show domestic situations, based on the reality, or the contrived reality, of the time.
Furniture, fixtures and fittings, that are now unavailable except in a museum, are shown in fine detail. Then, in the cinema of reality; "Look Back in Anger", "Millions Like Us", and "Poor Cow", and “Room at the Top”; we see the awful drabness of our, or their, lives, exposed to the viewing millions of film-goers.
Even the escapism of the comedy film "Genevieve" paints a depressing picture of south London after the war. Look carefully at the passing streets, the houses, the shop fronts, and see how really mean they looked after five years of war. Rationing existed until the 1950's and much of damaged London wasn't rebuilt until well into the 1980's. Real history on film, cinema history in the making, a commentary on British social life.
Our food; how, where and what we ate and drank, Ovaltine, Wonderloaf and Guinness may have been national staples; just watch the shop windows, the hoardings and the bus side advertising in "The Leather Boys", “Heaven’s Above” and "Sparrows Can't Sing". The layouts of the shops, of offices and factories; "Man at the Top" and "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", the street equipment, the vehicles, and then, just our clothes, could provide material for another whole series of articles, and all provided by the British and American film industry.
The class-conscious behaviour of the actors must have reflected the way we were, or thought we were. Just listen to the Huggetts, Alistair Sim, Margaret Rutherford; and Celia Johnson on Carnforth Station, in "Brief Encounter" getting ".......something in my eye", or was it "...........my ei", ".........mai ay", or even "............mai ii"? Yes we did talk like that, and some will mourn the fact that we no longer do. We have changed, we are changing, and probably will continue to change. No longer does one receive a "Thank you and good afternoon", but usually just a "Ther' yer go"! That's change for you!
The dark paint, invariably scuffed, the scumbled doors, the dingy floral wallpapers, stained and grubby with finger-marks around the light switches, discoloured around brass plates or letterboxes where the Brasso had affected the paintwork; just review "Millions Like Us" and "I Believe in You", for the evidence. The evil sinks made of buff porcelain with their curious vertical slots, or indentations, in their sides, set off by the cracked white-tiled surrounds; the linoleum; the Ascot water heaters, the chipped baths, the hard crackley sadistic Izal lavatory paper. "Man at the Top", “Look Back in Anger”, “For Them That Trespass”, a rare film, and “10 Rillington Place” show what I mean.
Loose sweets in paper bags, and sweet shops with glass jars full of confections. Wide throated milk bottles with push-in cardboard caps, on the front step, see Norman Wisdom in "Early Bird", or try Stanley Baker in "Hell Drivers"; and the deck-chair striped material hung over the front doors of middle class houses to stop the sun blistering the paintwork, which gave the opportunity to small boys to pop the bubbles. All now gone, except on the celluloid reflections of "Room at the Top", "This Sporting Life", and many others.
Men, not just gentlemen, always wore hats or caps, and the workers sported mufflers and brown overalls, and wrap-around pinafores were the order of the day for womenfolk of the lower orders. Look at "I'm Alright Jack", "School for Scoundrels" and "The Lavender Hill Mob", classics of the silver screen.. And any man, when dressed, wore a tie; many members of the Northern Ireland administration, the BBC, and the Knesset in Israel have now even dispensed with this badge of office. Trainers and shell suits will soon be "de rigour", never mind stiff collars, three piece suits and gloves! Watch the folks in the background in “Bond Street”, those were the days.
Parents were called, by each other, and their offspring, Mother and Father, they used phrases like 'browned off', 'toodle pip', 'old girl', 'old man', 'TTFN','You lucky people'and "Give 'im the money Barney", the last were the unforgettable words of Wilfred Pickles, the father in "Billy Liar", from his show "Worker's Playtime", another movie with a cult following.
Discarded 'woollies' were unpicked and rewound into balls for reuse in other garments; that guy in the 'Time Team' still wears such jumpers made in this way even now, probably knitted by his mum. Letters were addressed to "so and so" Esq, and firms and companies were referred to as "Messrs". It really isn't that long ago, I remember it well, but in reality it was a different world. Oh, and TTFN, stood for 'Ta Ta For Now', from ITMA, the radio show, or rather, the wireless show.
Filming locations now need hundredweights of permissions, police, health and safety, fire-brigade and local authorities all become involved, the old days of film production are now gone. Film producers and movie directors are stifling under a mound of paper.
The middle and upper classes, when portrayed, lived a different life, in different buildings, with different furniture, fixtures and fittings. Here the changes are much less dramatic, the antiques and antiquities of the seriously rich and famous are still mainly in their original places, no slum clearance was needed, no high rises were considered; but they in their way add to the glamour of film and movie history, as well as providing accurate architectural records.
The middling classes still occupy their pleasant semis, country cottages, and mews flats. But which were these suburban streets that were shown in "The Amorous Milkman", with Diana Dors? The greatest changes have been made in the living conditions of the, then termed, working and lower-middle classes. Theirs were the real streets, those of Alf Garnett's "Saga" in London’s East End. “Sparrows Can’t Sing” was a reflection of family life in those times.
Wincarnis port wine, crystal sets, wirelesses that needed to 'warm up', Alvar Liddel reading the news, and Victor Sylvester entertaining us on Sunday evenings from the Palm Court of Grand Hotel. Prints of the 'Wreck of the Hesperus', 'The Stag at Bay', and 'Napoleon on the Deck of the Bellerophon', all slightly foxed and badly framed, gradually gave way to a selection of Tretchikoff's 'Green Ladies', which now too have become desirable objects for collectors.

