I remember this one possibly because it was shown in our Village quite a while after release I would think – we had a travelling cinema came with a man who, each week, set up the projectors etc – I think on a Tuesday – and offered us a full programme – something we all looked forward to

Street of Shadows is one of the more interesting examples of a good British film B-movie
Luigi (Cesar Romero) runs a pin-table saloon.

It’s basically a bar laid out like an amusement arcade where patrons can play arcade games whilst indulging in the consumption of alcoholic beverages. It’s a thriving establishment and Luigi is reasonably wealthy. He’s also reasonably respectable. Luigi’s might be a bar but it’s a legitimate business. He makes sure there is no trouble and his relations with the local police are cordial.
Luigi’s character is established from the outset. He’s easy going and generous and kind but he’s also shrewd and determined and when the occasion calls for it he’s a tough guy. He is popular because he’s a decent person and he’s easy to like.

Limpy (Victor Maddern) acts as a kind of personal assistant and general-purpose dogsbody to Luigi. As his name suggests he is a cripple with a severe limp. His loyalty to Luigi is total. For his part Luigi has a great affection for his assistant and is careful to treat him always with respect. Unfortunately not everyone in this imperfect world has Luigi’s manners and Limpy does find himself made the butt of cruel jokes from time to time.
There’s also a girl. Angele Abbé (Simone Silva) had been Luigi’s girlfriend until he discovered that she was being too friendly with other men. Much too friendly, and to too many other men. Luigi, hardly surprisingly, dumped her. Angele has continued on her self-chosen downward spiral and is held together by alcohol, self-pity and the belief that somehow she can persuade Luigi to take her back. Which is not going to happen. Apart from anything else Luigi is the kind of guy who sticks to decisions once he’s made them. Angele has a great deal of pity for herself but none for other people and her behaviour towards Limpy is shocking in its casual cruelty. At the moment Angele has got herself involved with a rather nasty bad boy sailor.

There’s also another girl. Through a series of chance events Luigi makes the acquaintance  of Barbara Gale (Kay Kendall). Barbara is charming and classy but she always seems to be ill at ease. We soon find out why. She has fallen in with a very bad crowd and one of them is her husband. These are bad people and just how willing she is to go along with their schemes is open to question.
There’s an immediate attraction between Luigi and Barbara. In fact Luigi, being an old-fashioned romantic, has fallen for her.
It’s obvious that there’s plenty of potential here for things to get complicated and messy. In fact it’s the kind of situation that has been known to end in murder. And in this case there is indeed murder, but both the identity of the victim and the circumstances are not quite what we might have expected.

There’s a certain sense of inevitability in evidence here. We’re dealing with a number of characters who seem like they’re destined to get themselves into trouble.

This seems to be the only film made by writer-director Richard Vernon (although he does have a few producing credits). There wasn’t very much money spent on the film but what was spent was spent pretty well. There’s some authentic and atmospheric sets and Luigi’s pin-table saloon makes a great setting –

The script, based on a novel by Laurence Meynell, is well written

Cesar Romero gives a breezy and charming performance as a man who thinks he has life under control, until he finds out that he hasn’t. Kay Kendall has plenty of style and the two of them have the right chemistry. Edward Underdown is the Scotland Yard inspector.

It’s Victor Maddern as the crippled Limpy who really steals the picture though.

I once saw him interviewed in a TV afternoon show probably in the 70’s and he mentioned this film and working with Cesar Romero

Outside of the Fifties, I know but this well loved film seems to have been shown regularly in every decade since it was made.

BELOW – I have come across some photographs From the making of the film – Pictures that I have never seen before

ABOVE – During the filming at Denham, The crew and cast very often did not leave the set and instead improvised their own canteen by bringing in desks and chairs so that they could all eat together – which they tended to do

ABOVE – Open air shots are of course weather dependent. All things were good for this scene early in the film where Magwitch first appears.

