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Post by cabbyjohn on Feb 14, 2011 8:27:02 GMT -1
A friend of mine has sent me a link to a web site remembering a film that was made on location in Manchester in the early 60s. It was called Hell is a City. I was on my lunch break from Fred Dawes the television company based on London Rd - Granby Row when I noticed a large crowd gathered watching something being filmed. Being a little scrap of a thing in those days, I pushed my way to the front to see that they were filming a scene for a film. Imagine my surprise when the film came out to see me at the front of a crowd scene in the film. Blink and you miss me. This set me to thinking about the large amount of films that have been filmed in and around Manchester. Hell is a City, and A Taste of Honey are just two of them. If you go onto Youtube and look up A Taste of honey, there are many scenes filmed in the Levenshulme, Bradford, and Beswick areas of the city such as The New Royal cinema and St. Brigids old school scenes, as well as Salford and other places. If any members reading this would like to add their contributions to films made in Manchester, let's see how many we can come up with? Below is the link to Hell is a City. If you scroll down through the photographs, you will see a photograph of Lewis's arcade. It was between Lewis's department store and Wiles toy shop on Market St.. I remember as a young boy, I used to look at all of the women lining both sides of the arcade and think what a good idea this was. When I grew up and started courting, this would be where I would arrange to meet my girlfriend. I must have been staring in all innocence at one of the women one day. Because she said to me, "Go away little boy, and come back when you are older"! www.levyboy.com/hell_is_a_city.htm |
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Post by jonesg on Feb 14, 2011 23:15:03 GMT -1
Does Hobsons choice count?
Or is that salford.
Can't think of any others.
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Post by cabbyjohn on Feb 15, 2011 3:02:11 GMT -1
Does Hobsons choice count? Or is that salford. Can't think of any others. Hobsons choice Is as you say based in Salford, but then so is a lot of a Taste of Honey, so it can be sneaked in. Another couple of films that I can think of is the Albert Finney/ Billie Whitelaw film Charlie Bubbles. This was written by Shelagh Delaney, who also wrote a Taste of Honey. The other film I am thinking of is A Kind of loving starring Alan Bates. From memory some of it was filmed at the Briish Aerospace factory on Broadway Chadderton. For a number years one of Manchesters main film studios, was based in an old converted Church just off D i ckinson Rd in Rusholme. I think that it was called Mancunian films, Frank Randle and George Formby amongst others made a lot of films there. In the early days Top of the Pops used to be broadcast live from there. |
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Post by Lisa on Feb 15, 2011 7:03:08 GMT -1
Parts of YANKS was filmed in Stockport and you can even see the market and church in the opening sequences. Does this count? Does Hobsons choice count? Or is that salford. Can't think of any others. |
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Post by cabbyjohn on Feb 15, 2011 7:30:51 GMT -1
Parts of YANKS was filmed in Stockport and you can even see the market and church in the opening sequences. Does this count? Does Hobsons choice count? Or is that salford. Can't think of any others. Yes it does Lisa, we can incude greater Manchester, using a touch of poetic licence. In fact a large part of Yanks was filmed in Saddleworth. Dob Cross Delph etc. the long farewell scene when the Yanks were returning home was filmed at Stalybridge railway Station. The fight scene in the dance hall I am not 100% sure about. I think that it was filmed in Ashton Palace, but it may have been the Ritz in Manchester. In 1981 Warren Beatty directed a film called Reds. In one scene there is a shot of a building supposed to be a building in I think Chicago in the 1920s. The actual filming of the building took place here in Manchester. The building was the Zion Institute on Stretford Rd Hulme. Blink and you will miss it. Why they came all this way for a few seconds filming God only knows. Beatty was a bit of a perfectionist, (Or a meglomaniac). in a lot of the scenes for the film, he insisted that the crew did as many as 80 takes before he was happy with the scene. |
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Post by jnealedroylsden on Feb 15, 2011 7:40:49 GMT -1