Washing-up suds were produced with the remaining small ends of toilet-soap tablets held in metal-mesh whisks, and the actual cleaning of the plates was done with small string mops, see "This Happy Breed" and “Fly Away Peter”. The finished product was often placed on a wooden rack over the sink, or on a squigily wire rack on the top of the blue-grey "marble finished" gas stove, "10 Rillington Place". Sculleries and outside lavatories were the order of the day, “The Sandwich Man”, mangles and wringers were the housewife's domestic appliances.
The cinema, movie theatre, or “pictures” were the cheap form of entertainment before the advent of television for the masses. love stories, comedies, musicals, detective tales, horror films and adult movies were the staple diet at British and US cinemas, rarely was there the opportunity to examine foreign films. “Rififfi”, “Ladri di Bicicletti”, “Riso Amaro”, “La Strada”, “Roma, Citta’ Aperta” appear on the reelstreets website, with up to date images of the same streets today, but they rarely appeared on the British or American film distributor’s lists.

The 'Times' didn't have photos on its front page, and the exposures of page three fame were only to be found in pocket size copies of 'Spick and Span' and 'Beautiful Britons', and those only in the 50's. There's a window full of sexy magazines in "Sparrows Can't Sing ", and of course the pictures were being taken by Hardy Kreuger in "Peeping Tom" in Bloomsbury, London. The 'News of the World' provided salacious scandal, and the 'Sunday Pictorial' the photos. TV announcers wore evening dress, but I always suspected that McDonald Hobley wasn't wearing the correct trousers, or possibly not wearing trousers at all.
All of this is but a precursor to the architectural differences between "then" and "now"; and these changes to the bricks and mortar are every bit as great as those mentioned above regarding the social manners and customs captured on film.
England's capital city, London, had the greatest attention from the cinematographers, and this city figures largely in most of the old movies with worthwhile architectural detail. There are almost 300 films listed showing scenes of the capital, from "Adventures of a Private Eye" to "Up The Junction", each showing different parts of the metropolis. It, the "Great Wen", the "Smoke", together with the home counties, had the greatest population, the majority of the film studios; Pinewood, Elstree, Denham, Walton, Gainsborough, Merton, Shepherds Bush, riverside and many others; was home to many of the producers, directors and actors, had a huge variety of available locations and extras, and also was easily accessible by the film crews. The back-up services and suppliers were at hand and the local authorities were usually co-operative in the process of film production and movie location work. Film posters and front of house stills could be quickly produced and distributed to all the cinemas in the kingdom.
The heart of London, the centre from which all measurements were made, was Trafalgar Square; it was the centre of the metropolis, therefore the hub of the Empire, and, by implication, the world. The areas of heaviest population have suffered the greatest changes, whilst the "tourist" sets beloved by many film-makers, in order, one supposes, to be able to sell their products more readily in overseas markets, have changed hardly at all. Did all the shots of Trafalgar Square with Terence Stamp driving a kidnapped Samantha Eggar towards his Kentish hideaway, in "The Collector"; or Keir Dullea making a phone call from the newly opened 24-hour Post Office on the corner in "Bunny Lake is Missing"; or David Evans and Hilton Edwards; P H, the blind man; walking and reminiscing about returning to Cheltenham in "Victim"; or, Joan Dowling, buying a ticket in "Train of Events", really help the film’s distribution chances?