ABOVE – These dramatic scenes in the very early part of the film, when Pip played by Anthony Wager wanders in the Churchyard and turns and bumps into Magwitch – a meeting that is to change the whole course of his life

BELOW – David Lean leads the charge across a chain of pontoons to where the filming of the river police chase for the fugitive Magwitch is to be done. This is much later in the film. John Mills is seen here in costume as the grown up Pip

BELOW – David Lean looks to be well wrapped up as he chats to Alec Guinness who is playing the part of Herbert Pocket.

BELOW – A very early scene. This time Anthony Wager as the young Pip plays out this scene – I think this is the one with the Church in the background – which was a model but beautifully done

ABOVE – The Crew ready to film the action with David Lean seated in the foreground

ABOVE – David Lean with J.Arthur Rank

For some reason I am not a fan of David Lean but having said that, you have to acknowledge what a great film director he was.

Maybe it was because of a TV documentary about the making of ‘A Passage to India’ – there was one sequence after Alec Guinness had just completed a scene and David Lean turned to one of his staff and said ‘ He is still good – the old bugger’

Maybe it was a joke but I felt it was uncalled for

I like this film and saw it as a boy in St Albans, maybe at the Odeon – however I am pretty sure that it went out here on the same bill as a British thriller ‘The Fake.

John Payne had a busy career at this time and in fairness was quite a capable actor and fitted this sort of role well. Donna Reed also starred in this Technicolor swashbuckler

Scanning through Cinema Posters of the day, I came across this one BELOW from the Cinema in the lovely Hereford town of Ledbury which proves that my memory is correct from all those years ago – This film was on the same bill as ‘The Fake’ but it looks as though ‘The Fake’ was the main film – that can’t be so -surely :-

Maybe not the best scans but interesting

In 2010, the BFI issued a list of 75 films that they were trying to find ones not held in the National Archive and classified as ‘missing believed lost’

However there is some good news because 18 of these have now been found in complete form.

Two of the ‘found films’ interest me – ‘Salute the Toff’ and ‘Hammer the Toff’ both made back to back in 1952 and both released in the first three months of that year. The second one ‘Hammer the Toff’ went out as the supporting film to Walt Disney’s classic ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’ one of the big films of that year – and one of the best of all time in my opinion. It was a pairing of films that really surprised me – I always thought that another Walt Disney wild life film was on the programme.

In ‘Salute the Toff’ John Bentley (much later cast as Meg Richardson’s husband in TV soap Crossroads) played the aristocratic sleuth – he is very suave too. He’s searching for a missing businessman wanted for murder after a body is found in his flat, but he soon finds that the story behind the murder isn’t quite as it seemed

It also starred one of my favourite actresses – the lovely Carol Marsh

In the second film ‘Hammer the Toff’ John Bentley again plays The Honourable Richard Rollison – The Toff . Once again he investigates a murder, but this time also a valuable formula, a damsel in distress and an East End philanthropist called The Hammer. It’s good mystery story with a logical plot and a satisfying conclusion. Filmed at the same time as ‘Salute The Toff’ it shares some of the same actors like Valentine Dyall and Roddy Hughes. Patricia Dainton is the female lead and very attractive she is and also a very capable actress

The ‘Hammer’ character is well played by John Robinson

ABOVE – ‘Hammer the Toff’ on release with a very popular film

BELOW- John Bentley as the Toff and Patricia Dainton in a tight sport – with the ‘Hammer’ played by John Robinson

Scenes ABOVE and BELOW – with John Bentley as Richard Rollison ‘The Toff’

A character called The Toff was the hero of a series of thrillers written from 1938 onwards by John Creasey.

Incredibly I see that he actually wrote 59 books featuring ‘The Toff’

The hero, The Honourable Richard Rollison, was born a toff: the courtesy title is given to the eldest sons of Viscounts and Barons. He’s a man about town and an amateur crime solver whose manservant, Jolly, is a kind of sleuthing Jeeves.