A friend of mine has sent me a link to a web site remembering a film that was made on location in Manchester in the early 60s. It was called Hell is a City. I was on my lunch break from Fred Dawes the television company based on London Rd - Granby Row when I noticed a large crowd gathered watching something being filmed. Being a little scrap of a thing in those days, I pushed my way to the front to see that they were filming a scene for a film. Imagine my surprise when the film came out to see me at the front of a crowd scene in the film. Blink and you miss me. This set me to thinking about the large amount of films that have been filmed in and around Manchester. Hell is a City, and A Taste of Honey are just two of them. If you go onto Youtube and look up A Taste of honey, there are many scenes filmed in the Levenshulme, Bradford, and Beswick areas of the city such as The New Royal cinema and St. Brigids old school scenes, as well as Salford and other places. If any members reading this would like to add their contributions to films made in Manchester, let's see how many we can come up with? Below is the link to Hell is a City. If you scroll down through the photographs, you will see a photograph of Lewis's arcade. It was between Lewis's department store and Wiles toy shop on Market St.. I remember as a young boy, I used to look at all of the women lining both sides of the arcade and think what a good idea this was. When I grew up and started courting, this would be where I would arrange to meet my girlfriend. I must have been staring in all innocence at one of the women one day. Because she said to me, "Go away little boy, and come back when you are older"! www.levyboy.com/hell_is_a_city.htm HAVE GOT THAT FILM ON DVD ASKED MY SON TO GET IT FOR ME WAS A FAVOURITE OF MINE ........GOOD OLD REFUGE BUILDING IN THE SCENE AS WELL THOSE WERE THE DAYS !!!!!!!!!! WHEN A POLICEMAN WAS POLICEMAN................ I KNOW IT WAS ONLY A FILM BUT THE POLICE WERE LIKE THAT THEN AND PEOPLE HAD RESPECT FOR THEM................AND THEY GOT THINGS DONE "GOOD OLD MANCHESTER" |
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Post by jnealedroylsden on Feb 15, 2011 7:42:48 GMT -1
Parts of YANKS was filmed in Stockport and you can even see the market and church in the opening sequences. Does this count? Yes it does Lisa, we can incude greater Manchester, using a touch of poetic licence. In fact a large part of Yanks was filmed in Saddleworth. Dob Cross Delph etc. the long farewell scene when the Yanks were returning home was filmed at Stalybridge railway Station. The fight scene in the dance hall I am not 100% sure about. I think that it was filmed in Ashton Palace, but it may have been the Ritz in Manchester. In 1981 Warren Beatty directed a film called Reds. In one scene there is a shot of a building supposed to be a building in I think Chicago in the 1920s. The actual filming of the building took place here in Manchester. The building was the Zion Institute on Stretford Rd Hulme. Blink and you will miss it. Why they came all this way for a few seconds filming God only knows. Beatty was a bit of a perfectionist, (Or a meglomaniac). in a lot of the scenes for the film, he insisted that the crew did as many as 80 takes before he was happy with the scene. REMEMBER COMING HOME FROM WORK ONE DAY(LIVED IN STALYBRIDGE THEN) AND AS I WAS WALKING THROUGH THE CENTRE THERE WERE ALL THESE TANKS AND JEEPS AND MEN IN UNIFORM, COURSE THEN DIDN'T KNOW WHAT WAS HAPPENING AND THEN GOT TOLD THEY WERE FILMING YANKS........DIDN'T GET TO SEE ANY STARS THO ......... |
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Post by cabbyjohn on Feb 15, 2011 7:45:43 GMT -1
HAVE GOT THAT FILM ON DVD ASKED MY SON TO GET IT FOR ME WAS A FAVOURITE OF MINE ........GOOD OLD REFUGE BUILDING IN THE SCENE AS WELL THOSE WERE THE DAYS !!!!!!!!!! WHEN A POLICEMAN WAS POLICEMAN................ I KNOW IT WAS ONLY A FILM BUT THE POLICE WERE LIKE THAT THEN AND PEOPLE HAD RESPECT FOR THEM................AND THEY GOT THINGS DONE
"GOOD OLD MANCHESTER"[/quote]
Morning Jean, I had been searching for ages for the film until I found it. I haven't bought it yet because being a classic or so rare, the last time I looked it was very expensive to buy in DVD format. Being a tight a**e I have been waiting until it comes down in price.
John.
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Post by jonesg on Feb 15, 2011 12:04:39 GMT -1
A few yrs ago I went to the Belle Epoch restaurant/hotel in Knutsford, chatting with the owner she said Albert Finney and other actors were staying there because they were filming parts of Brideshead Revisited on location. But thats probably not a cine movie.
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Post by cabbyjohn on Feb 15, 2011 12:29:44 GMT -1
A few yrs ago I went to the Belle Epoch restaurant/hotel in Knutsford, chatting with the owner she said Albert Finney and other actors were staying there because they were filming parts of Brideshead Revisited on location. But thats probably not a cine movie. Brideshead revisited was an excellent made for television production. Most of the Stately home scenes were filmed at Castle Howard in Yorkshire. Albert finney was very proud of being a "Salford lad". he would often come to Manchester to visit his mother when she was alive, he usually stayed at the Midland Hotel. he generally hired a chauffered limousine to bring him up from London and run him about. The driver who had driven him up one time told me that he was revered by all the chauffeurs because he never put on airs and graces and was a fantastic tipper. It's only comparitively recently that his late fathers bookmakers shop bearing the name "Albert Finney Bookmaker" was demolished, close to where Pendleton Church is. |
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Post by jonesg on Feb 16, 2011 8:02:01 GMT -1
I saw Finney playing John Newton in Amazing Grace, he was so natural he didn't even seem to be acting, it comes easy to him or seems so.. I wasn't aware he was from Salford.