Did the shots really impinge on the subconscious of audiences in Nebraska, or Alice Springs or Wagga Wagga, or did they just demonstrate the foreign-ness of the film, or would, or could, the cinema-goer really identify these far-away places. 'Gee, is that really Trafalgarrr Squarrr?'.

That the reality of the scene helped in the fiction and fantasy of the moving image, and added considerably to the sum of its parts, there is no doubt, but as the British film industry has hardly ever managed to impinge on the US market, this could not really have been a consideration. After all, they couldn't understand the way we spoke. Perhaps it was aimed at the domestic market, where, fifty years ago most British people had never actually seen Nelson's column. The numbers, even today, of those who still haven't, would surprise one. Or maybe it was the location scouts that were less adventurous, or lazy. Why was an unremarkable corner of Hammersmith used some twenty times and why was Battersea church and yard the focus of attention so often by location managers, directors and producers?
Obvious tourist locations aside, how and why are locations chosen to be used as the settings for feature films? It was always reasonably important to find a site that corresponded more or less to the plot. But did the sight of Richard Widmark catching a bus somewhere in London in "Night and the City"; in, would you believe it, Trafalgar Square again; or of Michael Caine walking the streets in Notting Hill in the "Ipcress File"; where he could have found Tom Courtney in "Otley", or Yul Brynner, Charles Grey or Edward Woodward, in "The File of the Golden Goose"; really help to sell the product? And why all the, possibly unhealthy, interest in the unfashionable corner of Hammersmith for so many filming locations? Movie history reflects the social history of the nation filmed and recorded, the movies shot in real streets show the reality of everyday living. Elizabeth Taylor was in a church in West London, “Secret Ceremony” which was used also by “The Boys“ and appeared in “The Blue Lamp”. but the “Boys in Brown” managed easily to find new and exciting locations in Islington for their exciting chase, easily leaving the scene of the robbery in “Lady killers”, and one of “Alfie’s” seductions, King’s Cross, from where the hero in the “39 Steps” removed to Scottish locations.

But in the context of the film these scenes provided verisimilitude and authenticity by using real streets, which reflect, by their architecture, their street furniture, the shapes of the windows, the doors, and even the green-grocer's shop front, the nationality of the location, its foreign feel, and therefore perhaps suggested the possible romance or interest of far off places.
Out of London, Beconsfield High Street was used in “Press for Time”, “Brief Encounter” and “Don’t Talk to Strange Men”, and Norman Wisdom raced down to Teignmouth, in Devon for parts of the film. Location filming took place in Brighton for “Villain”, “Quadrophenia”, ”Genevieve”, “Brighton Rock”, “The Night We Got the Bird” and many others. It was, aterall, just an hour or so south of London and provided actors, actresses, extras, film crews and location managers a day at the seaside.
A good outdoor scene is worth fifty studio sets; but proximity to the studio was another consideration, the western home counties of London, close to many of the studios, provided endless locations for Norman Wisdom, the "Carry On" gang, Windsor, the "Doctor" series, Beconsfield and a host of other feature films, including the host of Hammer horror flicks. Have you ever actually identified any of these streets, it really is a defining moment, a realisation of a detective’s clue, a moment of coming face to face with cinema history whilst walking in the footsteps of the stars at a real movie making location.
The Laurel and Hardy films, and the "Keystone Kops' kapers made in and around Hollywood, and often using exterior shots, provide an incredible record of the growth and development of that city's suburbs. So much so that a variety of books have been produced detailing the various locations of these filmic heroes. An enthusiast called Tony Reeves has also written a very interesting book, "The Worldwide Guide to Film Locations", it's currently in print and is a worthwhile purchase for film location buffs. The International Movie Data Base, IMDB, on the internet also sometimes comes up with information on where a film was shot. Whilst for London, Simon James has compiled the London Film Location Guide listing hundreds of films and there outside locations.
More recently the acquiescence of a sympathetic local authority could sway the placing of a film, and nowadays every region has a film development office to promote the business of filmmaking. This placement of cinematographic activity, and the use of the locations in the first place, which is a real boost to local employment. The British Film Institute claims that the making of a film causes a measurable rise in employment. Sometimes the film crew and extras outnumber the residents who didn't participate in the epic. "Whiskey Galore", "Moby Dick" and "I Know Where I'm Going" must, at times must have fallen into this category.

