TURN THE KEY SOFTLY

GB
1953
1hr 21mins
Dir: Jack Lee
Starring: Yvonne Mitchell and Kathleen Harrison

Three women are released from Holloway Prison with the chance to go straight

This excellent drama features a shot of the frontage of Holloway Road Underground station, but the quite lengthy scene which then follows below ground was actually filmed at Holborn and used the Aldwych branch platform and a train of 1923 ‘Standard’ stock. Later in the film there are a couple of shots of the entrance to Leicester Square Underground station.

A busy scene on the Holloway Road with the frontage to the Piccadilly Line station on the left. The railway bridge in the background carries the East Coast main line between King’s Cross and Finsbury Park stations.
Although this is supposed to be ‘downstairs’ at Holloway Road this is in fact the much photographed Aldwych branch platform at Holborn. Notice the tail lamp on the rear of the departing 1923 stock train.
Another train of 1923 Standard Stock arrives into Holborn. The front end destination reads Uxbridge but that can not be for the Aldwych branch platform had no direct connection for trains through central London. This shot, or a near identical one, ‘reappeared’ in the 1954 film Monsieur Ripois (qv).
Glyn Houston and Joan Collins outside Leicester Square station. From this angle, the sign suggests that the station is only served by the Northern Line. It isn’t, as Piccadilly Line services also call here.
This is a further, more elevated view of the same entrance on the corner of Charing Cross Road and Great Newport Street