The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
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The H
poker semi-professional
however, the 'Trojans' in white & black are the Bees against Aresenal in the League.
Aussie Bee
Active member
I was led to believe by 100 years or something that it was GP but looks like abee is right as usual!
"A star English football player falls down dead in the middle of a match in front of a capacity crowd. When it's discovered that he is poisoned, Inspector Anthony Slade (Leslie Banks) from Scotland Yard is sent in to find the murderer. Features great footage of Britain's preeminent pre-war football club, the Gunners, and the infamous Highbury Stadium. Written and directed by Thorold Dickenson, a former Hitchcock assistant who would go on to become Britain's first Professor of Film."
"A star English football player falls down dead in the middle of a match in front of a capacity crowd. When it's discovered that he is poisoned, Inspector Anthony Slade (Leslie Banks) from Scotland Yard is sent in to find the murderer. Features great footage of Britain's preeminent pre-war football club, the Gunners, and the infamous Highbury Stadium. Written and directed by Thorold Dickenson, a former Hitchcock assistant who would go on to become Britain's first Professor of Film."
Er well there was a teeny weeny hint in the title of the film.Aussie Bee said:
Filmed at Highbury May 6 1939 and Brentford were asked to play in white shirts and black shorts as The Trojans.
The mighty Bees lost 2-0 which was the first time in eight First Division meetings that we had lost to Arsenal.
Lokster
Man on a Mission
I shall dig out the notes I got on this film when I saw it at the NFT.
It does acknowledge Brentford's role and apparently we agreed to forfit our usual strip for the game in order to wear the Fulhamesque white shirt and black shorts of the Trojans. (No wonder we lost!)
The football footage is a weird mix of real on pitch action and very bad footage of actors trying to look like footballers and footballers (the Arsenal players) trying to look like actors.
There are no real close-ups of the Brentford players but the Arsenal players and Manager are in it quite a lot.
It is very funny! rofl rofl rofl
It does acknowledge Brentford's role and apparently we agreed to forfit our usual strip for the game in order to wear the Fulhamesque white shirt and black shorts of the Trojans. (No wonder we lost!)
The football footage is a weird mix of real on pitch action and very bad footage of actors trying to look like footballers and footballers (the Arsenal players) trying to look like actors.
There are no real close-ups of the Brentford players but the Arsenal players and Manager are in it quite a lot.
It is very funny! rofl rofl rofl
1) Thank you kindly sir..........Streetboy said:
1) Cheers all (bows to abee's supreme wisdom)
2) Does that also explain a picture I recall in the 100 yrs book of a Bees team photo in white shirts and black shorts?
2) No
The H
poker semi-professional
Brentford played in white and Black in the 20s, before they changed to stripes
Silly Chip
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Re: Re: The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
I suppose it must have been cack and the film probably hasn't survived the years.
I have always looked out for this film being shown on television but to my knowledge it has never been shownabee said:
I suppose it must have been cack and the film probably hasn't survived the years.Re: Re: Re: The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
I actually remember being at the match where the filming took place. I was in New Road and Diana Dors and her then husband Dennis Hamilton were standing in Ealing Road. She had to pretend to faint and was then passed over the heads to the pitchside and then to the directors box. It took several takes and a number of us were trying to rush round to the Ealing Road to see if we could cop a look up her skirt when she was being passed down the crowd.
Happy days!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is on from time to time (and by that I mean every five years or so). The last time was probably a couple of years back. It is usually on in the afternoons.........Silly Chip said:I have always looked out for this film being shown on television but to my knowledge it has never been shown
I actually remember being at the match where the filming took place. I was in New Road and Diana Dors and her then husband Dennis Hamilton were standing in Ealing Road. She had to pretend to faint and was then passed over the heads to the pitchside and then to the directors box. It took several takes and a number of us were trying to rush round to the Ealing Road to see if we could cop a look up her skirt when she was being passed down the crowd.
Happy days!!!!!!!!!!!!
According to my late Father in Law who was a lifelong Arsenal supporter ( but in later years happily a convert to BFC) a small number of scene(s) were actually filmed at GP as for some reason Highbury was not always available, I think it may have been some of the off field shots behind one of the stands or something like that......
- Thread Starter
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Re: Re: Re: Re: The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
Maybe someone with some background knowledge in the film industry might know how to track down some info on it, or a copy of it.
Would be a nice addition to the 100 years of GP celebrations if we can track down a copy of the only film ever shot at our ground (is this correct?), maybe even put a big screen on the pitch and show it?
Failed to find much information on this film at all, on the internet or even those big chunky books that supposedly list every film ever made...abee said:
Maybe someone with some background knowledge in the film industry might know how to track down some info on it, or a copy of it.
Would be a nice addition to the 100 years of GP celebrations if we can track down a copy of the only film ever shot at our ground (is this correct?), maybe even put a big screen on the pitch and show it?
