JACQUELINE

GB
1956
1hr 29mins
Dir: Roy Baker
Starring: John Gregson and Kathleen Ryan

The struggles of a Belfast family after the father loses his job in the shipyards

Based on the 1954 Catherine Cookson novel A Grand Man, this drama is set on location in Belfast and there are two shots of industrial saddle tanks in one of the shipyards. The problem here is that they are very similar shots to those that appeared in the 1949 film Floodtide (qv), which was set in the Glasgow shipyards on the Clyde. This opens the debate as to what was where. Where these shots really in Glasgow and not Belfast, or where the Floodtide ones really in Northern Ireland?! Later, there is a scene with a young Richard O’Sullivan running along a railway line and climbing onto a bridge parapet with a railway carriage behind him. It appears that the bridge is a set with gratuitous shots of railway lines thrown in where appropriate.

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This shot of an industrial saddle tank in a shipyard also appeared in the 1949 film Floodtide, set in the Glasgow shipyards.
An Andrew Barclay built saddle tank passes through the shipyard with a short rake of flat wagons. A near identical shot appeared as back-projection in the film Floodtide but was obscured by members of the cast. At least we see all of the loco in this instance.
A railway line at dusk. This could be anywhere and with urban redevelopment and line closures the location could well remain unidentified.
John Gregson running after his son along a railway line. This begs another question. Is the track the wider Irish 5′ 3″ gauge or, as I suspect, the British standard 4 foot 8 and a half?
Richard O’Sullivan crawls across a bridge parapet with the railway line beneath.
It is revealed that a vintage 3rd class carriage is on top of the bridge (!), therefore this is clearly a set.