Firstly the film crew, actors and extras, several dozens of people at least; and sometimes a cast of thousands; supported in their work by several hundreds of local providers and artisans; and then finally the tourists, who arrive after having seen the film and want to visit the sites; all these factors add to the 'industry' of the area. Film induced tourism is now a major factor in determining the help that local authorities will give to film producers and their crews, and often a location is chosen solely on the financial advantages that are presented by the town council who realise that their area will be made considerably more popular by the continuous trail of film induced tourists. But in days gone past perhaps it was the location finder, producer, or director, who just fancied the area, for any one of a number of mundane personal reasons. It was near home, it had good communications, or a pleasant restaurant, or an available girlfriend / boyfriend, or what have you.....
Authentic scenes of Bolton, Wakefield, Nottingham, Barnsley, Cardiff and Keighley, the towns which featured with such distinction in "Spring and Port Wine", "This Sporting Life", "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner", Kes", "Tiger Bay", and "The Railway Children" have helped, by location, to place their stories in a realistic framework, something which the majority of the finest set builders could never achieve. The local businesses profited at the time, and the tourist related industries have been profiting ever since, as film pilgrims visit the sites.

But there are a hundred alternative towns that could easily have been used instead of the ones chosen. Why were they picked? Why, oh why, was "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" made in Stevenage? A nice enough town, but what compelling artistic reason decided that its fate be immortalised in this "epic"? Why not Watford, Welwyn Garden City; where at least I had a girlfriend; Wheathampstead or Wapping, or even Poplar? Which actually had its own film, "Fly a Flag for Poplar". Possibly the location managers were wooed by active local councillors, Bracknell is a case in point with “The Offence” and a few others, an unremarkable modern-ish town, but therin perhaps was its attraction, and close to the studios in west London.

Actually the local newspaper in Stevenage revealed that the director chose the 'New Town' of Stevenage in 1967 as 'it blended with the image of a new young England', it was to be 'a teenager's answer to "Alfie"’, said the clipping in the local library file. Well, there yer go, there yer ‘av'it. “Here We go Round the Mulberry Bush” location choice solved!

Obviously the availability of faster film stock, smaller and quieter generators; and the film crew of ‘Fallen Idol’ were constantly berated for making so much noise with their generators in and around Belgravia; and better roads and faster transport gave more possibilities for using real streets, only the weather was the enemy. On many occasions realism could be achieved and the production costs of building large sets saved. Only occasionally was a budget large enough, or a director strong enough, or the story convoluted enough, to require the building of whole streets of sets. Much of the area in “Passport to Pimlico”, as well as the street with the underground station and the cinema in “Sabotage”, were all fabricated. David Lean, he of “Ryan’s Daughter” fame, actually had the temerity, strength, or, more probably the temperament of a megalomaniac, which allowed him to employ 500 Irish builders for six months creating the “correct” village for the film.

