LOOKING BACK: The Ship That Died Of Shame and The Key

Just when we thought we had named every film that has been made or partly made in this area, Looking Back readers have proved to be the font of all local knowledge.

Weymouth resident Alan Wolsey has pointed out that we missed The Ship That Died of Shame, which was partly filmed at Weymouth harbour in the 1950s.

Starring Richard Attenborough and George Baker, this was one of Ealing Studio's final films. Released in 1955, it told the story of the wartime crew of a motor gunboat who buy the vessel and go into postwar business as smugglers.

Alan remembers the filming.

He said: "I was at Melcombe Regis School as a pupil and I reckon there used to be a training ship there at the time.

"They took it and used it for the film. It was filmed in the harbour where the Cove used to be.

"The plot was about a ship that had done really well in the war and then was used to run drugs and contraband between Weymouth and France.

"It eventually blew up and caught on fire."

The film was not well received by critics and was said to reveal a darker side to the golden years of postwar reconstruction.

Alan said he remembers one specific scene being filmed at Weymouth harbour where there used to be a pub on the corner."

The master mason fondly remembers the previously mentioned The Damned being filmed locally, starring his favourite actress Shirley Anne Field.

He said: "I was lucky enough to walk with her from doing a scene to the Royal Hotel.

"I had a little camera and and she had a little camera. She stood on the steps and let me have a photo taken with her."

*We also had a lot of memories stirred by The Key, another film we previously mentioned.

Derek Peach, also of Weymouth, got in touch to tell us that he was a stand-in for the actor Brian Forbes in the film.

This wartime drama, about a tugboat captain, was partly filmed on Portland and Derek managed to get his stand-in role because he was an apprentice at Portland dockyard, which was close to the filming.

He said: "Brian Forbes played the part of Weaver, the first officer. The cast was very similar to casts in a lot of films of that time.

"I remember they did a lot of the filming in the building next door to Portland Castle which used to be the naval cinema.

"They built a replica of the bridge of the tugboat for filming in that hall. It was there on the weekend while they filmed the inside bits of the tugboat."

Other films made locally which Derek named were The Cruel Sea (1953), Cockleshell Heroes (1955) and The Man Who Never Was (1956).

*And thanks to Mike Boyce for contacting us - he also remembers the filming of The Key.

He said: "The vessel used during filming was an Admiralty steam tug named 'Restive'. She was used to play the parts of two different tugs in the film.

"Restive' was a wartime-built tug constructed by Cochrane & Sons Ltd of Selby, Yorkshire, and was completed in 1940.

"She was 156 and a half feet long with a beam of 35 feet. She was driven by a three cylinder reciprocating steam engine which gave her a speed of 13 knots and a pull, when towing, of 13 and a half tons.

"She was based at Portland Dockyard for target towing duties in 1954, and it was whilst she was at Portland that she took part in the filming of The Key. She finished her time here in late 1964, and was then sold to a firm in Cyprus in mid 1965. In Cyprus she was renamed 'Ventura'."

*Ken Francis, volunteer press officer with the RNLI, also contacted us to tell us how the Restive was almost involved in a real life rescue of a yacht during filming!

He said filming was done on Portland on August 24 1957.

"William Holden and Brian Forbes were already on board along with the film director Sir Carol Reed, when reports came in of a yacht, the Tarifa in trouble on the Shambles Bank.

"The Restive with the actors still onboard set off for the Shambles and plunged through heavy seas to the stricken yacht's aid.

"At the time, the film unit's Publicity Director Robin Grocott, who was also onboard the Restive, said 'It all happened so quickly that we didn't really have time to go ashore, and there was quite a bit of equipment on the ship,"

Before "Restive" managed to reach the yacht, those on board heard through the walkie-talkie that the Weymouth RNLI lifeboat William & Clara under coxswain Fred Palmer had the Tarifa with seven persons onboard in tow back to Weymouth Harbour.

Ken added that the Weymouth lifeboat station records show that this was the last service that William & Clara, the longest serving lifeboat pictured here, did before being replaced by the Frank Spiller Locke.

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