Open Writing

Going to the Flicks by Sylvia Abele

Many years ago my mother and a friend of hers who was in the WAAFs came home one afternoon from a visit to the cinema, both red-eyed. They had been to see Greer Garson in a film entitled ‘Mrs. Miniver‘. Moreover, during the whole evening they discussed the film and were continually wiping tears from their eyes. I could not understand how a film could make anyone cry.

As I grew older and began to go to the pictures with my parents, they took my sister, brother and me to see ‘Bambi‘, and oh how I cried when the little fawn’s mother was shot dead by hunters. I was so very sad, so then I knew that certain films COULD make a person cry.

I remember also my father taking the three of us to the Ritz during the war to see ‘Gulliver’s Travels‘. I can still see us, in my mind’s eye, walking up Cloth Hall Street together with our gas masks slung across our shoulders. When we got to Market Street, where the Ritz was situated, my young sister bent down and touched the shiny black road and said, “Daddy, it’s a lubber load.” At that age she couldn’t pronounce the letter ‘r’. Actually, the road was constructed from black rubber blocks. The only thing I can remember about the film, however, was the Lilliputians tethering Gulliver to the ground.

Later on in my life when we used to go up to Scotland for our summer holidays to grandma’s bungalow by the sea, my oldest cousin and I used to look forward to going to the Roxy in Leven. Our favourite funny man was Jerry Lewis, and I can still remember how we screamed with laughter until the tears were literally rolling down our cheeks, having to wipe our eyes and even getting a pain in the tummy with laughing. Looking back on those Jerry Lewis films now I wonder whatever was so funny at the time?

As a teenager, going to the pictures was the thing that everyone did. Teenagers just didn’t frequent pubs then. It was great to scan the film section of the Huddersfield Examiner and choose which film we would go and see. On page two of the Examiner there was a section with a short synopsis of each cinema’s film.

When I started work and started to make friends, Saturday nights were really exciting, sitting in the pictures, watching the film of our choice. Oh the good looks of Stewart Granger, James Mason, Ronald Colman, Clark Gable and many, many more handsome actors. And the beautiful female film stars -- Rita Hayworth, Patricia Roc (my father’s favourite pin-up girl), Ingrid Bergman, Doris Day etc.

James Mason was everyone’s favourite screen villain in costume dramas like ‘Fanny by Gaslight’ and ‘The Wicked Lady with Margaret Lockwood. His distinctive voice and his good looks made the girls swoon. In 1947, however, he showed what a very versatile actor he was in ‘Odd Man Out’ Then in the 50s he shone in both ‘The Desert Fox’ and ‘The Desert Rats‘.

And what about Stewart Granger? A very handsome film star, usually with a sword poised for an exciting fight. In 1952 he starred in ‘Scaramouche’, in which he was involved with Mel Ferrer in the longest swordfight ever filmed (around seven minutes). I can see his handsome face now in ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ with Deborah Kerr, and in many more films.

And will any of us forget Myrna Loy as the beautiful, witty wife of William Powell in ‘The Thin Man’ series?

I can recall many other film stars and films. Just a mention, though, of three more. Gregory Peck, so handsome and likeable on screen, and beautiful Margaret Lockwood with the beauty spot below her left eye, setting a trend with young girls. ‘The Wicked Lady’ was her most famous film.

And I mustn’t forget Clark Gable (Rhett Butler). “I don’t GIVE a damn,” a line spoken at the end of the epic ‘Gone With the Wind‘. I think that everyone who saw that film will remember those words spoken to Scarlett O’Hara (Vivienne Leigh).

In the late forties and early fifties I went out with quite a few boys (not all at once of course), and at that time the two places that couples went to on Saturday evenings were the cinema or to the Saturday night dances in the Town Hall, the Co-op Hall and Cambridge Road Baths.

There were many cinemas in town and the surrounding districts, and we would queue in any weather for a long time to see a good film. I grew to be quite a film buff and could talk about any film!

When I began ‘going seriously’ with my young man (who was to be my future husband), we knew all the cinemas in Huddersfield, but our favourite was the Princess. If you wanted to sit in the balcony you had to go up a flight of stairs and enter the balcony from the bottom, and the usherette would shine her torch and show you up some steps to your seat. Or you could walk up quite a lot of steps to the very top entrance to the balcony, and walk down the steps to your seat.

One of the most embarrassing moments in my young life was when Johnny and I entered from the top entrance, and while he was handing the tickets to the usherette, I began to walk gingerly down the aisle steps. The film had started and it happened to b a very quiet part of the scene, when I lost my footing and slid down all the steps to the very bottom of the balcony. It was dark, so I started to crawl on all fours up the steps when the usherette shone her torch on me and said in a loud voice, “Have you fallen?”

I, in my embarrassment, replied, “No, I do this every time I come here.”

People in the audience were tittering and giggling at the incident, and I was mortified. Then I realised that I didn’t know where Johnny was! The usherette said very loudly, “Oh, your boyfriend is up there, love,” and there sat Johnny on the next to the top row, looking as though he hadn’t even missed me.!

I rarely go the cinema nowadays, although I did see Saving Private Ryan a couple of years ago. However, the soundtrack was so loud that I could not believe it. My ears were ringing when we left the place. Therefore I prefer to watch my favourite films in the comfort of my own lounge in front of my TV. I can adjust the sound if necessary, and rent or buy a video to suit my mood.

Yes, a sign of the times, and a sign that the years are whizzing by at a hell of a rate. But the enjoyment of the old black-and-white films cannot be beaten.

Huddersfield University of the Third Age