HOLIDAY FILMOGRAPHY PART 5 (1947 - 1955)

1947:

Bank Holiday Luck, Baxter (ABFD). Directed by Baynham Honri.Cast: Fred Wynne, Olive Sloane. Comedy. Builders recount adventures on previous bank holiday.

Bush Christmas, Reissue: 1950 (ABFD), 1971 (15 mins cut). Ralph Smart. Directed by Ralph Smart (GFD). Cast: Chips Rafferty. Children. New South Wales.

Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison arrive at the camp in Holiday Camp (1948)

Jimmy Hanley and Hazel Court by the pool in Holiday Camp

Esma Cannon takes part in the beauty contest in Holiday Camp

Holiday Camp, Reissue: 1948, 1954 (Monarch,12 mins cut). Gainsborough (GFD). Directed by Ken Annakin. Cast: Flora Robson, Dennis Price, Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison. Comedy. Butlin’s, Filey.

Brighton Rock, ABPC (Pathe). Directed John Boulting. Cast: Richard Attenborough. Crime. Brighton, 1938.

1948:

The Gentlemen Go By, AIPGB (Electa). Directed by J. Widgey Newman, John Calthrop. Cast: Conrad Phillips, Alastair Bannerman. Crime. Ex-sailor joins smuggling gang using holiday camp as front.

Frank Randle on Blackpool pier in Holidays With Pay (1948)

Holidays With Pay, Reissue: 1950 (cut). Film Studios Manchester. (Mancunian). Producer and Director John E. Blakeley. Cast: Frank Randle, Tessie O’Shea. Comedy. Blackpool. (Extract in Tonight’s The Night, 1960, Seaside Frolics).

Tessie O'Shea falls into the sea in Holidays With Pay

1949:

Forbidden, Pennant (BL). Produced and Directed by George King. Cast: Douglas Montgomery, Hazel Court. Crime. Blackpool. Chemist tries to poison extravagant wife.

A Man’s Affair, Concord (Ex). Produced and Directed Jay Gardner Lewis. Cast: Hamish Menzies, Cliff Gordon. Romance. Ramsgate. Playboy tries to spoil miner’s holiday romances.

Dick Barton Strikes Back, Exclusive. Directed by Godfrey Grayson. Cast: Don Stannard, Sebastian Cabot. Crime. Blackpool. Foreign agents beam atomic rays from top of Tower.

Old Mother Riley’s New Venture, Reissue: Mother Riley’s New Venture,1953. Harry Reynolds (Renown). Directed by John Harlow. Cast: Arthur Lucan, Kitty McShane. Comedy. Dishwasher becomes hotelier and is framed for gem theft.

1950:

Last Holiday, ABPC/Watergate (AB-Pathe). Produced by Stephen Mitchell, A. D. Peters, J. B. Priestley, Directed by Henry Cass, Screenplay by J. B. Priestley. Cast: Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh. Comedy. (Torquay).

The Mysterious Poacher, Reissue: 1973 (18 mins cut). G-B Instructional (GFD). Directed by Don Chaffey. Cast: Herbert Leidinger. Children. Austria. Holiday children help gamekeeper trap poacher.

Ha’Penny Breeze, Storytellers (AB-Pathe). Directed by Frank Worth. Cast: Don Sharp, Edwin Richfield. Drama. Suffolk. Ex-soldier turns ‘dead’ village into yachting centre.

1951:

Worm’s Eye View, Reissue: 1955, (Renown). Byron (ABFD). Directed by Jack Raymond. Cast: Ronald Shiner, Diana Dors. Comedy. 1942. Adventures of a group of airmen billeted on seaside landlady.

Penny Points to Paradise, Advance/PYL (Adelphi). Directed by Tony Young. Cast: Harry Secombe, Alfred Marks, Peter Sellers. Comedy. Brighton.

Encore, Two Cities/Paramount (GFD). Winter Cruise segment Directed by Pat Jackson. Cast: Kay Walsh

1952:

Brandy for the Parson, Group 3 (ABFD). Directed by John Eldridge. Cast: James Donald, Kenneth More. Comedy. Couple on yachting holiday become involved with brandy smugglers.

