Who are these people?

[cornershop15]

My inspiration for this thread was a scene in the Man in a Suitcase episode Three Blinks of the Eyes, which included two very attractive Extras watching a cabaret act. They gave standard expressions of Intrigue, Excitement and Horror, but I was surprised to see these young women being given such big close-ups, which have stayed in the mind ever since. More on them soon, but that's the idea I've had - for us to find examples of faces we've seen in a film who really stand out from the 'average' Extras that make up the numbers. The locals in The Wicker Man, perhaps, or the customers in pub scenes like the one at the start of Get Carter? In terms of documentaries, how about some of the down-and-outs who appeared in the brilliant The London Nobody Knows?



This is intended to be different from threads like 'Uncredited Actors' (which has included such well-known faces as Jack Hedley and Valerie Leon) and 'Anyone Recognise This Actor?', where Joe Ritchie and Peter Bennett were quickly identified. There is a similarity to the one wellendcanons created a couple of weeks ago, 'Can anyone identify two ITC Extras?' in that it's unlikely such background artists will be identified (although significant progress was made when Harry Fielder remembered one of them was called Pauline!). But, on the whole, it looks like we'll never know who they are, which is a shame. And yet some of these faces continue to haunt, prompting me to ask the question: "WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE???"

Among those who've been immortalised on film, or video tape, are several of the crowd during the Rock

concert scene in the classic movie Blow Up. In anticipation of a two-part special I'm working on, I have

an alternative capture of the one I will be using to start my next post here. Do you remember this girl?:



It looks like David Hemmings is staring at the camera, but he's searching for Vanessa Redgrave. Catching

actors off-guard is one of my 'specialties' as I go through almost every frame looking for striking images.



I guess this woman must be one of the most famous examples in Cinema History. The shocking image is

from Sergei Eisenstein's silent masterpiece The Battleship Potemkin (1925), which I can remember

watching with my father on BBC2 when I was a child - and have never forgotten this harrowing moment:







Only just found out her name was Repnikova, credited as 'Woman on the Steps'



Some interesting information here, from Wikipedia:



The English painter Francis Bacon was profoundly influenced by Eisenstein's images,

particularly the Odessa Steps shot of the nurse's broken glasses and open mouthed

scream. The open mouthed image first appeared in his Abstraction from the Human

Form in Fragment of a Crucifixion and other works including his famous Head series.



I'm 100% certain this influenced the scene in the British film Made, where Carol White's baby

dies as her friend is caught up in a fight with rival football hooligans when she takes him out.



Can you think - and perhaps provide captures - of Extras who've made an impression on you?

[cornershop15]

I guess that's a 'No' then. There must be somebody you can think of - a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz?





A more in-depth look at some of the Extras in the Rock concert scene, where The Yardbirds' exciting

performance of Stroll On is played out to an unusually-lifeless audience of youngsters. Drugs?



Another capture of the Girl in Green, with David Hemmings. He's looking past the camera this time:

But what about the Girl in Pink? Have you noticed her when watching the film in 'real time'? I haven't.



The camera then pans towards the left of the screen and briefly stops at this sad-faced young man:



Again, this is an unknown Extra who makes a vivid impact, more so than the girls in the background.



It's the 'lad' on the left I remember, not just from the film but from when I was capturing this image:



Yet I don't think I had ever noticed the man on the right, probably because the other guy features so

prominently in the scene (he's the one who leads the chase for the neck of Jeff Beck's broken guitar).



The Girl in Green, the sad-faced black man and the youth with the glasses were all on my mind before

I embarked on screencapping this scene, which also yielded this surprising image of future presenter

Janet Street-Porter (dancer on the left), which I posted at 'Where Were They Then?' a few days ago:

But the faces of the Girl in Pink, the two girls on the right of the second picture, and the long-haired man in the third are all new to me. They're slowly becoming more familiar through this post, as I keep referring back to them every few minutes! This can only reinforce my belief that having the time to analyse an otherwise-fleeting image can prove very rewarding. You never know what you might find

Next time I watch this film I'll keep a look-out for those New Faces, who I must have ignored during all those previous viewings!



In Part 2, I will include a few more unknown Extras from Blow Up, all of whom are seemingly opposite examples to the sort I had in mind for this thread. Although they failed to make an impression on me during the film, I am hoping that my captures of the overlooked faces will make them become as familiar as the others.

But wait a minute ... This very scene is available on YouTube!

