Girl on the Pier, The

Date: 1953
Director: Lance Comfort
Production Company: Major Pictures

Stars: Veronica Hurst, Ron Randell, Charles Victor, Marjorie Rhodes, Campbell Singer, Eileen Moore, Brian Roper, Anthony Valentine
Location(s): London, Sussex

Region(s): ,

Storyline:

Detective Inspector Chubb and his family are visiting Brighton. Rita Hammond, trapped in a boring marriage with pier arcade owner Joe, meets an old friend of Joe’s who knows too much about his past. Tensions rise, and muder and mayhem ensue.

Additional Information:

Screen grabs and uncredited now shots by Phil Bailey

The film is available from Renown Pictures Ltd on The Renown Crime Collection Volume 8 DVD

Buy this film on Amazon link

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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.

A police Humber pulls away from the entrance to an imposing building. 3 Whitehall Place, SW1. (SR)

On the north side of Whitehall Place, the building is currently the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. SJ

The car and its motorcycle escort turn out of Derby Gate onto Parliament Street SW!.

A proliferation of reinforced black bollards now. SJ

They head down Parliament Street towards the Palace of Westminster.

A drier and quieter street. SJ

Passing the Houses of Parliament in SW1.

A break in the traffic reveals a cover or two, cones and heavier gate protection. SJ

A view across Terminus Place from Victoria Station; a similar view appears in capture 7 of 'The Embezzler'.

A tricky one to place accurately, with all the development that has gone on, but I think this is pretty close. The Victoria Palace Theatre is just out of shot at top left. Top right there's a glimpse of the Apollo Theatre, which in 1953 would have been obscured behind James Walker's jewellers in the group that stood at the end of Wilton Road.

The view from under the canopy at Victoria Station.

I feel I should be further back but it was quite busy. SJ

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A train leaves Victoria station, The London terminus stands in SE1. It may have been 'leaving the station' in the film but as Peter Brown (2) points out, with a blank headcode panel and the lamp over the buffer this train would have been approaching the station. (RL)

An establishing shot of the Palace Pier in Brighton, Sussex. This view is from Marine Parade behind the Aquarium, or possibly from the Aquarium Terrace, with traffic on Madeira Drive below.

Continuing development since the 1980s has raised the roofline here; this shot is from a spot on Marine Parade that keeps the Palace Pier in view.

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Rita Hammond (Veronica Hurst) walks along the pier with a bag of cash from amusement machines. This is Brighton's West Pier, and the pier's concert hall is behind her, so she is walking towards the pier entrance on the east side of the central screen.

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Rita and Nick Lane (Ron Randell) arrive outside Hammonds Waxworks and Chamber of Horrors. Behind them we can see an octagonal cast iron kiosk, one of six that originally graced the West Pier. Of the two closest to the seafront, the one on the west side was destroyed by an explosion when mines were being cleared in 1943. The one remaining kiosk (possibly the one seen here) is currently being restored. Hammond's entrance has been mocked up over the west side staircase from the upper level at the north end of the pier. The same staircase is seen from a different angle in capture 31 of The Big Switch.

Joe Hammond (Campbell Singer) comes out of the entrance to the waxworks. Behind him we can see the Kings Hotel on the corner of Oriental Place.

The Kings Hotel still stands, but is partially hidden by Cavendish House, built in the 1960s.

A crowd waits on the end of the pier. A view from the sea, inside the landing stage, looking north west with Hove seafront behind.

Obligatory photo of the remains of the pier, viewed from the beach to the west. The skeleton of the pavilion still survives, but everything in the screen grab has long since fallen into the sea.

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Kathy Chubb (Eileen Moore) waits in the crowd. The chimneys of Brighton A and Brighton B power stations by Shoreham Harbour are just visible in the distance behind her. All have gone now, replaced by the single chimney on the new gas-fired Shoreham power station, built on the site of the old Brighton B station.