Hindle Wakes, USA: Holiday Week. Monarch. (Adapted from Stanley Houghton’s 1912 play). Directed by Arthur Crabtree. Cast: Lisa Daniely, Leslie Dwyer, Brian Worth. Romance. Blackpool.

Ogling women at the Lido in Hindle Wakes (1952)

1953:

Genevieve, Reissue: 1960. Sirius (GFD). Produced and Directed by Henry Cornelius. Cast: Diana Sheridan, John Gregson, Kay Kendall, Kenneth More. Comedy. Brighton.

Vintage cars at Brighton in Genevieve (1953)

Innocents in Paris, Reissue: 1956 (Renown, 10 mins cut). Romulus (IFD). Directed by Anatole de Grunwald. Cast: Alastair Sim, Ronald Shiner, Claire Bloom, Margaret Rutherford. Comedy. Seven stories of British tourists on a weekend trip to Paris.

The Girl on the Pier, Major (Apex). Directed by Lance Comfort. Cast: Veronica Hurst, Ron Randell. Crime. Brighton.

A Day to Remember, Group (GFD). Produced by Betty E. Box, Directed by Ralph Thomas. S (Novel) Jerrard Tickell (The Hand and the Flower). Cast: Stanley Holloway. Comedy. Adventures of public house darts team on day trip to Boulogne.

1954:

A Letter From the Isle of Wight, Rayant (ABFD/CFF). Directed by Brian Salt. Cast: Robin Doyer, Joy Ray. Children. Coastguard’s son and visiting cousin saved from sea by lighthouse keepers.

Calling All Cars, Fancey (NR). Directed by Maclean Rogers. Cast: Cardew Robinson. Comedy. Friends on a motoring holiday pursue two girls.

Mystery on Bird Island, Rayant (BL/CFF). Directed by John Haggerty. Cast: Mavis Sage, Jennifer Beach. Children. Alderney. Holiday children catch smugglers using bird sanctuary

1955:

The Lyons in Paris, Hammer (Ex). Directed by Val Guest. Cast: Bebe Daniels, Ben Lyon, Barbara Lyon, Richard Lyon. Comedy. Complications when family spend holiday in Paris.

Out of the Clouds, Ealing (GFD). Directed by Basil Dearden. Cast: Anthony Steele, Robert Beatty. Smuggling and romance in fogbound London airport.

The Love Match, Group 3/Beaconsfield (BL). Directed by David Paltenghi. Cast: Arthur Askey, Thora Hird. Comedy. Lancashire. Football fans try to replace stolen holiday funds.

Playground Express, Grendon (BL/CFF). Directed by John Irwin. Cast: Peter Butterworth, Humphrey Kent. Brighton.

Song of Norway, Fancey (NR). Directed by Maclean Rogers. Cast: Eric Micklewood, Adrienne Scott. Oslo. English girl becomes hotel receptionist, enters ski race and is rescued from crevasse.

Raising a Riot, Reissue: 1960. London/Wessex (BL). Directed by Wendy Toye. Cast: Kenneth More. Comedy. Father copes with children on holiday in old windmill.

The Secret, Laureate/Golden Era (Eros). Directed by Raker Endfield. Cast: Sam Wannamaker, Mandy Miller. Crime Brighton.

No Love For Judy, De Lane Lea/Archway. Directed by Jacques De Lane Lea. Cast: Ellette Mauret, Zoe Newton. Comedy. Riviera. Model on holiday steals companion’s boy friends.

Brigitte Bardot and Dirk Bogarde in Doctor At Sea (1955)

  

Doctor At Sea, Group (GFD). Directed by Ralph Thomas. S (Novel) Richard Gordon. Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Brigitte Bardot. Comedy. Misadventures of medical officer aboard passenger-carrying cargo steamer.

Cast a Dark Shadow, Frobisher (Eros). Directed by Lewis Gilbert. S (Play) Janet Green (Murder Mistaken). Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood. Crime. Brighton.

