GB
1941
1hr 34mins
Dir: John Baxter
Starring: Clifford Evans and Deborah Kerr
Life among cotton workers of a Lancashire mill town during the depression of the 1930s
This realistic drama was adapted from the 1933 novel of the same name by Walter Greenwood and features a number of interesting railway scenes. The first shows a small industrial 0-4-0ST hauling LMS coal wagons in a colliery followed by a ‘going away’ shot at night of an unidentifiable express train passing through a cutting. There are then good scenes in Blackpool that include an excellent shot of LMS Class 4P ‘Compound’ 4-4-0 No.1195 arriving with an excursion train at Blackpool Central station, a distant view of a double-deck tram, and a closer shot of three illuminated trams at night; the ‘Gondola’ tram, the ‘Lifeboat’ tram and the ‘Progress’ double-decker. There is also a brief shot of the Pleasure Beach miniature railway which features a 21-inch gauge Hudswell Clarke steam outline diesel-hydraulic locomotive on a rake of open carriages packed full of passengers. This railway had earlier appeared in the 1934 Gracie Fields musical Sing As We Go (qv), where we get a much better view of it, and are even treated to a ride on it!! There is then one further scene of an industrial factory site with a rake of open wagons present.