Kathy and Ronnie Hall (Brian Roper) ride in a speedboat. Here they are between the West Pier and the Palace Pier. In the background, the tower of St Paul's church in West Street is at the extreme left, the Queen's Hotel is on the right, and the Old Ship Hotel is in the centre.

Taken from the Palace Pier. The Old Ship Hotel has been extended, and the buildings behind the speedboat driver in the screen grab have been replaced in the 1970s by the Jury's Inn hotel.

Detective Inspector Chubb (Charles Victor) and wife (Marjorie Rhodes) have been fishing, with limited success, from the landing stage on the western side of the pier head. As they come back up to the pier, we see Hove seafront behind them, with Embassy Court just to the left of the notice.

There are few external changes to the seafront buildings here. The gap in the building line at the extreme left of the shot is the entrance to Adelaide Crescent, where Stasio's solicitor had his office in 'Under Suspicion'.

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A view directly towards the seafront. Top right, the roof of the pier's concert hall, and top left is Astra House. A restaurant on the ground floor of Astra House is called The New Club, echoing the name of the building that occupied this site until 1937.

Although all the action has been taking place on the West Pier, now, as night falls, the view shifts to the Palace Pier.

An illuminated Palace Pier viewed from ground level. (SD)

The entrance to the Palace Pier.

Not many visitors on a grey January day.

Dancing. We're still on the Palace Pier, outside the old theatre building at the pier head. The theatre features in 'The Look of Love', 'Pop Pirates' and 'Come Play With Me'.

The theatre was damaged in 1973 during a storm and closed, never to reopen. In 1986 it was dismantled and removed, ostensibly to be restored, but was subsequently lost The space is now occupied by amusements and fairground rides.

An uncomfortable interchange between Hammond, Nick Lane, and Rita at the entrance to the waxworks. The Kings Hotel again in the background.

The Kings Hotel, Cavendish House, and the Brighton Upside-Down house.

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Rita and Nick are on the beach. Looks like west of the West Pier.

Charlie Chubb (a very young Anthony Valentine), convinced that crimes are being committed, is following people around. The east side of the West Pier, just south of the entrance, with a view of the Palace Pier behind.

From the beach to the west of the West Pier, with the fairground rides at the end of the Palace Pier.

Given a note for Nick Lane by Hammond, Charlie runs along the east side of the pier towards the pavilion. The Metropole Hotel looms large in the background.

The Metropole underwent a major refurbishment in 1959, in which the central spire and the turrets were removed and two new floors were added.

Charlie is told off by his mum for letting his imagination run away with him. The north-east corner of the pier head. The Metropole and the Grand hotels behind.

The Grand, too, has been altered and extended, in the 1990s.

Mum runs after Charlie down the slope from the pier entrance. Behind her, the ten-storey Astra House dates from 1938. To its right is St Alban's House, a former residence of the Duke and Duchess of St Albans, built in 1830.

Astra House and St Albans House still stand. The West Pier's two toll booths were found to be too badly deteriorated to be restored, and what we see here is one of two reconstructions. These stand slightly further apart than the originals, so that the one seen here is about 11 meters west of the one in the screen grab.

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The police, the press, and the rest of the family arrive en masse.

A good view of the late Georgian Bedford Hotel, designed by Thomas Cooper and opened in 1835.

The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1964, and today the Holiday Inn occupies the site.

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Nick Lane has been shot. Hammond, wearing a clown costume, is pursued along the pier by the police. A view from outside the pier pavilion, with the concert hall on the left and the Metropole Hotel on the right.

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The chase continues along the upper level of the pavilion.

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Hammond clambers over the roof at the pier head and climbs down a convenient cable to the deck.

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He is closely pursued by a constable.

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Nearly cornered on the landing stage, he takes the steps to the lower level.

Clambering across the ironwork under the pier.

Some of the cast iron pillars recovered from the pier now form part of 'The Golden Spiral' on the seafront east of the i360.

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He loses his footing and hangs precariously before falling into the sea.