Bibliography:

Gifford (2001), Catalogue of British Film

The Phantom Ride: Then and Now

The phantom ride was a popular genre or filming technique of silent cinema. For the production of these films a camera was attached to the front of a train or other vehicle in order to capture the excitement of speed and motion. These early films usually only ran for a minute or less and often appeared as a fairground or theatrical attraction. For example, the early film pioneer R. W. Paul made a film entitled On a Runaway Motor Car Through Piccadilly Circus (1899) ‘which showed the view from a car ‘speeding’ through the streets’, probably created by ‘under-cranking’ the camera during filming (Chanan, 1980: 286).

Of perhaps more interest here, however, is Paul’s film from the previous year, A Switchback Railway (1898), for which a camera was attached to the front of a rollercoaster. Barnes (1983) comments that ‘audiences in those days were not accustomed to such cinematic view-points [sic] and would have found the film much more thrilling than we do today’ (Barnes, 1983: 17-18). He goes on to say that it is ‘an interesting film and still entertains, but its appeal today is far different from that which was originally intended’ (Barnes, 1993: 18). It is a valid comment, but it could be argued that Barnes is considering the film in the context of it being a novelty and a contrast to the ‘complexities of modern-day cinema’ (Barnes, 1983: 18). What should be considered is that although the phantom ride disappeared as a subject matter in its own right, due to the ‘narrativization of cinema’ and longer running times, it became incorporated into the narrative as a momentary ‘attraction’ (Elsaesser, 1990: 60; 56).

As Charles Musser suggests, as early as 1899 phantom rides ‘became incorporated into the travel narrative, enabling the showman to literalize the traveller’s movement through time and space…G. A. Smith made a one-shot film of a couple kissing in a railway carriage – a gag which had comic-strip antecedents. He suggested that showmen insert Kiss in the Tunnel into the middle of a phantom ride, after the train had entered the tunnel’ (Elsaesser, 1990: 128).

In an echo of R. W. Paul’s ‘switchback’ film, an exciting rollercoaster ride scene appears in the Blackpool Pleasure Beach sequence in Hindle Wakes (1927). The camera shots cut between point of view (POV) shots from the front of the rollercoaster, and shots of the main protagonists Fanny Hawthorn (Estelle Brody) and Allan Jeffcote (John Stuart) reacting to the thrill of the ride. Other Pleasure Beach ride POV shots appear in Sing As We Go (1934) and the documentary Holiday (1957), again combined with reaction shots from the holidaymakers in order to construct a thrilled reaction from the cinema-going audience. 

 

 The Big Dipper sequence from Hindle Wakes (1927)

In later years, the phantom ride also reappeared elsewhere in a different guise. One such example was the ‘Cine 2000’ at Alton Towers theme park which attracted visitors between 1980 – 1992. This was a large dome-shaped cinema which the audience stood inside, immersed in POV shots being projected on the concave ceiling of the dome. As the author of the Alton Towers Almanac website comments:

The Cine 2000 was a must have attraction in the early eighties, with many other parks around the country also installing them at about the same time… The movie itself was made up of specially filmed scenes on roller coasters, racing cars, and such like. The idea worked well, and many times I can remember people falling over, as they completely lost their sense of balance while watching (Alton Towers Almanac).

Today, phantom rides also appear as a marketing tool on the Blackpool Pleasure Beach website and on the Pleasure Beach YouTube channel, which features POV videos from the front of the Pepsi Max Big One, Infusion, and Revolution rollercoaster rides, for instance. Similarly, there are numerous amateur videos uploaded on YouTube by thrill-seeking holidaymakers who have either filmed their POV of the rides, or else, turned their cameras onto themselves to capture their faces as they scream. The phantom ride may have faded as a cinema genre or subject, but these examples prove that it still lives on today in some form, with marketing teams and amateur filmmakers considering the POV shots from these rides as worthwhile content for sharing on the internet.

POVs from 'The Big One' from the Pleasure Beach YouTube channel

Bibliography & External Links:

Barnes, John, 1983, Pioneers of the British Film, London: Bishopsgate Press

Chanan, Michael, The Dream That Kicks, The Prehistory and Early Years of Cinema in Britain, 1980, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul

Elsaesser, Thomas, (eds) Early Cinema, Space, Frame, Narrative, (1990), London: BFI

www.towersalmanac.com/areas/rides.php?id=47

www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com