Merton Park

I love Hell Is A City, terrific film, great atmospheric shots of Manchester and the Moors in b & w. Very good cast and good Direction by Val Guest, as always, he never let you down.

Remember seeing it when it first came out at The Warner in Leicester Square one morning, when I was on holiday from school! How time flies.

batman

Watching 'Hell Is A City' and 'The Boys' on TV were my first awareness that a thing called 'capital punishment' used to exist. 'The Boys' in particular had a strong effect on me and the ending of '...City' was very powerful to a ten year lad. The only other dramas that have had a similar effect on me as an adult have been 'Let Him Have It' (incredibly moving) and 'The Charmer' (surprisingly made you feel sorry for Gorse). I think I'll be giving 'Pierrepoint' a miss (unless anyone can convince otherwise).

"Aha Mr Aubergine ... that's where you're wrong!"

ChristineCB

When I brought up the topic of "England's Trashy Films", the out-loud screaming titles like Hell Is A City and Hell Drivers were two titles that Roger Corman and William Castle would have HAD to love.

Stark, loud, abrasive, shocking.

Yet, for these English titles, we have great atmopheric films. I hope we'll reconsider capital punishment if these (and many other films) are ever mentioned in colorization efforts.

Redstar

This is a splendid set for fans of this film which also contains extras including The Stanley Baker Story, a short documentary "Look in on Hell Drivers" which has interviews with Baker and Alfie Bass on sets which might help those who are researching the actual locations. On DVD 2 there is a complete episode of "Danger Man" and an armchair thriller "Who killed Lamb" starring Stanley Baker as a detective investigating the murder of a business man in Oxford, (pre Morse!) it also stars Simon Turner who I recall was in several tv series at the time and I believe went into the pop music industry.
The excellent booklet by Dave Rolinson gives some very interesting information about the film and mentions Britmovie forums! There are a lot of new photos I have never seen before.

One interesting fact I never new about this film from the commentary is that the fight between Baker and McGoohan was real! Not in anger but neither was it performed by stuntmen and they did actually hurt each other. McGoohan was once a boxer.

ddock54

Patrick Mcgoohan was a very good boxer ,he makes reference to this in the Prisoner.He was also known for not pulling his punches on set..

I SAY THERE BOY!

batman

I love Hell Drivers and have watched it many times, but the real highlight of this set from me was Who Killed Lamb? A very entertaining 'whodunnit', well written and produced. Stanley Baker looks very relaxed and give a nice performance.

Bats.

"Aha Mr Aubergine ... that's where you're wrong!"

Lerica

Baker also did a fair bit of amateur boxing in his youth. If you watch the 'Look in...'docu, you'll hear him say they both gave as good as they got.

freewebs.com/stanleybaker/

Lady Lois

Oh wow! I have to get this DVD

Automotivehistorian

Is it stll available as the promo guy I was in touch with last year said that they [the promo co] had moved on to a new DVD set?

mariocki

Still available and the cheapest appears to be Sendit at £7:39 delivered.
Sendit.com - Hell Drivers (Special Edition) (DVD) - Buy DVDs, Games & Electronics - FREE UK & Ireland Delivery