Banana
Occasionally incorrect
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0045838/fullcredits
has hardly any info too. But does list Tommy Lawton in the cast!
has hardly any info too. But does list Tommy Lawton in the cast!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
Glyn Houston was the gloriously named Ned Rutter the star striker.........
It sounds a bit like a porn movie now Ned Rutter in The Great Game................
Similar to Free Willy. A lot of gays were attracted by the title until they found out it was about a whale...............
I may have it on video. I'll search around. Tommy Lawton certainly featured as he was player/manager at the time.Streetboy said:Failed to find much information on this film at all, on the internet or even those big chunky books that supposedly list every film ever made...
Maybe someone with some background knowledge in the film industry might know how to track down some info on it, or a copy of it.
Would be a nice addition to the 100 years of GP celebrations if we can track down a copy of the only film ever shot at our ground (is this correct?), maybe even put a big screen on the pitch and show it?
Glyn Houston was the gloriously named Ned Rutter the star striker.........
It sounds a bit like a porn movie now Ned Rutter in The Great Game................
Similar to Free Willy. A lot of gays were attracted by the title until they found out it was about a whale...............
itchybowwow
@beesincolour
It's worth following this thread to read some of the reviews.According to one this was the last match to be played at Highbury before WW2 but the gem is as follows."The majority of the players(both Arsenal and Brentford Town) are OK but are more value in terms of history than performance.Whether he is reviewing as a football fan or an actor is not clear,but Brentford Town I ask you.
Nigel Brooks
View from afar.
The only snippets I could find:
Directed by the prolific Maurice Elvey, THE GREAT GAME is a relatively interesting portrait of the downfall of the chairman of a British soccer club who compromises his integrity in an attempt to keep his First Division team from being relegated. When his shady attempt to obtain a star player is discovered, the director (James Hayter) is forced to resign, and after returning to his publishing business, he learns that it, too, has fallen on hard times.
Cast
James Hayter as Joe Lawson
Thora Hird as Miss Rawlings
Diana Dors as Lulu Smith
Sheila Shand Gibbs as Mavis Pink
John Laurie as Wells
Glyn Houston as Ned Rutter
Geoffrey Toone as Jack Bannerman
Jack Lambert as Mr. Blake
Meredith Edwards as Skid Evans
Alexander Gauge as Ben Woodhall
Frank Pettingell as Sir Julius
Glenn Melvyn as Heckler
Tommy Lawton
Charles Leno
Sydney Vivian
Roddy Hughes
The only other fact I can find is the screenplay was based on the play "Shooting Star" by Basil Thomas.
Directed by the prolific Maurice Elvey, THE GREAT GAME is a relatively interesting portrait of the downfall of the chairman of a British soccer club who compromises his integrity in an attempt to keep his First Division team from being relegated. When his shady attempt to obtain a star player is discovered, the director (James Hayter) is forced to resign, and after returning to his publishing business, he learns that it, too, has fallen on hard times.
Cast
James Hayter as Joe Lawson
Thora Hird as Miss Rawlings
Diana Dors as Lulu Smith
Sheila Shand Gibbs as Mavis Pink
John Laurie as Wells
Glyn Houston as Ned Rutter
Geoffrey Toone as Jack Bannerman
Jack Lambert as Mr. Blake
Meredith Edwards as Skid Evans
Alexander Gauge as Ben Woodhall
Frank Pettingell as Sir Julius
Glenn Melvyn as Heckler
Tommy Lawton
Charles Leno
Sydney Vivian
Roddy Hughes
The only other fact I can find is the screenplay was based on the play "Shooting Star" by Basil Thomas.
Debbee
Active member
Having watched this film again yesterday afternoon on 'More 4', I think you'll find that the reason why us Bees wore white shirts and black shorts with a white stripe is that it just happened to be our away strip for the 1938/39 season during which this film was made. I worked this out by looking in our copy of '100 Years Of Brentford' where there's a squad photo for the '38/'39 season with some of the squad in the red and white stripes and others in white shirts. I believe this was probably because during those pre-war times we didn't have enough of the home shirts for the whole squad to where?!!!abee said:
The thing that's puzzled me though is that whilst watching the film yesterday, I decide to have a look in 'Postively Brentford' where I recalled there was a photo of some of the Brentford squad with stars from the film. I now believe that this wasn't the case because I watched the film closely and failed to recognise anyone of the 'stars' in the photo. I therefore have come to the conclusion that this pic is of our team visiting a film set during the time, but not for 'The Arsenal Stadium Mystery'. I get the impression that this was a regular occurence during the time because a few pages on in 'Positively Brentford', there's a photo of the squad visiting a film set in 1946, I spotted the lovely Glynis Johns in that one. I assume that it was to the near by Ealing Studios that these visits took place?!!!
