Smoking, hats, cheap drinks and free parking – old films offer a glimpse into a different world – Borehamwood Times

One of the few good things about self-isolating in these winter months is that I have started to watch some of films in my DVD library that runs into several hundred.

I am a great fan of British B movies of the 1950s or, to use their proper name, supporting features. This was the era when you got to see two films when you went to the cinema.

These movies were often shot in just two or three weeks with budgets usually ranging from 20,000 to 60,000. Today a television advert lasting one minute could cost several times that amount.

Some of these modest efforts are poor but others are forgotten gems. I enjoy them for a couple of reasons. They sometimes starred fading Hollywood actors such as Forrest Tucker, but always were packed with character actors, some of whom I later met. The second reason is they were capsules of the time. Everybody smoked, drank alcohol even if they were driving, could always park easily in central London, wore hats and could buy a round of drinks for under a pound.

They were often filmed at long since demolished film studios such as Walton, Merton Park, Southall, Teddington and our own Danzigers in Elstree village.

The latter was run by two American brothers who were infamous for low budgets, but they gave employment to young actors such as Christopher Lee and fading stars of yesteryear grateful for work.

The late Brian Clemens, who went on to create The Avengers and much more, told me: "I was a young scriptwriter and it was a great learning curve. They would say 'write a script, but it must include a submarine, a dance hall and a hotel room as we have some leftover sets still available'."

Radio star Pete Murray recalled: "I got a phone call asking if I was interested in starring in a film. This was on a Friday and naturally I said yes. They said 'great, the fee is 250, we are sending the script over and we start shooting on Monday!'"

One of Danzigers regular directors was Ernie Morris, who told me: "I worked fast so was often employed. If you fell behind schedule they would simply tear out pages from the shooting script. At one point they asked me to use aliases as they felt it looked cheap if they appeared to be using the same director."

Danzigers also produced cheap television series such as Mark Saber the one-armed detective. The star Donald Gray actually only had one arm so was great casting. The studio was also hired out and included films starring Hollywood names such as Sidney Poitier, Brian Donlevy, George Sanders and Lorne Greene, who went on to star in the successful Bonanza television series.

So until next time I doff my hat to you, light a Lucky Strike cigarette and have a double whisky for a couple of bob before I venture out into a pea souper. Mind you I am wearing a face mask so I hope I don't get nicked for looking like a bank robber.

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Smoking, hats, cheap drinks and free parking - old films offer a glimpse into a different world - Borehamwood Times