Friends of Wallasey Central Library are showing the film Waterfront [1950] this Tuesday. The film is set in the slums of Liverpool and stars Robert Newton, Kathleen Harrison and a young Richard Burton. Waterfront is the first of a series of film nights at the library. We'll be regularly showing films with a Merseyside theme. This is a free event! There will be refreshments and a raffle.
It's one of those films that centres on the lives of people living in Liverpool back in the thirties, but somebody should have told its director that here in Merseyside "we speak with an accent exceedingly rare" so the Beetles wrote. You won't hear a single local accent from any of the cast. In fact the late, great, Robert Newton, the definitive Long John Silver, speaks with a posh southern accent. The rest of the players speak with Mancunian accents is the best way to describe them. Maybe the actors found it too difficult to put on scouse accents, or maybe they felt nobody would understand them if they did. No matter, it's a free evening out and the film contains some interesting footage of Liverpool shot in 1950, back when I was only 4 years old living in our little terraced house a stone's throw from the docks. Sigh!
I've just had a look at the film on Youtube. Brilliant ! As Alonso said - not a Liverpool accent anywhere. Great background shots. Good to see and hear the roar of the Overhead, sights and sounds of the trams, ferries, floating stage etc. All swept away in the name of progress of course !
It would be good to see it on the "big screen", but a bit of a hike from here.
Not having the accent is a good thing in my opinion, it is nothing to be proud of at all. Keep English as English i say, not that i talk it very well but scouse is disgusting as far as i am concerned.
Has anybody seen The Magnet?
Thankyou for the heads up touchstone, would love to attend bit unfortunatly i have other arrangements.
Not having the accent is a good thing in my opinion, it is nothing to be proud of at all. Keep English as English i say, not that i talk it very well but scouse is disgusting as far as i am concerned.
Has anybody seen The Magnet?
Thankyou for the heads up touchstone, would love to attend bit unfortunatly i have other arrangements.
Yes Ste, I have a copy of the Magnet on dvd. I knew one of the lads in it who sadly passed away some years ago.
Yes we went,quite enjoyed it ,was good to see location's as they were eg Lime Street ,Pier Head ,G H Lees , there were more over 70's in the group ,so they remembered more, when we had a discussion at the end.....Any one else go ? we were 'looking 'out for WIKI'S lol
Rude & Missy: Glad you had a good time. I wasn't able to go myself as I was working. We raised about £90 for library too. Probably around 40 people, which is a good crowd.
Alonso, Ste & Pinz: We will be showing a few more films in the coming months with a Wirral or Liverpool setting. Some of them will be a little obscure for many people, but will certainly be of interest for those who like local history.
Rude & Missy: Glad you had a good time. I wasn't able to go myself as I was working. We raised about £90 for library too. Probably around 40 people, which is a good crowd.
I Did wonder where you and Mrs TS where? Guessed you would be working, though. The new blinds look good, I thought and new chairs, too?? Great amount of money raised
Yes, the new chairs are great. It was actually the Wallasey Historical Society that secured the funding for the chairs, so well done to them. We got the blinds though. Very useful when it comes to showing films on sunny days. Especially when the sun is so low in the sky.
Our latest Film Night will be next Tuesday. We'll be showing Violent Playground. A 1958 British film directed by Basil Dearden starring Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing and David McCallum. The film, which deals with the genreof juvenile delinquent, has an explicit social agenda. It owes much to U.S. films of a similar genre.
McCallum's character, in particular, references roles played by James Dean, Marlon Brando, and especially Vic Morrow in Blackboard Jungle. Rock 'n' Roll is presented as a negative influence. In a memorable scene, music appears to put the youths into a trance-like state culminating in McCallum leading a menacing advance on Baker's character.
The film is mainly set in the former Liverpool tenement block Gerard Gardens. There are many shots of North Liverpool and the city centre including Ranelagh Street, Lord Nelson Street and School Lane. A climactic car chase takes in several city centre roads and ends in the Mersey Tunnel.
Time: 7pm Date: Tues 25th March Tickets: FREE
Last edited by Touchstone; 20th Mar 20149:35pm. Reason: Typo
The next film we'll showing at Wallasey Central Library is Beyond This Place [1959]
Based on the novel, of the same name, by A. J. Cronin. It was directed by Jack Cardiff and stars Van Johnson and Vera Miles.
The film tells the story of Paul Mathry, a man who left England for the United States as a child evacuee, and who returns to Liverpool twenty years later. Believing his father, Rees Mathry, had died a war hero, he is shocked to discover he is alive and serving a life sentence in prison for murder. Paul embarks upon his own investigation and finds the true culprit, clearing his father's name.
The film includes many Liverpool location shots including Pier Head, the docks, North Liverpool and the the city centre. The film also includes a visit via a ferry boat to a fictional night club in New Brighton.
The next film we'll be showing is the The Silver Fleet on the 27th May.
Written and directed by Vernon Sewell and Gordon Wellesley and produced by Powell & Pressburger under the banner of The Archers.
In the early years of World War II, the Nazis have overrun the Netherlands and have taken over the shipyard co-owned and run by Jaap van Leyden (Ralph Richardson). The yard was making submarines for the Dutch Navy. The German 'Protector' Von Schiffer (Esmond Knight) demands that they resume making submarines, but for the Nazis. By lowering food rations to starvation point, they induce some of the skilled workers to return to the yard.
The film was shot on location on Merseyside. The shipyard scenes are filmed in Cammell Lairds featuring many of the yard's workers as extras. Port Sunlight Village doubles for the Dutch village.
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