Daybreak

Date: 1948
Director: Compton Bennett
Production Company: Sydney Box Productions

Stars: Ann Todd, Eric Portman, Maxwell Reed, Bill Owen, Edward Rigby, Maurice Denham
Location(s): Essex, Kent, London

Region(s): ,

Storyline:

A hangman conceals his true identity when he falls in love and sets up home with his girl on a barge in the river Thames.

Additional Information:

Screen captures uploaded by Phil Wilkinson from source material provided by John Tunstill.

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If you have any information regarding this production, the locations or, even better, some comparison shots please contact us. Images submitted must be in Landscape orientation, as would be seen on the cinema screen, not Portrait.

We are aware that there are films on the site that were added when the criteria for the inclusion of locations was very different from today and, as a result, there may be scenes missing from some productions. Please do not forward additional screen captures to us but bring the detail to our attention, for we do, and are, 're-addressing' these older entries as time allows.

  • Capture 1
  • 03 Sep 2017

Establishing shot of the prison where hangman Eddie Tribe (aka Mendover) is about to carry out the execution of Olaf. Wandsworth Prison on Heathfield Road, Wandsworth in London SW18. The location appears in many films including 'The Birthday Present', 'Don't Ever Leave Me', ‘There Was a Crooked Man’, ‘Inside Information’, ‘Calculated Risk’, ‘Law and Disorder’, ‘Out of the Fog’, ‘The Criminal’, ‘The Pot Carriers’ and ‘Poor Cow’.

Taken from more central a view to avoid the parked cars. SJ

  • Capture 2
  • 23 May 2013

Whilst telling his story in flashback, Eddie Tribe (Eric Portman) walks from Paddington station. London W2.

Now from London Road. SJ

  • Capture 3
  • 23 May 2013

Eddie crosses Praed Street, London W2.

Now. SJ

  • Capture 4
  • 19 Apr 2017

Eddie and Frankie drive away from a Lex Garage incorporating a service station. This the Lex Garage on the corner of Pembridge Villas and Pembridge Place in London W11, located by Richard Lovejoy.

The same, less deco location. (RL)

  • Capture 5
  • 19 Apr 2017

Panning from image dayb004. The pair head for Gravesend. RL identifies this as the Lex Garage at the corner of Pembridge Villas and Pembridge Place.

Richard also provides this view of the same corner now, the garage having long since been demolished and replaced.

  • Capture 6
  • 'Now' required

Eddie and Frankie (Ann Todd) leave the Rialto Cinema. Studio set or unknown location?

  • Capture 7
  • 'Now' required

The couple walk along in the rain. Maybe a set but still unidentified.

  • Capture 8
  • 09 May 2026

Barber Eddie inherits his dead fathers barge business and returns to the boat that was his childhood home. The name on the building is Manbre & Garton Ltd who were sugar refiners based on Manbre Road in Hammersmith W6.

John Harwood wonders if at the time of filming they could ever have envisaged such buildings.

  • Capture 9
  • 08 Apr 2015

Eddie and Frankie make the boat their home. The River Thames at Hammersmith with St. Paul's church visible in the centre right distance. Location identified by Martin Botting who adds "The far wall is alongside Hammersmith Parish Vestry which was where the borough dumped household rubbish into open barges".

This modern image confirms the identification. Image taken from theatresonline.com with an unknown copyright.

  • Capture 10
  • 'Now' required

Eddie and Frankie watch as a decorated boat sails by. Martin advises that the boat is the ill fated Marchioness, which sank in August 1989 drowning 51 people. The disaster happened near Cannon Street Railway Bridge.

  • Capture 11
  • 'Now' required

Bill Shackle (Edward Rigby) rows to Eddie and Frankie's boat. Martin Botting is a lighterman working on the river and he advises that this is the Thames looking toward Hammersmith. "You can see the north side tower of Hammersmith Bridge to the left of the image. The white building is Riverside Studios".

  • Capture 12
  • 'Now' required

Eddie visits another prison to carry out his 'other job'. Possibly a studio set but still an unidentified location.

  • Capture 13
  • 'Now' required

Olaf (Maxwell Reed) boards Eddie and Frankie's boat. An unidentified location but R D Marchant states 'This film is set almost entirely at Tilbury docks.

  • Capture 14
  • 'Now' required

After Frankie commits suicide, Eddie survives falling into the Thames. Unidentified location.

  • Capture 15
  • 'Now' required

Back in the present day, a studio set shot from near the end of the film where Ron (Bill Owen) returns to the barbers shop and finds that Eddie has killed himself.