STOP PRESS GIRL

GB
1949
1hr 18mins
Dir: Michael Barry
Starring: Sally Ann Howes and Gordon Jackson

An attractive young girl has the power to stop all kinds of machinery

This charming little comedy includes an amusing sequence where Sally Ann Howes travels to London by train and inadvertently brings the loco to a halt. The sequence features a couple of stock shots from the 1945 film Brief Encounter (qv) – showing express trains at Carnforth – and a couple of other indistinct night shots of passing expresses. After the train has come to a stand a tree falls on the line in front of it but the shots of the train in this sequence seem to use a studio set. At the end of the film there is another train journey which again features an unexpected stop, but this time due to a signal, and nothing more. This scene uses the excellent stock shot of LMS ‘Jubilee’ Class 5XP No.5553 Canada from the 1938 film I See Ice (qv). Note, the screen shots below are from a rare colourized version of the film, which was of course originally released in black and white.

A stock shot from Brief Encounter, very familiar of course but not in ‘colour’.
This shot shows a ‘Black Five’ passing through Carnforth. Presumably this was shot for David Lean’s Brief Encounter but as no ‘Black Fives’ appear in the completed film then we can assume that this is an unused shot filmed for that production, which is a rare thing.
This shot appears to show a GWR ‘Castle’ on an express. How can one tell? Well, five months later this shot appeared in A Run for Your Money but that has remained in black and white and the picture is a lot clearer as a result (go see). It would later crop up again in The Hand (1960).
Not much to look at here but the colourization of the orange glare from the open fire box deems this shot worthy of inclusion
I am a little at a loss as to what this may be. It looks to be a little LNER in origin but it may be a very clever studio set using a combination of matted backdrops and back-projection.
After the train has been inadvertently brought to a stand a tree falls across the track blocking its path. This is the driver’s eye view of the incident, which has clearly taken place in a studio.
Again, this is a studio set with matted back cloth. In the days before CGI some fairly realistic scenes could be achieved through the hard work of the boys from the prop department.
Oh for the wonders of colour. This lovely shot of ‘Jubilee’ No.5553 Canada in LMS black was originally filmed for the 1938 movie I See Ice – which see.