Director: Basil Dearden
Release Date: April 1959
On 25 December 1958 the Kinematograph Weekly reported that ‘The picture’s location schedule covers half a dozen authentic settings and reads like a travelogue of London. A students’ coffee bar in the West End, a mews flat balcony in Kensington, Hampstead Heath, a tube station, the Royal Academy of Music.’ While some of these locations made it to the finished film others presumably ended up on the cutting room floor. Filming apparently began on 17 November 1958 on Hampstead Heath.
Following a careful viewing of this title there is no indication given as the location of the household headed by Bernard Miles, while the setting is clearly ‘London’. However, while the location isn’t identified, Yvonne Mitchell alights from a number 24 bus in Malden Road, Kentish Town, by an estate agents’ sign, referring to a real business, reading ‘Scott & Ford, 38-40 Camden Road.’ Again it’s unstated but as Mitchell crosses Rhyl Street she approaches Miles by a window showing a ‘Gulliver’ telephone number, the exchange which covered Kentish Town. A rather anonymous Underground station, with trolleybus wires lining the street, is rather easily identified as being Tufnell Park Station, and when Earl Cameron walks near the Miles house he passes a sign for ‘Drivers & Norris, 407 Holloway Road’, once again a real business. With these north London clues in place it’s rather surprising to find that in London in Cinema: The Cinematic City Since 1945, Charlotte Brunsdon, 2007, states that the ‘family live in south London’. (p74) The reference appears following the subheading ‘South London: A Changing Grammar of the Local’ and also refers to ‘the attitudes’ of this ‘ordinary south London family’. (p74) It is also noted that ‘for this family, south London is where ordinary white families live – from which people like Sapphire [black masquerading as white] must be removed. (p75) The title has been grouped with several other south London films (pp73-81) but clearly this is a misreading, or at least a misplacing, of Sapphire, a film clearly rooted in north London.
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A rather anonymous stretch of Hampstead Heath seconds before the two children find Sapphire's body.
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The Marylebone Road frontage of the Royal Academy of Music where Sapphire was a student.
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Paul Massie calls to Jocelyn Britton wondering if she has seen Sapphire.
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As the police arrive Massie heads west along Marylebone Road.
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Massie destination is a cafe at 14 Charlotte Street on the corner of Windmill Street.
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Britton in Windmill Street, where Julian House was as Nos. 3 and 4, as she looks for Massie. The view is towards Whitfield Street.
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Massie in Charlotte Street as he hears Britton approaching.
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The police bringing Massie to 14 York Rise, Dartmouth Park, where his sister, Yvonne Mitchell, runs the dairy.
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The opposite side of York Rise, showing The Dartmouth Arms, as the car pulls up by the dairy.
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The view north along Malden Road, Kentish Town, as Mitchell stands on the platform of the bus. Modbury Street is off to the left.
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Mitchell crossing Rhyl Street as Bernard Miles, playing her father, works on the window on 58 Malden Road.
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The view into Lady Somerset Road, Kentish Town, as Miles and Mitchell drive into Oakford Road.
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Miles pulls up outside his home at 2 Oakford Road.
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Oakford Road and the view into Lady Somerset Road.
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The police interview Rupert Davies in Dartmouth Park Hill outside the Boston Hotel. In the distance is Tufnell Park Station with Brecknock Road behind the bus.
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Facing north along Dartmouth Park Hill with the Boston Hotel at right.
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Presented in the film as 'Babette's' while the location is S. Weiss Ltd, 61-63 Shaftesbury Avenue where the couple are walking towards Dean Street. The Kelly's street directory refers to Weiss as a 'fancy drapers'
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When Nigel Patrick and Michael Craig exit a 'Bloomsbury' doctor's surgery they are in the doorway of 15 Church Row, Hampstead.
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More of Church Row with Heath Street in the distance.
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Patrick and Craig have just stepped away from 37 Hogarth Road, out of frame to the left as their car enters Knaresborough Place, Earl's Court.
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Gordon Heath exiting 385-387 King's Road, Chelsea, at Milman's Street.
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As Dolores Mantez waits for Heath a bit more of the junction at King's Road and Milman's Street comes into view.
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As the twosome drive away the location switches to Great Western Road, Westbourne Park, as they head north crossing the Grand Union Canal.
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The view out of Well Road as Massie crosses East Heath Road from Hampstead Heath.
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Massie in the yard next to his home and the view out into Oakford Road.
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As a police car exits Courtfield Gardens, Earl's Court, Collingham Place is to the left.
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The police arrive at 10 Knaresborough Place.
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Harry Baird running in Lorenzo Street with Pentonville Road in the darkness at the top of the slope.
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Baird in Price's Yard, Islington, running towards Copenhagen Street.
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Baird on the north side of Copenhagen Street approaching Matilda Street.
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With Price's Yard to the left and Matilda Street in the distance Baird runs in Copenhagen Street.
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While Baird is in a nameless alley the police are entering from Outram Street, Islington, where the shop, at left, is at No. 42.
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The police arrive in Southam Street where the view is across the train lines at Westbourne Park Station.
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As the police drive away in Southam Street the roofline of St. Ervan's Road comes into view.
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A second visit Southam Street affords the view across Kensal Road into Elcom Street.
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Miles, Massie and their solicitor passing the Forum, 9-17 Highgate Road, Kentish Town.
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A police car exiting Kensal Road into Modena Street.
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Modena Street with the Grand Union Canal at the end of the street.
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Craig in Modena Street where the buildings to the right are in Great Western Road.
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Miles and Massie, who is blocking a view of Mitchell, watching evidence being removed from the yard at 2 Oakford Road.
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Craig in Oakford Road with Burghley Road in the distance.
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As Earl Cameron steps into frame, at right, the view is along Lady Somerset Road towards Burghley Road.