Location, Location, Location
Festival features for your perusal
Way back in the 1920s and the early years of British cinema, Torquay was home to two production companies. Torquay and Paignton Photoplay Productions were based in an old drill hall in Paignton and only produced one meagre offering. ‘The Great London Mystery’ (1920) was a bizarre 12 episode serial, starring popular stage conjurer Davis Devant. It was one of only a very few of the American-style chapter plays made in the UK.
The silent film, which certainly isn’t a comedy, tells the story of a magician who helps to bring a crime lord to justice. Along the way he encounters The Man Monkey and Froggie the Vampire (I’m not making this up…) in a series of adventures that involve surgery subterfuge and fake illusions. An incomplete version of the serial was discovered in Cornwall a few years ago.
Interestingly another silent film from 1921 about Babbacombe John Lee has also just been discovered in the vaults of British Film Institute’s national archive. Called ‘The Man They Couldn’t Hang,’ it tells the story of a servant convicted of the murder of a spinster back in 1884. When the gallows trapdoor repeatedly failed to open, his sentence was commuted to penal servitude.
The film was made by an Australian called Arthur William Sterry and was popular with an Australian audience who were perhaps taken by its less than sympathetic view of the 19th century British judicial system. How it came to be discovered amongst the hundreds of thousands of reels that curators are currently cataloguing at the BFI is unclear.
Talking of Babbacombe, the second studio in Torbay was called Raleigh-King Productions based at Watcombe Hall, which was intended for use by Dallas Cairns (spot the stage name), who was making films at Ealing. Two films were made in 1922, although sadly it doesn’t look as if prints of ‘Creation’ and ‘The Island Of Romance’ are still in existence.
Back in this halcyon period of silent cinema, Torbay Picture House in Paignton would have featured an amazing 21 piece orchestra (with each member paid a guinea to perform). In fact seat 2 row 2 was apparently the favourite for one Agatha Christie to perch her bum. She reportedly based the cinemas and theatres in her books on the venue. Opened in 1914 it is believed to be the oldest purpose-built cinema in Europe, although the venue closed in 1999 following the opening of the multiplex nearby.
Over the last 50 years, many films have made use of the stunning English Riviera as a location and many locals will tell you of the fun they’ve had as extras. Legendary hell raiser Oliver Reed filmed ‘The System’ (also known as ‘The Girl-Getters’) back in 1964. Directed by a young Michael Winner, Reed plays Tinker, a seaside photographer who has turned his business of snapping holiday portraits of tourists into a system for pulling ‘the birds.’
Near the end of the summer, Tinker aims to conquer a sophisticated model, but finds himself unexpectedly falling in love with her. The smart woman proves every bit his match and Tinker realises that it’s not always the tourists who are being used in these sexual games. The black and white film brilliantly captures Paignton and Torquay locations in the 60’s, including an Elberry Cove beach party, the Harbour Lights Restaurant (Tinker’s Flat) and the 400 Club (now Play) where a fight breaks out and Reed is thrown into Torquay harbour.
Of course, in the early 1970s Torquay became forever associated with Fawlty Towers and what was to become the most famous sitcom of all time. The Monty Python team were staying in the Gleneagles Hotel where they met the rudest hotel owner of all time. He was so rude that the majority of the Pythons left the next morning, but John Cleese and Connie Booth stayed to study the intriguing character and the rest has become the stuff of TV legend. The Monty Python team actually filmed many scenes for their TV series in the area, as well as scenes from the film ‘Monty Python and The Holy Grail’ which were shot in the woods at Occombe in Paignton.
Fast forward to 1979 and Torbay was again being used as a film location, this time for BAFTA nominated ‘That Summer’ starring a very young Ray Winstone. A sort of follow up to ‘Scum’ the story follows Steve who travels down to Torquay after being let out of reform school and enters the ‘round the Bay’ swimming race. Film locations include The Pickwick Inn (where Steve works), the Imperial Hotel, the 400 Club (again), Babbacombe Model Village and Oddicombe Beach. Winstone met his future wife while filming on location in the area.
The stars were back in the Bay in 2003, when Mel Smith directed lawn bowls comedy Blackball. Very loosely based on a true story, Paul Kay plays young bowls rebel Cliff Starkey, who upsets the stuffy traditional bowlers with his outrageous behaviour and unconventional bowling style. Johnny Vegas plays his slobbish best friend (no stretch there), while Vince Vaughan plays the sports agent who attempts to turn the bad boy of bowls into an international sensation.
Oldway Mansion has been used as a film location on several locations, most recently in the spring of 2004 when it doubled as Buckingham Palace for the filming of ‘Churchill: The Holywood Years.’ The story mocks the US film industry’s desire to ‘Americanise’ British History through war movies. Pink gravel, guard houses and period cars were used to recreate the royal courtyard. The all-star cast is also seriously impressive, including Christian Slater, Neve Campbell, Leslie Phillips, Harry Enfield, Vic and Bob, James Drafus, Rik Mayall and Mackenzie Crook. The film premiered at the Apollo Cinema in Paignton.
Other films using Oldway Mansion as a location include Edward VII (starring Robert hardy, Sir John Gieldgud and Timothy West), Lady Nancy Astor (starring Pierce Brosnan) and Isadora (starring Vanessa Redgrave). The latter tells the story of the glamorous dancer, Isadora Duncan, who actually lived at Oldway with her lover, Paris Singer. Interestingly Oldway Mansion was also the home to Archway Silent Film Studios and the Oldway House Theatre was opened by Paris’s father Isaac in 1873. Sadly the theatre, which also showed some films, was demolished in 1904.