Now for the bad news - some of those I've alluded to are left out in

this version, which has cropped both sides of the screen. A shame:

[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=YHNL5_2LspE"]YouTube- The Yardbirds - Stroll On (Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page 1966)[/ame]

[wellendcanons]

The girl in the green standing next to David Hemmings in Blow Up seems very familiar, perhaps because she reminds me of Beverly D'Angelo. I doubt if it is her though.



I can't make any of the others out. Sorry Cornershop.



Wellendcanons.

[harryfielder]

C.S. ,,I've looked hard at these pics and didn't see anyone I knew.

I wasn't in the game when this film was made so they could have just got bus loads of extras for the concert with a free lunch thrown in...No pay....



Aitch.....

What happened to Dyson Lovell...??

[wellendcanons]

According to IMDb Dyson Lovell became a producer after he gave up acting.



Wellendcanons.

[cornershop15]

Thanks guys. They were probably regulars at the local club, or disco, and , as Aitch implied, were lucky enough to find themselves in one of the great Cult Films of all time (for sure). The bespectacled youth reminds me very much of Spencer Banks, but he was still a child at this point. I don't know why but I keep wondering if it might be Christopher Timothy? Again unlikely.



To tell you the truth, I'm really hoping that These People will be identified by someone who knows - or knew - them, or even reveal THEMSELVES. The Internet being what is. I'm sure other fans of the film are as curious as me, including isbright, who I hope will visit this thread later.

[isbright]

Here I am cs15.



This scene was filmed at Elstree in a mock-up of the real Ricky Tick Club at Clewer Mead in Windsor, so I don't know how these people got here. Just extras off the street? I had heard a rumour that they were bused in from the real club, but I haven't found any evidence to support this.



Did you get Michael Palin on a vidcap as I haven't been able to identify him in this scene? What were he and JS-P doing at this time of their lives? Just university students?



I'm watching this one closely, cs15.



Regards, Ian.

[penfold]

Michael Palin was presenting a pop show down here in the west from '65.....

[cornershop15]

Note: Please refer to the clip, included in the 2nd post, to see how (briefly) they were used in 'real time'.



More unidentified (and more than likely unidenti-fiable) Extras from the legendary film. Somehow these

didn't quite grab the attention as much as the ones featured in Pt 1. David Hemmings is there, far right:



This is their chance to get some recognition! Out of context, they look just as interesting - or don't as

the case may be - as the faces in the first few captures. The guy in the T-shirt doesn't look dated at all





How I missed the attractive blonde is beyond me. I like the pensive-looking girl with the bonnet too!



We've had the Girls in Green and Pink, so maybe I should dub these two 'The Ephemeral Blondes in Purple'?





Sorry about the imperfect hand belonging to this hitherto-unnoticed blonde. I wanted to get her off-guard look to

camera. She's seen trying to escape the chaos that ensues after crazy Yardbird Jeff Beck smashes his guitar :







Outside the Ricky Tick club. I like the elegant couple, left, who eventually pass the stationary camera:



The partially-obscured figure on the right is actually an important part of this scene. See next image



There he is (left). Recognise him now? He's the man who picks up the guitar neck David is about to discard:



The main interest, however, is the Ambrosine Philpotts-type passer-by who briefly glances at the film's star



That concludes my tribute to the more notable extras in Blow Up. I do have plenty of other captures from

the scene so if there's anyone you think I have missed please tell me. Haven't spot Michael Palin though.



COMING SOON: The attractive girls from that scene in Man in a Suitcase who gave me the idea for this thread

[cornershop15]

I'm still hoping others can provide examples of Extras who've made an impression in a film or show. Dad's Army had a few I think.



These are all from the episode Man in a Suitcase - Three Blinks of the Eyes (1968). The scene is set in

a Parisian nightclub where a cabaret act is performing a daring routine. A redhead apparently has her

lovely head chopped off and then (cue the title) blinks three times! Leading up to the dramatic event,

shots of the 'excited' audience appear, with a blonde and brunette the most noticeable in my opinion:







Inexplicably, as both actresses are 'mere' Extras after all, they are both given MASSIVE close-ups:







Okay, probably very little or no chance of them being identified, like the Blow Up stars, but I would be

interested to know if you either recognise them from repeated viewings (does mariocki?), or think you

may have seen them in something else, which eagle-eyed wellendcanons has done with two other ITC

Extras. I wasn't intending to include the guillotined redhead but as an added bonus (and who is SHE?):

[wellendcanons]

Cornershop, I may be wrong about this but the dark-haired extra looks very much like an extra I have seen in Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased). The close-up threw me at first because her hair is parted in the opposite direction. It's on her left. In the other shot it is on her right side, as it is in the episode Whoever Heard Of A Ghost Dying?



