The Yellow Balloon

[bobsterkent]

Does anyone happen to know what was the apparently abandonded Underground station used in the above film?

[mariocki]

I'm not familiar with it but you might want to have a look at the following link:



London Underground History - Disused Stations on London's Underground

[Steve Crook]

I'm not familiar with it but you might want to have a look at the following link:



London Underground History - Disused Stations on London's Underground

Although it wouldn't necessarily be a disused one. The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972) used Chalk Farm and Hampstead tube stations and they're still very much in use. They even managed to paint a train, and Hampstead station (or significant parts of it) yellow



I've never heard of this film though.



Steve

[christoph404]

Directed by J.Lee Thompson in the early fifties, cast includes Kenneth More and Bernard Lee, Im sure I have seen this yonks ago as I remember some of the scenes,but a search has suggested that it doesn't exist any more and is a "lost" film. No idea about the underground station though, do you have a copy of the film? when did you last see it? I wouldn't mind watching it again!..

[siriami]

As to the Underground station - it looks at times like a studio set, but some scenes are definitely location. I think it's called "Western (Weston) Road" in the film?

Alistair

[darrenburnfan]

As to the Underground station - it looks at times like a studio set, but some scenes are definitely location. I think it's called "Western (Weston) Road" in the film?

Alistair

According to my London area A-Z map book, there is a Western Road in Merton and a Weston Road in Plaistow, but neither of them have an Underground station. If either of them ever did, it would have been Western Road, as it looks like a big main road, while Weston Road is more of a side street.

[Steve Crook]

According to my London area A-Z map book, there is a Western Road in Merton and a Weston Road in Plaistow, but neither of them have an Underground station. If either of them ever did, it would have been Western Road, as it looks like a big main road, while Weston Road is more of a side street.

The northern end of Western Road, Merton isn't that far away from Collier's Wood tube station. I know the area well having lived there for many years. If anyone can get a screen grab I could soon say if that is Collier's Wood or not.



Steve

[darrenburnfan]

I have a still from the film showing Frankie (Andrew Ray), while being chased by Len (William Sylvester) trying to summon help from the driver of a tube train that is passing through the tube station, but not stopping at the platform. I don't know how to upload the still on here, but if someone who can upload it will send me their email address for me to send it to, I can send it to them as an attachment and then they could upload it.

[darrenburnfan]

According to information in a 1952 ABC Film Review, some of the London location filming for The Yellow Balloon was done in Rotherhithe and the exterior of the Underground station shown in the film certainly looks very much like Rotherhithe Underground station. However, further research on my part shows that at that time, Rotherhithe was very much open and was not an abandoned, bomb damaged station. So the interior location scenes of the platform and tunnels, ect, must have been filmed somewhere else.

[darrenburnfan]

As you can see, I copied and pasted the link to the platform photo from Photobucket onto here, but the photo will not appear. Maybe if you copied and pasted the above link into your browser, you may be able to see it then.



No, I just tried that and it doesn't work. This Photobucket thing is soddin' useless!

[Mark O]

Can't make out the station on the roundels, it'll be one of the early tube stations before the extensions of the 1930's judging by the glazed bricks, a lengthy name, Caledonian Road, Notting Hill Gate, maybe?

[darrenburnfan]

Can't make out the station on the roundels, it'll be one of the early tube stations before the extensions of the 1930's judging by the glazed bricks, a lengthy name, Caledonian Road maybe?

Good work, Mark O. It was obviously a station where the trains went through without stopping and the platform looks delapidated.

[Mark O]

I have a feeling the structural support may have been put there specifically for the film to sheild the film lighting as the adverts on the wall are very early 50's, therefore suggesting the station is still in use, stations closures such as York Road and Dover Street happened in the 1920's and 30's, though of course i could be wrong and it is a closed station at the time.

[darrenburnfan]

I have a feeling the structural support may have been put there specifically for the film to sheild the film lighting as the adverts on the wall are very early 50's, therefore suggesting the station is still in use, stations closures such as York Road and Dover Street happened in the 1920's and 30's, though of course i could be wrong and it is a closed station at the time.

Well, most of the last ten minutes was definitely filmed in a real underground station somewhere that was deserted except for the two principal characters and in case anyone wants to know what this still is about, I am pasting in the following caption:



"12 years old Frankie Palmer (Andrew Ray), while being chased by murderer Len Turner (William Sylvester) through an abandoned London Underground station, frantically calls to a passing train driver for help before fleeing for his life into the maze of tunnels."



The station name can be seen between the two large posters, but is too small to make out in this photo.

[Anthony McKay]

I've found this site very useful in the past:



Underground History



Their shot of Aldwych - which has been used for filming looks very similar.





please visit their site for more fantastic London Underground images

[darrenburnfan]

Thanks, Anthony. Yes, I do know about that excellent website and found it very interesting. But even they don't know where the station in The Yellow Balloon was located. There are two problems here. The first is that it is now so long ago since the film was made...57 years...that all the people who worked on it, including the actors...are all probably dead. Certainly Ray and Sylvester are...and the second problem is that all these London underground stations tend to look exactly the same to the untrained eye.



However, anyone who has complete runs of Kinematrograph Weekly (a weekly trade magazine), or Picture Show (a weekly film magazine) for 1952, may find the location mentioned in either or both of those, as both magazines carried weekly On Location reports for the latest British films in production.

[Mark O]

I think i'd need to see the actual film as it's real difficult to guess, the name on the roundels looks much longer than Aldwych or would they perhaps have gone to the trouble of making falsies as in 'The good die young' with just 'High Street'?........it's probably a station on the Central or Piccadilly line as the Northern and Bakerloo had the red 1938 tube stock with the rounded front roof, the trains used between Holborn and Aldwych were three car ones and as i recall the length of the platform was shorter than the standard.

[darrenburnfan]

Thanks, Mark O. I had wondered if the station may have been Southgate, in north London, as that one is on the Piccadilly line. But Southgate was very much in use in 1952 and it was a bit far from the other London locations in the film, which were centered around south-east London.



As for getting the DVD, it's a dear do having to buy a box set of six films for up to £40 just to get one film, but I've been lucky there. A friend of mine who bought the box set copied The Yellow Balloon for me and sent it to me for nothing (well, I've sent him free DVD's from time to time).



Also, after the train driver spots Frankie calling for help while being chased by the killer, he pulls into another station further down the line (or maybe further up the line) and goes into an office at the end of the platform to report what he's just seen. The office at the end of the platform may be a clue.

[Mark O]

A still of that scene would help too, or any stills of the film! it's definitely not further north of Finsbury Park on the Piccadilly line.

[darrenburnfan]

All being well, I will grab a frame from that scene off the DVD later today and upload it.



Okay, here it is. Viewed from the inside of the office at the end of the platform.