The Toff is not a snob — not only is he on first name terms with all the top brass in Scotland Yard, he also knows many of the lowly coppers on the beat as well. He’s a particular friend of Bill Ebbutt, ex-prizefighter and landlord of the Blue Dog pub and gymnasium in the East End. Even Ebbutt’s boys, trainee boxers, are devoted to the Toff and often act as a private police force, coming in all sizes from fly- to heavyweight

Terence Alexander played he Toff on Radio BELOW

Now here is a name to remember from the great days of film making in fantasy style – Sabu.

I have a Book at home on ‘Elephant Boy’ signed by Sabu – which is shown later in the article here

SABU (1924 – 1963) was born on January 27. He is perhaps best known for his role as Abu in the 1940 British film The Thief of Bagdad.

Director Michael Powell has stated that he had a “wonderful grace” about him.

In 1942 he once again played a role based on a Kipling story, namely Mowgli in Jungle Book directed by Zoltán Korda. This was made in Hollywood.

He also starred alongside Jon Hall and Maria Montez in three films for Universal Pictures: Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943) and Cobra Woman (1944).

He was back in England for the classic ‘Black Narcissus’ in 1946

In the earliest years of his career he made his classics and many of those have more than stood the test of time.

During World War II, he served in the United States Army Air Corps and did so with distinction having won several awards for service above and beyond the call of normal duty. Being of a diminutive size he easily could fit in bomber aircraft tail and belly gun positions. When the war was over and he was discharged from the service, he wanted to return to the film industry. Unfortunately, except for one superb film, Michael Powell’s “Black Narcissus”, most of the offerings were nor brilliant. Almost all of his best films were made in England.

After the War- and after ‘Black Narcissus’ Sabu pushed on with his film career but those great parts did not come again.

Sabu was transported back to Denham in England in the summer of 1936 where he met Alexander Korda who had put him under contract after ‘Elephant Boy’

The two of them got on very well – Sabu respected Korda who advised him to always go to be early to prepare for an early start in the Studios. Sabu followed this advice to such an extent that when he attended a social gathering of some kind and left early, he was asked why. He replied that he had promised Mr Korda that he would go to bed early and he couldn’t let him down.

ABOVE – Sabu having fun in the Studios at Denham. He looks to be having a skirmish with David Farrar – but I don’t think it is Mr Farrar – after all the man is smiling !!

This BELOW appeared at the time of his death in the Los Angeles Times:-

From the Archives: Sabu Dies of Heart Attack

DEC. 3, 1963 

Sabu Dastagir, 39, the former “elephant boy” of films, died of a heart attack Monday at his Chatsworth home, 10901 Winnetka Ave.

The Indian-born actor, whose career started when he was spotted by the late producer Sir Alexander Korda, recently completed a part in Warner Bros.’ “Rampage” and had worked in films for Walt Disney.

Funeral services will be conducted at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Chapel of the Hills, Forest Lawn Memorial-Park Hollywood Hills.

He leaves his wife, former actress Marilyn Cooper, a son, Paul, and a daughter, Jasmine.

Sabu’s discovery as a juvenile performer came when he appeared with the mahouts handling elephants for one of Korda’s pictures, “Elephant Boy.” Sabu, the son of the veterinary for the maharajah-owner of the elephants, became Korda’s protege and later was induced to come to the United States.

His pictures included “Drums,” “The Thief of Bagdad,” “Jungle Book,” “The End of the River,” “White Savage,” “Cobra Woman,” “Black Narcissus,” “Song of India” and others.

In World War II, he won the Distinguished Flying Cross while serving with a B-25 bombing group in the Pacific.

He was a member of the Hollywood Masonic Lodge.

