Monday 18 December 2017

Tiger Bay (1959 J Lee Thompson)

1959 Cardiff looks very run down, and very inter-racial.

"Hayley was extraordinary. All the other children I had suffered with in films had to be told continually not to look into the lens. Lee shot close ups with the camera two feet away from her face. She looked left, right, over it, below it, but never at it.. I was so astonished at what was going on that I dried up at least three times...Tiger Bay was an experience. She never seemed to be listening and hummed quietly to herself while Lee was explaining the scenes. I asked him if this was driving him mad. 'Good Lord, no,' said Lee, 'as long as she keeps humming we're OK'.. It was Take One, Cut, Print. With no rehearsal she just did it.. Lee and I felt we had something very exciting in the can. But neither of us, I am sure, visualised the enormous impact that Hayley Mills was going to make not only in Britain but in the rest of the world."

(John Mills, 'Up in the Clouds, Gentleman Please'.)

What's going on today? Another bit of arbitrary cropping (Carlton's DVD release is a 4x3 crop of Eric Cross's original 1.66:1). Noel Calef's short story 'Rodolphe et le revolver' (he also wrote 'Ascenseur pour l'echafaud') was adapted by John Hawkesworth (Duchess of Duke Street, Upstairs Downstairs) and Shelley Smith.

John Mills, Hayley Mills, Horst Buchholz, Megs Jenkins, Yvonne Mitchell, Anthony Dawson, Shari and Paul Stassino (Thunderball). It's actually quite moving - you feel sorry for the girl, and the relationship between her and the murderer is sweet.

Music by Laurie Johnson.


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