GB 1937 1hr 33mins Dir: Basil Dean Starring: Gracie Fields and Owen Nares
An ordinary mill girl becomes a stage star
This Gracie Fields musical comedy is a semi-autobiographical film about a mill worker plucked from obscurity and thrust towards fame and fortune by an ailing composer who needs a singer to perform his work. The film includes a number of stock railway shots as part of a montage sequence that was typical for the period – an express in the Lune Gorge hauled by an unrebuilt ‘Royal Scot’ Class 6P 4-6-0, an ex-LNWR ‘Claughton’ 4-6-0 taking water on Dillicar Troughs, a murky shot of an LMS express arriving at London Euston behind another ‘Claughton’, and an obscured shot at night of LNER N7 Class 0-6-2T No.2616 arriving at an unknown station with a local passenger train. The platform scene here may be the real thing, with the station posing as ‘Hindlebury’, but the interior carriage scenes were a set.
Stock shot No.1 – an unrebuilt ‘Royal Scot’ in the Lune Gorge. This has also appeared in A Honeymoon Adventure (1931), No Limit (1935), Quiet Wedding (1941), The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942), The Next of Kin (1942), The Echo Murders (1945), and The Hangman Waits (1947).
Stock shot No.2 – an LNWR ‘Claughton’ taking water on Dillicar Troughs. This has also appeared in Thunder in the City (1937), The Ware Case (1938), The Common Touch (1941), Theatre Royal (1943), and Frieda (1947).
Stock shot No.3 – another ‘Claughton’ arrives into London Euston.
Stock shot No.4 – LNER N7 Class 0-6-2T No.2616 arrives at a station but is obscured by the fictitious ‘Hindlebury’ station sign that has been superimposed over the image. A near identical shot showing N2 No.2656 appears in Dead Men Are Dangerous (1939) and it is not unreasonable to assume that this was shot at the same location.
Following on from the above is this arrival scene that appears to be real and not studio bound
