satwin

Does anyone remember a black and white film, possibly late 40's or early 50's about a little boy who 'lives' in Tower Bridge in London. He was possible a waif and stray

John Rossington

This sounds like THE BOY AND THE BRIDGE (1959), directed by Kevin McClory, although I haven't seen it myself.

John

BGB

Or how about the MUDLARK (1950) with the late Andrew Ray, playing a Victorian urchin who finds a medallion of Queen Victoria, although this is not Tower Bridge but Windsor Castle I think.
Brian

Tom Bancroft

Hope this helps those who have expressed interest in this 1959 British film.
The Boy and the Bridge was a British film released in 1959. The story line concerns a schoolboy, Tommy Doyle (Ian McLaine) who runs away from home in the East End of London following a blazing row with his grandad (Liam Redmond) with whom he lives. The boy wants some money (can’t remember what for) but grandad is hard up and has to refuse. The boy’s parting words to his grandad are “I wish you were dead!”.
The film then follows the boy on his adventures around London. Lots of location stuff around Covent Garden (where he pinches an apple because he’s hungry), the Billingsgate Fish Market, the Tower of London (where he watches the changing of the guard) and on the banks of the Thames. As the day draws on, the cold and hungry the boy slinks home with his tail between his legs, but as he rounds the corner into the terraced street he sees two men carrying a coffin out of the house and into a hearse. His words echo back into his head “I wish you were dead” and he runs off in a blind panic thinking his curse has killed grandad. However, when the camera pans back to the house a different angle shows the ‘coffin’ to be a grandfather clock and the ‘hearse’ is simply a plain black van. Grandad is actually selling his prized clock to raise money to grant the boy’s request.
It is now dark and grandad has informed the police about the boy’s disappearance. The boy passes a news stand and sees the headline “Police search for missing boy” obviously he thinks he is now wanted for murder! Tired and scared he finds himself on the banks of the Thames and crawls under the tarpaulin cover of a barge where he sleeps the night away.
The hustle and bustle of the Thames wakes him up next morning and more adventures follow with him trying to avoid the police. Finally, as darkness falls for the second night, he witnesses the “Ceremony of the Queen’s Keys” at the Tower of London which seems to be when the dayshift beefeaters hand over to their night shift colleagues.
Eventually, Tommy is wandering across Tower Bridge when he spots a policeman approaching from the other end. He ducks into a doorway and as he leans on the door it swings open and he darts inside to hide. He hears noises from below and decides to investigate, descending the stone steps into the area where the bridge mechanism is contained. At one stage he almost gets crushed as the massive counterweight swings towards him as the bridge opens. There are three engineers down there (one played by Arthur Lowe) and while they’re not looking, the boy nicks their sandwiches causing a row as the engineers blame each other for the theft.
The boy then goes back up stairs and carries on up a few flights where he finds a disused dark room and beds down for the night. Next morning he his awakened by a tapping noise and realises that he is right at the top of one of the towers and a seagull is pecking at the window. He opens the window and finally coaxes the seagull in with the remains of the sandwiches and they become friends (the seagull appears in the credits on screen as “Sammy The Seagull”). The boy tidies up the room and makes it a proper home from home.
Comedy is provided by a Thames tugboat captain (James Hayter) who keeps seeing a face at the window at the top of the tower, and even washing hung out to dry at one point. However, every time he shouts his crew up from below to look there is nothing to see and they just think he’s been at the whisky!
Eventually the boy is discovered and as in all good films of this kind, he is re-united with grandad and they all live happily ever after.
Sorry if some if this is sketchy, but I only saw it once and that was almost 50 years ago (it must have had something to stay with me all these years!).

John Rossington

Er, thanks but... I hope nobody wanted to see the movie and discover the story for themselves!!

Tom Bancroft

Sad thing is John - I don't think anyone will ever see this film again. I have enquired at many sites for information and the concensus seems to be that it has gone the way of all flesh!

"I want to be a sailor - sailing out to sea"

Mediatheque

Don't abandon hope on this one quite yet! A copy is held by the BFI National Archive. If we are able to located the rightsholder we aim to include the film in the Mediatheque in July.

Tom Bancroft

Waited with baited breath throughout the month of July hoping for news of the rebirth of the film by BFI. Seems like there's still a rights issue - ah! well, I'm a patient type!

"I want to be a sailor - sailing out to sea"

Tom Bancroft

I also can't spell - that should have been 'bated' breath, but you get the picture (no pun intended!).

"I want to be a sailor - sailing out to sea"

Tom Bancroft

Ah! well - another July is almost upon us and still no sign of this film re-surfacing. What happened 'Mediatheque'? Is it finally a case of RIP?

"I want to be a sailor - sailing out to sea"

LukeAFB

Whilst, to the best of my knowledge I have never seen the film, I can claim to have seen it being made!

In 1957 (ish) I used to walk from my home in Hackney to some area of London on a Sunday morning with a friend.

One one visit we finished up at Tower Bridge. We took some steps down the side of the road over the bridge and were confronted by a film crew.

They were filming a scene with an old "coffee shop" on wheels. We stood and watched for some time and the only thing I can remember happening was the boy sneaking up to the counter and stealing a bun. I still remember the coffee shop attendant's face (he was a quite well known supporting actor at the time), but I can't remember his name.

Whether this episode made me decide I wanted to be a Director, I don't know, but 30 years later, I did.

shinerchina

It is now July 2008

Will we ever get to see this film, or is was all just a foolhardy dream on the part of our Mediatheque friend?

Alex G.

ybp3

I hope this film does resurface at some time. I for one would be delighted to see 'real' footage of the East End in the 50's. I also think there was something charmingly innocent about the content of films at around that time. So, fingers crossed.

Tom Bancroft

It's just occurred to me that I haven't spotted any posts by Mediatheque recently - is he still with us?

"I want to be a sailor - sailing out to sea"