It wasn’t enough that on the Dingle Peninsular there were probably fifty suitable villages, but no, Lean had to build one. Also the school house, all built to order. What an astonishing waste, yes, waste, of money, when so many alternative crumbling schoolhouses were available.
Do you know Bolton? Did you know Bolton? Queen's Park is still there, they say, but most of the streets and much of the canal, where James Mason and Diana Coupland had such scenes in "Spring and Port Wine" have long since gone under the developers bulldozer, and rightly so. But where were these old scenes shot, can anything still be identified? Adrienne Posta nipped up from Stevenage, after being chased around the “Mulberry Bush” to take part. Sometimes, in the background, is a church tower or spire, a gasworks, cooling towers or some such feature which still exists and which could give good reference for tracking down these elusive real streets.
Filmgoer's archaeology may yet be entered into the syllabus of our leading universities, perhaps under the grand title of Vernacular Cinematographic Architectural Archaeology. Such important titles attract more financial support, give more kudos to the recipient and look super when framed. Perhaps among the university cities, Oxford, which featured in “Accident”, Edinburgh, with “Greyfriars Bobby”, Cambridge with “Bachelor of Hearts” or Cheltenham, with “If”, could lead the way.
Most of "Tiger Bay" has gone; it used to be Bute Town, and is now mainly redeveloped. The only building left to link it to John and Haley Mills' epic, shot in and around Cardiff Docks in the Port Authority’s Victorian tower. How many Welsh locations can you think of that were used in films that contained real streets? "How Green is my Valley" is a non starter, made entirely on location in the San Fernando Valley in California! And "The Stars Look Down", was made in Northumberland, not Wales, they tell me. A snip from "The Foreman Went to France" shows a supposed Welsh village, as of course does “Under Milk Wood” and “Last Days of Dolwyn” and “Constant Husband”.
The mill town and streets in "Man in the White Suit", were in which, probably, Lancashire town? Where were Alec Guiness and Ernest Thesiger in this human industrial drama? Actually the location used in the filming of this British classic was outside a now demolished factory in Battersea, London. Not north at all, just a film-makers trick. Would you believe Church Road in Battersea in south London, the old Morgan Crucible works, now a block of expensive, shiny, glass, bed-sits.
"Hobson's Choice", John Mills and Brenda di Banzi, was shot in Salford, they say, or was it Oldham? However the last scenes, set prior to World War One, outside the church, show 1930's power station cooling towers, a producer’s gaff, but a vital piece of evidence for all location sleuths. But where was it?
Alec Guiness with Stanley Holloway went tearing around the City of London in "The Lavender Hill Mob"; a wonderful film that had nothing to do with the south west London suburb named in the title. Many shots of St Paul's Cathedral, the Bank of England, Thames bank, Holborn and the City could be filmed again today for a "Then and Now" documentary series on British film locations.
The start of Hitchcock's "Stagefright", shows the St Paul's bomb sites again, see them now, with the holes filled in with skyscrapers, and see the director himself in one of the real streets near the embankment in Pimlico, where the film "Passport to ......." wasn't filmed. It was done over the river in Lambeth, near the Vauxhall Station roundabout.
Well, this is where we came in…………… And to keep you awake at nights; apart from Berkley Square, where was the film "A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square" filmed, was it Kilburn, Lewisham or the Old Kent Road? Berkley Square was also in "Life and Death of Colonel Blimp", and “I’ll Never Forget What ’is Name”.
Did you ever see the "Confessions" films, yes, painful memories, but where were they shot? Harrow? Lewisham? Perhaps our ex-leader's wife could ask her dad, because yes Anthony Booth was in many of them.
Norman Wisdom's series, "On the Beat", "The Early Bird" and etc., had many good exterior shots, but of which part of suburbia? Selfridges, Oxford Street, Marble Arch and Hyde Park all figure in "Trouble in Store", but the others?
Laurence Harvey, in 'I Am a Camera', opens his reminiscences by walking down a London street with a distinctive "Wren" type church spire in the background, Do you know where it was, it? This film was made again, years later, as 'Cabaret', with Liza Minelli.
But, as I said before, this is where we came in.

Revised and up-dated version John Tunstill 2009-09-06
First published www.reelstreets.com 2003