GB 1970 52mins Dir: Tony Scott Starring: Rosamund Greenwood and Roy Evans
After accidentally knocking down and killing a cyclist, an elderly couple take his body home with them
This black and white psychological drama is macabre, unsettling, tragic, and very good. Partly financed by the actor Albert Finney and the BFI Production Board, it was shown at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. Intriguingly, the film centres around an elderly couple living in a railway cottage yet the dialogue solely belongs to Greenwood. Roy Evans does not utter a single word throughout. The cottage sits next to the embryonic North Yorkshire Moors Railway in remote Newtondale and in one scene, a Wickham petrol trolley runs past the house. There is also a scene with Roy Evans working in a lead mine where he is pushing hand carts along basic railway track.
This is Kidstye Farm in Newtondale, north of Levisham on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. A Wickham trolley cuts a lonely figure as it skips along the line, in a scene that is little changed today. Notice the derelict, grounded body of an old railway carriage behind the house.
The Wickham trolley is seen passing behind this shot of Rosamund Greenwood. It is a Type 17 Wickham, but its identity is not known.
The grounded and part dismantled railway carriage is in the process of being stripped down for firewood by Roy Evans. The carriage would probably provide a ready source of wood for about three years!!
Before the arrival of Blenkinsop, Trevithick, and the Stephensons, man would simply push wagons along a guided track. Here Roy Evans does just that, in a scene that has little changed for centuries.
In this more expansive view, Roy Evans heads back to the main adit of the lead mine. The babbling stream alongside looks delightful. It is not known where this was filmed, but it would likely have been somewhere in North Yorkshire.