ABOVE – From my Film Book Collection – ‘Sabu of the Elephants- signed by the author Jack Whittingham

Then another one BELOW – Sabu The Elephant Boy – From the Film

This one Signed by Sabu

Anne Baxter starred in this intriguing thriller opposite Richard Todd – which was made in England – and as shown below she also appeared on stage that same year in the West End at the Duke of York’s Theatre in ‘The Joshua Tree’

Whether she came over here for the stage play and then was offered the film role – or maybe the other way round – I do not know

ABOVE – Richard Todd, Anne Baxter, Herbert Lom and Alexander Knox played the main characters in ‘Chase a Crooked Shadow’

This was one of the last films Richard Todd made under his ‘one a year’ contract with Associated British Pictures and it turned out rather well with an absorbing storyline climaxing in a surprise twist, right at the very end

William Sylvester and Hugh McDermott joined Anne Baxter in this stage play

Shortly after returning to Hollywood, Anne Baxter met her second husband Randolph Gait and then, between 1960 and 1963, she abandoned her film career to live on a ranch in the remote Australian outback. She described the experience in her book, Intermission: A True Story.

It turned out to be a disaster. He was the macho ‘outdoors’ type and in that remote and basic environment, she kept herself mainly indoors as far as she could. That is not a formula for marital success, I wouldn’t have thought.

This report elaborates a little :

Following a visit to Australia for filming of “The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll” Anne Baxter married Randolph Galt, a wealthy American with property interests in Australia.  The wedding took place in Honolulu on 18 February 1960 and the newlyweds, together with Anne’s daughter from a previous marriage, came to live at a place called “Giro”, Galt’s extensive rural holding north of Gloucester – inland of Sydney

However, Anne found the reality of rural Australia unpalatable. Her daughter was at boarding school and she missed her career. In 1963 the Galts returned to the USA, but their marriage was not destined to last. Notwithstanding the birth of two daughters, Melissa and Maginel, Anne and Randolph were divorced in 1970

This film star Lex Barker but it is one that I have no recollection of at all.

Lex Barker and Howard Duff play two men at odds over the possession of a gold mine – and the love of a beautiful girl played by Mala Powers.

In the same year I remember Howard Duff having a leading role in a favourite of mine ‘Tanganyika’ with Van Heflin and Ruth Roman – a film I saw as a youngster at the cinema and which was in Technicolor, Cinemascope with plenty of action and set in the African jungle. Great stuff.

Made in Hollywood by Universal Pictures, TANGANYIKA  released in the USA in the summer of 1954  has its action taking  place in 1903 in the territory of East Africa  and  Tanganyika. The story centres on a hunt for a fugitive white man who’s stirred up the “Nukumbi” tribe of natives into making raids on white settlements and outposts.  

Leading  the hunt is  John Gale (Van Heflin) who leads a group of native porters from East Africa into Tanganyika.   On the way he picks up Peggy Marion (Ruth Roman), a schoolteacher from Canada, and her young niece and nephew (Noreen Corcoran, Gregory Marshall), after rescuing them from a native attack that killed Peggy’s brother.

He also picks up a wounded white man, Dan Harder (Howard Duff) who, we learn early on, is the brother of the renegade white man, although he keeps that fact a secret.   Gale leads the party back to his camp only to find it plundered and his partner Duffy (Murray Alper) dead. So they all forge on into Tanganyika to locate the village where Abel McCracken (Jeff Morrow), the wanted man, holds court and rules the natives.

ADOVE – I saw this being advertised earlier. It is the ‘typed-out’ screenplay for Tanganyika dated September 1953

‘Tanganyika’ does not get good reviews in some quarters but it is a colourful, exciting and action-packed film in my view and one very well worth viewing if you can find it to view that is.

The ‘baddie’ is played by Jeff Morrow who had a long career as an actor although never really hit the top in starring roles – after this he was in such films as ‘The Giant Claw’ , ‘This Island Earth’ and ‘The Creature Walks Among Us’ although it is fair to say that he was a very busy actor at that time, and was in a lot of films and TV shows – as well as Theatre maybe.

