We're getting blasè about the TV and film cameras in Huddersfield.
After all the town has become used to being picked as the setting for a wide variety of screen offerings, ranging from TV comedies such as Last of the Summer Wine and Oh No It’s Selwyn Froggitt to dramas such as Where The Heart Is, Jericho and Remember Me.
We’ve even welcomed Hollywood superstars such as Sigourney Weaver and Liam Neeson (A Monster Calls) and Richard Gere (Yanks) to the area.
But now there’s a rare chance to see a screen gem from 1960, when black and white was the rage.
WATCH the trailer for A Monster Calls below
“Hell is a City” is being screened on Thursday night, March 31, at Dean Clough in Halifax at the Cinegalleria.
It’s part of a Film at Dean Clough project in which Reel Solutions present a series of acclaimed films that have missed out on the commercial circuit as well as a few neglected classics.
The screenings include background notes and occasional speakers, all presented cabaret style in the Crossley Gallery.
Click here to see news footage of the premiere of the film
“Hell is a City” was directed by Val Guest and is not short of stars.
The bulk of the film was shot in Manchester but there are also several scenes shot on the bleak Saddleworth Moors above Huddersfield, which of course would later become infamous because of the horrific Moors Murders.
The film finds Det Insp Harry Martineau (Stanley Baker) pursuing a dangerous escaped convict through 1960’s Manchester and across Saddleworth Moor, encountering on the way a superior cast of character actors, from Donald Pleasance’s genteel bookmaker, to George A. Cooper’s cynical pub landlord, and Warren Mitchell’s nervous commercial traveller.
It was made by Hammer Films and is based on Maurice Proctor’s once celebrated novel and enjoys cult status as a quintessentially Northern thriller.
As a critic said: “There’s no rhyming slang, no Jaguar MkVII’s; instead withering silences, outdated Hillmans and a plenitude of kitchen sinks.”
For details call 01422 255266 or via deanclough.com.
