Biffer

OK, start your own poll then.

Biffer

paul clifton

heres my Quad poster for it

Biffer

Waoh! Great poster, Mr.Clifton. Is it original?

Biffer

paul clifton

yup sure is. Had it a few years now. Original release uk film poster known as a QUAD. 40 X 30 INCH. Collected them fr many years now. Thats one of about 500. Mainly war I collect but I have a few classics to

Moor Larkin

Nice to see them painted in the right colour. Ours are going to be green, so will need sanding down....

Paint that bloody truck the right bloody colour!!

paul clifton

LOL Mind I found this on the net

The Kew Dodges were bottle green and were hired from Drinkwaters in Willesden,NW London. Some locations were the road up to and on Truleigh Hill, Nr Shoreham, West Sussex and the surrounding lanes, Fulmar in Bucks and the opening shots (speeded up film) were shot on the road between Langley and Iver (which has been altered over the years). I was told by a local that the tipper that went over the cliff and exploded was a Ford ET6 and the quarry scene was by the Upper Beeding cement works

paul clifton

BTW I have the original Belgium cinema poster for this film for sale if anyone wants a good piece of Hell Driver history. Nice size for framing too

Moor Larkin

What colour are the trucks?

paul clifton

red, like on the UK poster. Id love to know what colour they were in reality.

Moor Larkin

How many more pictures of red trucks must people see before they will believe, I wonder................

I like to imagine all those people coming out of the cinemas in 1957, with the pictures of red trucks on the lobby cards and all those people remarking to one another: "Cool green trucks huh?"

paul clifton

you cant rely on lobby cards. I collected those along with posters and they were always wrong regarding the colours that they used to colour in the b/w stills. Even the colour films often had the colours wrong on the cards. i reckon red too mind. Even looking at the b/w pic of Stanley standing next to one of the trucks in his brown jacket, it blend sin well with the truck pointing at it being red. I dunno tho lol

Biffer

Dear Mr.Larkin & Mr.Clifton,

Ah, yes .... the colour of those flippin' trucks??? I was saving the following for a major update on my original post on 'Hell Drivers', but I'm prompted to include this here and now:-

As many have suggested, the majority of the trucks were supplied by W.W. Drinkwater (take note of the word 'majority' as it has an important bearing on this topic). I can confirm this, because I've spoken to the original prop's clerk at Pinewood who hired them.

Now then - Drinkwater's trucks were said to be painted bottle-green (and again, I've spoken to at least five of the people who said it!). One of our members posted a colour still from 'The Fast Lady' which, indeed, shows a Drinkwater's truck in that colour. The film-makers would be unlikely to re-paint the trucks (an expensive excercise, and pretty pointless for a b&w film), and given that we've established that Drinkwater's fleet were bottle-green, ergo, the 'Hawletts' trucks must have also been green. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.

You might think that that's the end of the 'colour' debate. As with just about everything to do with 'Hell Drivers', however, there's more to it. Remember my use earlier of the word 'majority'? My information is that seven trucks were hired from Drinkwaters - but perhaps as many as three more were hired from another company, thought to be Saunders Ltd (unconfirmed). And what colour were the Saunder's trucks? Brace yourself, Mr.Larkin - they might well have been red (but I don't know for sure).

One thing I do know .... if you have the DVD of 'Hell Drivers', look closely at the trucks. I mean really close. Most of them have very dark front wings. Drinkwater's trucks had black wings, so that fits. However, at least one truck appears to have much lighter wings. If memory serves, this is truck UMG 853, which being a different registration sequence from the other Dodges (which are all ??? DMX or ??? EMY) suggests it did indeed come from another fleet.

Now, it's difficult to be certain when judging the actual colour of a b&w subject, but going on previous experience, I'd say the colour of these lighter wings was a shade of red. The body-colour is anybody's guess, but it's darker than the wings. Royal-blue body with red wings and chassis was a popular colour combination for trucks of that era, and royal-blue would certainly appear darker than red (then again, so would green). Shades of green and blue can appear as much the same tone of grey on a b&w print, so, once again, no need to re-spray all the trucks to make them look the same.

No doubt someone out there will tell us the correct colours of Saunder's fleet (and no doubt someone else will disagree or tell us it was a different company altogether). My point, Mr.Larkin, is that there's hope for you yet.

Finally, and just to show how fraught with error this kind of guesswork can be .... remember that photo from 'The Fast Lady' I mentioned, showing a Drinkwater's truck in a dark shade of bottle-green? If you have the DVD of Kenny More's version of 'The 39 Steps', look carefully at the scene early in the film where he's looking for an address in London (that turns out not to exist). As he walks along the street he passes the rear of a tipper truck. You don't see much of the vehicle, but unless there were two tipper companies in London that sounded like 'Drinkwater', then the lettering suggests this was one of their fleet. The thing is, although the truck is green, it's a much lighter shade of green than in the other photograph - ???!!!

Methinks this particular 'can of worms' is still well and truly open.

Biffer

PS
The 'Hell Drivers Truck Kit Poll' needs more votes!

paul clifton

maybe we need to get hold of a medium and contact Stanley OR how about trying to get onto Sean Connery?? Not that they will remember like. Maybe theres some co,lour footage somwhere eh?? Anyway sod the colour, the films great lol. if anyone is intrested in that poster drop me a line

Biffer

Sadly, the majority of cast and crew on this film are now deceased. I wrote to Connery about five years ago - still awaiting a reply. I thought being a fellow Jock might have helped, and even included a stamp; but no. (tight bugger ... that's the last pint I buy him down the Saracen's Head)

Of the survivors, Herbert Lom, quote:"can't remember anything" unquote; and Peggy Cummins doesn't seem to want to remember (can't think why). Don't know about David McCallum, but like most famous faces, he's probably unreachable by mere peasants like 'moi'. Nearly forgot ... Harry Fairbairn, the original sound assistant on the film, says the trucks were green (sorry Mr.Larkin).

Colour stills or footage? None that I know of, but one of the Drinkwater's people is supposed to have made a 'behind the scenes' home-movie. Don't know if it was colour, or if it even still exists. Wouldn't it be wonderful if that turned up?

As you say, Mr.Clifton, it doesn't really matter - unless we ever get to see that scale model of the Hawletts truck. Then we'd have to decide which colour to paint it (no prize for guessing Mr.Larkin's choice). I rather fear, however, unless the membership can shrug off their collective apathy (look how many visits, then count the votes???) this is a choice we'll never have to make.

Biffer

Moor Larkin

Surely it is a rather existentialist view of movies to assume that, in a black and white movie, the physical colour of something in a monochrome movie is what a prop happened to be the colour of in real life, rather than what colour the item was perceived to be by the audience watching.

If a colour photograph was to indicate that any one particular truck happened to have been a shade of purple because Cy Endfield didn't have the budget to respray the thing - are we to all receive purple trucks? Based on this specious photographic proof?

I'm sure I recall that in one post somewhere in this forum, some old-timer mentioned that he had been at a premiere someplace at the time and they had a red truck parked up by the cinema - but he was totally ignored by the overweening green lobby (small L) in here.

It is perfectly obvious from every FoH Poster and every colourised Lobby Card and even the dvd releases that the colour of those trucks was red as Tom and Red's bloody noses were........ within the movie's Imaginering Works.

They even named the star driver RED, after the colour of the trucks, for heavens sake.........

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