Later in life, when the acting roles were less, he became an illustrator – so he was obviously a man of many talents

Speaking about his part in ‘The Giant Claw’ he said :

We shot the film before we ever got a look at this monster that was supposed to be so terrifying. The producers promised us that the special effects would be first class. The director -Fred Sears  – just told us, “All right, now you see the bird up there, and you’re scared to death! Use your imagination.” But the first time we actually got to see it was the night of the premiere. The audience couldn’t stop laughing. We were up there on screen looking like idiots, treating this silly buzzard like it was the scariest thing in the world. We felt cheated, that’s for sure, but they told us afterward that they just ran out of money. They couldn’t afford anything but this stupid puppet. But it was just terrible. I was never so embarrassed in my whole life.

This is a summing up of the film :-

This is a 50s favourite about a “bird as big as a battleship” from outer space that not only attacks the Earth and builds a nest, but it also laid an egg at the box office. The butt of jokes for years, and an embarrassment for those involved, this titanic turkey has an inept charm most films of its type can’t replicate. Undercooked in design and execution, the mutant muppet nonetheless gets more screen time than most other movie monsters do.

The only giant bird film made in America I am told.

It has to be said though, that this film is very well remembered even though most B movies of that time are not.

The best thing about Dangerous Mission is the great location cinematography of Glacier National Park where it was filmed – and filmed in Technicolor and 3D

With such spectacular scenery on view there is no doubt that it must have boosted tourism in Montana considerably

Piper Laurie witnesses a mob killing in New York, but she’s afraid to testify and flees back home to Montana where she knows everybody and strangers can be spotted easily. She’s a guest at the tourist lodge owned by Betta St. John and her father Steve Darrell who’s also got some problems with the law but being an Indian he’s pretty good at staying outdoors and living off the land.

Two strangers take an interest in Piper Laurie both quite charming in their own ways, Victor Mature and Vincent Price.

William Bendix is also in the cast as the chief Forest Ranger in the park and he makes the most of his role and maybe he could have been given more to do in the film.

Another thing Dangerous Mission has to recommend it is a very good depiction of a landslide which wreaks havoc on a hillside house and later Victor Mature goes out and tames a downed power line. The final chase scene across the glacier is also well done.

It is well written and staged and Dangerous Mission is enjoyable.

Victor Mature was in a very successful part of his film career at this point – the superb ‘The Robe’ had been released but after this came ‘Demetrius and the Gladiators’ and ‘The Egyptian’

His run of films at that time :

The Robe released 18 September 1953

Veils of Bagdad – released 7 October 1953

Dangerous Mission released 6 March 1954

Demetrius and the Gladiators released 16 June 1954

The Egyptian released 24 August 1954

So in the space of less than a year these Victor Mature films hit the big Cinemascope screen – at least two of them with mega big Box Office returns

Interesting to note that a very young Betta St John appeared in both ‘The Robe’ and ‘Dangerous Mission’

She had been a stage actress and in the London West End production of ‘South Pacific’ in 1952 where she met and soon married one of the cast members Peter Grant – and they remained happily married for many years

Here she is below with her future husband on stage in South Pacific – no doubt singing ‘Happy Talk’

A very pretty girl

1949 Denham

Walt Disney and his family travelled over to England quite often during the time that he was making his first ‘live’action’ films here.

They were all here in 1949 and they are pictured BELOW in the summer of that year posing with Bobby Driscoll at Denham Film Studios on the set of ‘Treasure Island’

Walt was certainly back in the summer of 1951 – again to Denham – for the filming of ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’

1952: Beaconsfield, England

Walt Disney on location in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. The Hollywood Reporter, July 17, 1952, in a despatch from London dated Friday, July 11: “Walt Disney arrived in town this week and got right down to work on his new British picture, The Sword and the Rose.

Here he is chatting to Alex Bryce, the very experienced Second Unit Director, who was mainly responsible for the outdoor action filming both in this film and the one before ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’

Location shooting was being done by a second unit at Wilton Park, Beaconsfield, about 20 miles out of London, due to start a few days later The film was released a year later.