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codger
Junior Member
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Post by codger on Feb 18, 2011 11:37:56 GMT -1
I love the opening shots from 'A Taste of Honey' them playing netball in Johnson st park near Barmouth street baths, Rita Tushingham's mother is stood watching as it was Rita's first film/acting experience and I suppose she felt a chaperone was needed. I have watched this film many times (DVD) and love noticing small things that take me wistfully back to the 50's and 60's, like the three boys watching the filming with their swimming costumes and towels wrapped underneath their arms, no expensive named shoulder bags in those days. Also the opening wedding scene from 'A Kind of Loving' with Alan Bates, June Ritchie and the wonderful Thora Hird. St Mary's, Hillkirk Street, Beswick, facing the croft where we went as kids every night after school (Birley Street)to play football until it was dark, or until you heard 'codger, your wanted' from an irate mum followed by 'your teas on the table' If we didn't have a ball then we would climb down to the River Medlock looking for Rats.
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Post by Lisa on Feb 18, 2011 13:56:12 GMT -1
Hi Codger, I remember walking from my home in Clayton to Barmouth Street baths with my swimming costume, a comb and towel tucked under my arm and a penny in my pocket for a mug of oxo afterwards (an extra penny for some cream crackers if I was lucky). The noise and smell of the chlorine as I entered the lovely green-tiled entrance; the canvas covered cubicles on the side of the pool and hardly a space in the pool to swim.......school holidays were a nighmare but there werent many places to go to in the summer other than the baths, cinema or parks. I still reminisce whenever I smell my skin after swimming and I'm transported back to those heady hot summer days when we were young, carefree and happy.  |
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Post by cabbyjohn on Feb 18, 2011 14:14:47 GMT -1
Hi Codger, I remember walking from my home in Clayton to Barmouth Street baths with my swimming costume, a comb and towel tucked under my arm and a penny in my pocket for a mug of oxo afterwards (an extra penny for some cream crackers if I was lucky). The noise and smell of the chlorine as I entered the lovely green-tiled entrance; the canvas covered cubicles on the side of the pool and hardly a space in the pool to swim.......school holidays were a nighmare but there werent many places to go to in the summer other than the baths, cinema or parks. I still reminisce whenever I smell my skin after swimming and I'm transported back to those heady hot summer days when we were young, carefree and happy. There used to be a shop somewhere near Barmouth St baths that sold mugs of Oxo, and also broken crisps or biscuits for about a penny or twopence. Does anybody remember it? |
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Post by Lisa on Feb 18, 2011 14:28:29 GMT -1
Hi Cabbiejohn, Barmouth Street baths had its own little 'cafe' where you could get hot Vimto, oxo, crisps or cream crackers......bless us - we stood there hugging our mugs of steaming oxo with little wrinkled fingers and dripping wet hair still with our wet towels tucked under our arms....then we had the long walk home. No wonder we were thin. |
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Post by jonesg on Feb 24, 2011 4:27:51 GMT -1
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Post by roofingman on Apr 18, 2011 23:36:50 GMT -1
Re--Yanks....yes there is a good scene in Stockport market..especially outside the Red Bull--which was renamed in the picture as The Fleece...the land lord empties his chamber pot onto 2 yanks who want a drink after time.....Across the street is St Marys church in the graveyard at the back is a raised stone grave....Rita Tushingham was sitting on this (a Taste of Honey) and you can see the old Portwood Gas works (now gone) in the background..........Billy Liar had a scene in Piccadilly station where he wastes time (Tom Courtenay) buying milk from the machine and leaves his girlfriend on the train pulling out to London... ..These old scenes are important in that they convey what it was like circa 1960-80s in Manchester and environs......Yanks only has a 2 star rating in Nth America but in my opinion it is a very sensitive movie.....A Taste of Honey was a little ahead of its time because of the Gay friend (Murray Melvin) who played a superb part....on this thread Codger mentioned the wedding opening scene in A Kind of Loving and he is right its a great scene and epitomises the type of weddings that took place in Manchester etc around that time....
