The Lady Killers

warren haywood

Western Thunderer
ive always been a fan of the early British comedies and have The Lady Killers onDVD somewhere in black and white.
Flicking through amazon tv last night I came across it fully remastered and colourised,
Lots of Railway interest as it looks to me as it was filmed beside the approaches to Kings Cross and St Pancras.
Well worth a watch
 

LarryG

Western Thunderer
The Lady Killers has always been in colour; one of the few Ealings to be made in technicolor. We watched it yesterday afternoon (not seen it for years), but as is usual on Freeview, bits were edited out.
 
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
Colourised movies can be truly awful. For instance, 'Scrooge' has lost all its nostalgia. But I thought the colourised historical documentaries were interesting. One thing the colourisers can't get around is the colour of red on old non-panchromatic film. I watched an old film covering Londons streets and all the trams were black!
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
The Lady Killers has always been in colour; one of the few Ealings to be made in technicolor. We watched it yesterday afternoon (not seen it for years), but as is usual on Freeview, bits were edited out.
Tch tch Larry. Shot in "Technicolor" if you don't mind.:)) (Well done for missing the "u" out of Technicolor, though.) I ran the place so remember it well. I also remember the old Ealing Studios - still there of course although no longer a BBC production centre.

Brian
 

Tim Watson

Western Thunderer
The out-takes for the Ladykillers, available from Video 125 (Steam on 35mm I) are, I believe, on Ilford film. The director apparently told the cameraman to set up on top of Copenhagen tunnel and take a load of film. Peter Middleton, of Video 125, was in the TV business originally and his father had been archivist at Ealing studios. John Huntley came round to Keen House one night and asked if anyone new anything about the film he had found. We immediately went round to his studio at Islington Green and gave him the info he required. We have had the video playing on CF at exhibitions since then.

There was a little bit of three strip Technicolor film preserved, but this is very expensive to transcribe and was not thought to be worth converting.

The film has recently been re-released, having been digitally re-mastered. I have a copy which is very good and was twice ready to see it in our local cinema, only to be thwarted by COVID restrictions.

Tim
 

J_F_S

Western Thunderer
Little bit of non-railway Lady Killers nerdism:- Mrs Wilberforce knew nothing about music: if she had, she would have spotted the Boys as fakes. Luigi Boccherini's E Major Quintet is a CELLO quintet - ie a string quartet with an extra cello - but the Boys brought along an extra VIOLA as their fifth intrument!
 

MarkR

Western Thunderer
Reelstreets is a good site for film locations.
I have just watched "The Clouded Yellow" with Trevor Howard, lots of old cars, buses and trolley buses, with the conclusion in Liverpool with good shots of The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board system, all covered on Reelstreets.
Mark
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
I've just scanned this truly awful photo which Tim has entitled "Ladykillers Street, Kings Cross." It's on the very beginning of a roll so may just be a grabbed shot from the top of a bus. He's not provided a date but it's among negs from 1963. His namesake on here may be able to enlighten us about how accurate the description may be.

This photo is so far down the negs I'm working on that there's been absolutely no effort to clean it up or otherwise "improve" it from the flat scan results. In fact I'm not really convinced that it's worthwhile.

img1745TM Neg 7A Ladykillers Street Kings Cross.Date NK.  No Neg ID .jpg

Brian
 

J_F_S

Western Thunderer
I've just scanned this truly awful photo which Tim has entitled "Ladykillers Street, Kings Cross."

Brian

I have no idea why it would be thus labeled given that it is Liverpool Road Manchester looking towards Bridge Street! My guess for a date would be late seventies - just before the old Liverpool Road station building was restored as part of the Museum of Science and Industry.

Best Wishes,
Howard
 
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oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Thank you, Howard. I can't imagine how Tim got that so wrong! It sort of makes sense as the previous pictures are at Settle but known to be in 1980 - something and on a different neg strip, so not relevant to this particular neg strip, I suspect, but the only other photo on this strip is of a Class 47 under what look to be West Coast wires. I'll revisit the negs and see if further clues are possible. Previously I've had to reconstruct the full length of film to understand what's going on, and I reckon I'll have to do that here.

That info is almost certainly going to be a great help.

Brian
 
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