ABOVE – Bobby Driscoll here in England for ‘Treasure Island’ having fun with some youngsters of his own age

The release in the USA of ‘The Sword and the Rose’ – also showing on the same bill is another Walt Disney film ‘Prowlers of the Everglades’

This may be a a lot of people’s ‘go to’ station on the Radio these days – it is mine – a station that plays records that you have often, not heard in years and as they say ‘every record a surprise’

Normally a Radio station would not feature on this Blog, but a few days ago, David Hamilton, on his lunchtime show, featured a track I can’t ever remember hearing and that was The Shadows with the theme from the film ‘The Boys’ – a film that we have featured before

It starred Richard Todd and Robert Morley, Felix Aylmer and a very young pop star of the era ‘Jess Conrad’

This was a film that was time taken for granted by critics of the day, but acclaimed in 2021 by Simon Heffer – of all people – as “not only a magnificent kitchen sink, but one of the finest films of the whole era”. 

As for the actual film – The Boys were played by Dudley Sutton, Tony Garnett, Ronald Lacey and Jess Conrad – with the exception of Jess, they have all sadly passed away, although they all did manage to get together for a ‘Talking Pictures’ event a few years ago when they discussed this film

They all spoke highly of Robert Morley who was ‘ like a father to us and such a lovely man, brought us cakes every day’

However their recollections of Richard Todd were far less warm. He wasn’t friendly at all, in fact very remote.  Tony Garnett, who admitted to being a ‘bit stroppy in those days’, so annoyed Richard Todd that the star wanted him off the picture – and he would have been sacked if ‘ The glorious Robert Morley hadn’t intervened and with immense good humour got me off the hook’

Reading Richard Todd’s Autobiography ‘In Camera’ this film is not mentioned at length but he does say that, his part in the film took just three weeks to complete and they all got on well together.   He said though that he had a disagreement in a lunchtime chat with Robert Morley when they both had opposing political views and Robert expressed his views very forcefully. Richard Todd says that, very sensibly, he avoided such a subject again.   He also speaks highly of Robert and states just how good he was in the role.

Recollections seem to differ on this one but I do think that – at that time Richard Todd probably saw himself as somehow superior to these actors because he had been a major international star. His film career at this point though, was very much on the wane.

Later in life, he did become much more relaxed and seemed to speak well of everyone in his interviews.

I always remember Robert Morley being the subject of ‘This is your Life’ where he had been surprised while on stage in the West End – and thw whole show came from that Theatre – he remained standing throughout the proceedings and seemed to enjoy the whole thing very much

I have come across this fascinating article on the Show :-

Among the wonderful cast who turned up to pay tribute to Robert Morley on the stage of the Savoy Theatre on 24 April 1974 was a no less a legendary figure of the theatre than the ninety-one-year-old Dame Sybil Thorndike, the star of the first play Robert wrote in 1935.

Robert’s wife, Joan, was the daughter of another theatrical Dame, the late Dame Gladys Cooper.

And Robert was co-author with Rosemary Anne Sisson of the play at the Savoy, A Ghost on Tiptoe, in which he was co-starring with Ambrosine Philpotts and William Franklyn.

There were greetings from old chums such as Peter Bull, Robert Hardy, Peter Ustinov, and his great pal Wilfred Hyde-White, who summed up Robert’s perfect day: ‘Stay at the racecourse till dark, and the casino till daybreak.’

The great film director John Huston – he directed Robert in the classic The African Queen – reminded Robert of one particular day at the races, a selling plate. Robert was trying to persuade Huston into joining him in a bid for a horse which Robert really rated. Huston was just about to agree and join a bid when the auctioneer took them by surprise and announced, ‘Going, going, gone!’ and banged down his hammer, whereupon the horse Robert so fancied joint-owning let out a last ‘neigh … ‘ and dropped down dead.

But it was Dame Sybil Thorndike who summed up Robert Morley, the gentleman actor. Rushing to open a door for her at the BBC, he tripped. ‘Get up, you silly old thing,’ commanded the Dame. But he couldn’t. He’d actually broken his ankle and was taken to hospital by ambulance.

The broken ankle put him out of work – but only temporarily. What did he do? Got himself a part in the television series Emergency – Ward 10 – as a man with a broken ankle.