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codger
Junior Member
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Post by codger on May 16, 2011 11:52:39 GMT -1
Cabbyjohn, there was indeed a shop on the way home from Barmy Baths that sold Hot Vimto and it was Madge's. The Oxo and Cream Crackers was indeed sold in the cafe within the baths. We kids had purple lips we were that cold, and fingers like prunes, Joe the attendant used to look at our hands, and if they were prune-like he would send us out saying we'd 'had our money's worth' The long communal bath we sat in before being allowed in the plunge, the big brass water tap continually filling one end with hot water, it still looked like mud though, and many an unmentionable object came floating down now and then, like a german u-boat looking for victims, that was the only way we would jump out of the hot water. The wool cossies hanging around our knees now, and weighing a ton.
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Post by cabbyjohn on May 16, 2011 12:19:43 GMT -1
Cabbyjohn, there was indeed a shop on the way home from Barmy Baths that sold Hot Vimto and it was Madge's. The Oxo and Cream Crackers was indeed sold in the cafe within the baths. We kids had purple lips we were that cold, and fingers like prunes, Joe the attendant used to look at our hands, and if they were prune-like he would send us out saying we'd 'had our money's worth' The long communal bath we sat in before being allowed in the plunge, the big brass water tap continually filling one end with hot water, it still looked like mud though, and many an unmentionable object came floating down now and then, like a german u-boat looking for victims, that was the only way we would jump out of the hot water. The wool cossies hanging around our knees now, and weighing a ton. Hi. codger, I had forgotten about the communal hot water tubs, and you are right, it was like mud in there. I also seem to remember that there was a males only pool which was cheaper than the mixed pool. In that one you would often see some lads who didn't even have a swimming costume, knitted or otherwise, who would swim stark naked. Or am I getting confused with another swimming baths? |
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Post by Lisa on May 16, 2011 16:33:50 GMT -1
Hi Codger. Thanks for giving me a good laugh about the communal baths. Oh, how those Oxo drinks and cream crackers tasted so good after being in the pool for hours. Wasnt there someone at the baths that came along with a long pole and poked you to tell you to get out of the bath if you'd been in there too long? Those changing cubicles with their green canvas curtains that barely covered anything and trying to get into your dry clothes with a damp body.....no such thing as using talcum powder then. The only thing I took with me to Barmouth Street Baths was a small towel, swimming costume, a comb and money. If I was lucky there was money left over to get an oxo and possibly a penny for the bus home. I got my fear of deep water in Barmouth Street.....some idiot decided he liked the look of my long hair and pulled me into the deep end by my hair. I thought I was going to drown and the attendant pulled me out and laid me down by the side of the pool. The youth was banned from the pool. I've hated deep water ever since. |
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Post by jackaitch on May 16, 2011 18:13:23 GMT -1
We used to call the communal baths "the Tubs" where some kids stayed as the water in the main pool was so cold..One can imagine the contents after about five or ten kids being in the tubs for an
hour or so..but it never affected any of us
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Post by elainegregory on May 28, 2011 22:04:27 GMT -1
Reading all the above reminded me of the wash baths in Hulme, where I would go every Saturday, after I was old enough to not use the tin bath at home, I used to love and hate going at the same time,Iloved it because it was a luxury to have hot water on tap!and I always used to show off telling everyone I met that I had just been to the baths, and hated it as the woman who used to supervise you was like a Russian shot putter to me, she seemed to relish in the fact that I was only a youngster, and would only give me a tepid bath (she used to run the bath for you) then just before you had rinsed the shampoo off (penny extra) she would bang on the door saying RIGHT YOU OUT NOW! if you wasnt quick enough she would open the door (as if by magic) and I would be mortified, that someone had seen me undressed!!!!!
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major
New Member
Posts: 11
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Post by major on Aug 21, 2011 15:56:48 GMT -1
The remake of Alfie with Jude Law, was made in the Northern Quarter
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Post by cabbyjohn on Aug 21, 2011 16:46:07 GMT -1
The remake of Alfie with Jude Law, was made in the Northern Quarter I remember watching some of the filming. The scenes that I saw were filmed mainly around Thomas street/Tib street and were very realistic. Also not that long ago. Guy Richie took over some of the city, mainly around the Town Hall to film a remake of Sherlock Holmes. Last year there was a lot of filming in the Dale street area for a film with a couple of A list Hollywood stars, one being Samual L Jackson. I can't remember what the film was, but it was something like Captain Marvel. Perhaps one of our members would enlighten me? |
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Post by graham on Sept 11, 2011 4:48:00 GMT -1
when working at mac fisheries deangate every friday albert finnys mother came in ,and often albert came in with her thats before he got famous that was the early sixties graham
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Post by cicero on Jun 5, 2012 16:07:27 GMT -1
The dance and fight scenes in Yanks were filmed at Hyde Town Hall.
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Post by climb57 93/20 on Jun 16, 2012 17:27:00 GMT -1
wasn't east is east filmed in Manchester
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