• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

John Schlesinger’s Terminus (1961)

Status
Not open for further replies.

Adlington

Member
Joined
3 Oct 2016
Messages
1,039
Source: hidden Europe
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the release of a film which deserves to be better known. 1961 was of course the year of Westside Story, but there was another 1961 film which is pure gold when it comes to heritage cinema.

The film director John Schlesinger was largely unknown when in 1960 he was persuaded by Edgar Anstey to make a documentary for British Transport Films (BTF).

Schlesinger suggested “something on Sussex, Brighton perhaps.” Anstey countered with a proposal that a documentary on a large railway station might be good. Still clinging to the idea of Sussex, Schlesinger suggested the busy terminus at Brighton as a strong candidate. But in the end Anstey pressed the case for Waterloo station in London. I

With the BTF contract agreed in early summer 1960, Schlesinger spent many long days (and nights) roaming the concourse and platforms at Waterloo.

Sixty years ago, filming was not as lightweight and agile as it is today, and there were particular challenges in recording live sounds in busy settings such as at a London railway station. So some of the scenes were staged, although Schlesinger insisted that these recalled incidents he had seen during his August 1960 research at Waterloo. “It was scripted to a point,” recalled Schlesinger later in life.
The film may be watched on YouTube (33 minutes). A short (4 minutes) extract is also available.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Harvester

Established Member
Joined
9 Nov 2020
Messages
1,262
Location
Notts
Source: hidden Europe

The film may be watched on YouTube (33 minutes). A short (4 minutes) extract is also available.
Thank you. Watching it brought back memories of my teenage holidays (1962-64) in north Kent, and frequent train spotting visits to to the station. We would alight at Waterloo East and walk across to the main station. I had forgotten how steep those steps were.
 

Ashley Hill

Established Member
Joined
8 Dec 2019
Messages
3,198
Location
The West Country
Its an excellent film even though most of it was planned and choreographed. The crying boy is a relative of Johns and he himself appears in it as a suited businessman.
 

LWB

Member
Joined
31 Dec 2009
Messages
240
Its an excellent film even though most of it was planned and choreographed. The crying boy is a relative of Johns and he himself appears in it as a suited businessman.
Ow! That little boy’s trauma always breaks my heart. Always assumed it was genuine distress from losing his mum. What on Earth did they do to him to bring that on for the cameras!
 

Adlington

Member
Joined
3 Oct 2016
Messages
1,039
"Terminus" debated in the House of Commons:

Sir J. Pitman

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it was with his approval that the film, "Terminus", now being shown in London, included moving pictures of individual prisoners in handcuffs and close-ups of them in a railway carriage reserve for a Home Office party.

Mr. R. A. Butler

Permission was given to take long shots of an actual prison party, in which no individuals would be recognisable. But I am informed that no such shots were taken and that the whole scene was staged with professional actors.
 

Taunton

Established Member
Joined
1 Aug 2013
Messages
10,018
Ow! That little boy’s trauma always breaks my heart. Always assumed it was genuine distress from losing his mum. What on Earth did they do to him to bring that on for the cameras!
Son of a director, quite likely went to stage school. Probably enjoyed every minute of it and was the envy of his classmates when they showed a copy of the film at the school.
 

Railcar

Member
Joined
27 Nov 2017
Messages
225
Waterloo in 1962 is the location for the final scenes of The Party's Over, starring Oliver Reed. The scenes include a coffin being loaded on to a train (presumably to Southampton, for shipment to the USA). Shot in the autumn of 1962, it was not shown in cinemas until 1965, following extensive cuts made by the UK Film Censor. To see the full version, get the BFI Blu-ray+DVD package
 

Merthyr Imp

Member
Joined
24 May 2016
Messages
495
Location
Merthyr Tydfil
Son of a director, quite likely went to stage school. Probably enjoyed every minute of it and was the envy of his classmates when they showed a copy of the film at the school.


The child was five years old.

According to Wikipedia, the child: "Matthew Perry, was temporarily abandoned deliberately by his mother Margaret, an actress relative of Schlesinger."
 

AngelRoad

Member
Joined
28 Jun 2021
Messages
31
Location
Merseyside
Absolutely wonderful film though Im definitely not a fan of the crying child. Another great film at a London terminus is the one about a litter bin at Broad St, I kid you not
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top