GB
1974
1hr 20mins
Dir: Don Siegel
Starring: Michael Caine and Janet Suzman
A member of the secret service has his son kidnapped for ransom
This spy thriller features a number of confusing scenes on the London Underground. The journey starts with a shot of the secondary Surrey Street entrance of Aldwych station, followed by the cross-passageways of this entrance, and then a scene filmed on platform 1. The sequence continues with a scene that uses the Aldwych branch platform at Holborn, dressed with Central Line and ‘Shepherd’s Bush’ signage and roundels, although a single ‘Holborn’ one is visible to the trained eye as the train pulls in. The cross-passageways and stairs then seen are again at Aldwych, but the exterior is the actual Shepherd’s Bush. It can probably be inferred from this confusion that the first station was meant to represent an adjacent Central Line one, presumably Holland Park, since the next one in the opposite direction is the above-ground White City. 1959-built tube stock appears in the platform scenes.