In the scene where Jeff is seated at the bar at a discotheque and Marty appears on the dance floor and comes over to him, there is a couple directly behind Jeff on his close-up shots and I think (i'm not sure) that the girl behind him is your girl. She actually leans forward at one point as if sensing Jeff was talking to himself. Then in the next take she is looking away again. I wouldn't have any idea who she is though.



The blonde girl looks a bit like Janet Key but I doubt that it is her.



Wellendcanons.

[wearysloth]

I was pondering Janet Key also, here she is in Percy from 1971

[Euryale]

The blonde girl looks a bit like Janet Key but I doubt that it is her.



Wellendcanons

I thought she looked like Janet too, Wellend!



E.

[cornershop15]

You're joking, wellend - Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying? is the last thing I watched! Oh my goodness! I shall have to scan the episode again*. At least you've made it easy for me, as before, in your description of the scene, which I remember very well as I only watched it last night!



I keep thinking the blonde and brunette are ACTUALLY French, as they were supposed to be in Paris, but of course am well aware that it was more likely to be Borehamwood Studios. I doubt very much it's Janet Key, however young.



*I've done a bit of screencapping on this episode already, for a post at Ivor Dean's thread, if you remember. This was his first appearance as Inspector Large.

[wellendcanons]

According to Janet Key's IMDb credits she started acting in 1967. So it's just possible she may have been acting in an early small role.



Wellendcanons.

[whitstablejim]

The picture where they are all sitting at tables, I recognise quite a few, and they came from Central Casting, but very sorry no names.

[Hummies]

Great idea, cornershop15, to start this thread.

There are so many familiar faces without names that get close-ups in films and tv series.



One of our favourite uncredited extras is this man:







Seen here in UFO episode 'Confetti Check A-OK' as a private eye hired by Mary Straker's mother to find out about her husband's secret activities. He was in another UFO episode as a "frozen" studio worker: 'Timelash' where he got another close-up.



Here's a list of other productions in which we've spotted him so far (rolenames in brackets):

- The Champions, 4 episodes:

'The Experiment' (male nurse); 'Twelve Hours' (policeman in car);

'The Silent Enemy' (submarine crewman); 'Autokill' (plainclothes policeman)

- The Persuaders, episode 'The Time and the Place' (tourist outside Tower of London)

- Silver Dream Racer (man at racetrack with green flag)

- Island of Terror (villager)

- Darling (man at 'Happiness Girl' meeting)

- Life at the Top (guest at Susan's birthday party)

[cornershop15]

Thank you very much for your replies. This looks like being my only post today as I'm agony with ear and toothache again. I have managed to screencap most of that scene in the disco, wellend (from Randall and Hopkirk - Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying?) and, thanks to your description, have found who you think is the Mystery Brunette from Man in a Suitcase. I think you're right - she does look like the same woman. But there might be something even more amazing contained in that sequence ...



Amongst that group of dancers is a blonde girl, with a tartan skirt, who looks suspiciously like the one in Three Blinks of the Eyes. If she is the one, this could mean that they've both appeared in the same scene of (at least) two different shows. When I return, I'll have captures of both girls plus a couple of other notable faces from the disco scene to see if we agree it's them.



Special thanks to Hummies for his contributions.

[whitstablejim]

If you go two minutes in on The Yardbirds video, there is David Hemmings, if you look over his right shoulder you will see his stand-in Vince Fleming, who is getting an extra chit for being in the crowd, lucky Vince, he is the only one that I recognise.

[cornershop15]

name='whitstablejim']If you go two minutes in on The Yardbirds video, there is David Hemmings, if you look over his right shoulder you will see his stand-in Vince Fleming, who is getting an extra chit for being in the crowd, lucky Vince, he is the only one that I recognise.

Is this him ... Jim? If it is, then he's actually behind David's left shoulder, but the right as we look at it!:



You'll notice that bloke with the glasses is there AGAIN, along with the curly haired man from post #2

The bespectacled youth reminds me of a crowd member who 'conducted' the Last Night of the Proms



Stay tuned folks, as I'm about to bring you 'highlights' from the disco scene wellendcanons mentioned.