TW1Bee
Active member
abee said:
Is that the same James Hayter still knocking them in for Bormuff. Certainly a young looking eighty-year-old
That's not the lovely Glynis Johns..........it's the even lovelier Greta Gynt I think you'll find. I take it that you are referring to the picture on p 88 of Postively Brentford" and it is the 1938/9 squad.Debbee said:
"100 years of Brentford" states :-
For the occasion Brentford played in white shirts and black shorts, the colours of the amateur Trojan team whose match with Arsenal formed the setting of this unusual sports mystery.
Brentford as the away side would have had to play in their change strip anyway to avoid clashing with the Arsenal red and white so I guess that "100 Years of Brentford" got it the wrong way round and the Trojans were deemed to play in white shirts and black shorts because that is what the Bees would have worn anyway.
Please keep up abee.We are talking about page 93 with Glynis Johns and (I think) Dermot Walsh.It's possibly a film called "Third Time Lucky" made in 1947 but completed in 1948,but I'll do some more digging as it's not mentioned in my Halliwell's Film Guide of 1949.lolabee said:
Beebop said:
But the photo on page 93 makes it perfectly clear that it is the 1946/7 squad visiting a film set.
Debbee said she was talking about the photo with "stars from the film" (Arsenal Stadium Mystery) which is on p88. Oh right........I get it now .........she thought that p93 was in fact p88 whereas the p88 photo should have been on p93 where the Bees are not in black and white 'cos the film was in black and white and furthermore.........
Last edited:
Debbee
Active member
First I doubted the fact that the pic on p.88 was of the stars of 'The Arsenal Stadium Mystery' because I didn't recognise anyone when I watched the film for the 2nd time yesterday...but then I mentioned the photo a few pages on with Glynis Johns in, because it gave me the impression that the Brentford squad of the late '30's/ '40's visited quite a few films sets.abee said:
But the photo on page 93 makes it perfectly clear that it is the 1946/7 squad visiting a film set.
Debbee was I assumed talking about he Arsenal Stadium Mystery photo on p88.
Basically I don't think the photo on page 88 is of the team on the set of The Arsenal Stadium Mystery but of perhaps another film @ a similar time.
chippendale
Active member
Were you standing on the terraces then, abee
Debbee
Active member
Ok, if that's Greta Gynt...what part did she play? Because I still don't think it looks like the blonde in the film. Oh and which one's Leslie (I presume you mean) Banks?!!!abee said:
The lovely Greta played Gwen Lee (sounds like an oriental partDebbee said:
) and Leslie Banks played the Inspector.He's on Greta's left,photo right,and was about 50 at the time.He had been wounded in the face in WW1 so only played character parts.The Mystery is that I assumed that it had been filmed at Ealing Studios but it's not featured on the Ealing Studios filmography site,although the Arsenal site does say Ealing.Please check out the packaging or the film credits on your next viewing.
Debbee
Active member
Just found out all that by looking on IMDB thanks but Leslie Banks for one is definitely not in the that photo...even if Greta Gynt is...and I still doubt that. I've looked @ several photos via Google of Banks and he's not in that pic, none of the men sitting down in that photo look like any of the stars of the film.Beebop said:The lovely Greta played Gwen Lee (sounds like an oriental part
Oh and btw...I did look @ the end credits but didn't really have enough time to make a proper mental note.
chippendale
Active member
abee said:
Let me guess, it was the original field out the back of Griffin Park.
The H
poker semi-professional
abee used to watch the teams run out from The Plough
ineedtherapbee
Comedian & Serial quiz/reality tv loser
This film should definately come with a health warning.....
i laughed so hard watching it on more four or channel four the other week that i almost crapped out my lower bowel and coughed up a lung.
a great bit is where detective is questioning a player in the hot tub in the highbury changing room.
he has a longbit of spiel very wooden like and then he adds at the end.
'hot in here isnt it?' or something along those lines,except you know for sure this isnt a line in the xcript,he just added it and it was so standoutsih against the other drivel it should have made it into channel 4 or 5 or whoevers top 100 comedy moments.
i laughed so hard watching it on more four or channel four the other week that i almost crapped out my lower bowel and coughed up a lung.
a great bit is where detective is questioning a player in the hot tub in the highbury changing room.
he has a longbit of spiel very wooden like and then he adds at the end.
'hot in here isnt it?' or something along those lines,except you know for sure this isnt a line in the xcript,he just added it and it was so standoutsih against the other drivel it should have made it into channel 4 or 5 or whoevers top 100 comedy moments.
Debbee
Active member
Let's get back to the thread please, and my doubts about that photo on p.88.abee said:
Those were the days. You could sign a forty goals a season striker for a few cabbages and a bucket of horse manure.
Come to think of it............
I'm 99% sure that this photo is not a pic of the stars of 'The Arsenal Stadium Mystery' with the Brentford FC team of 1938/39.
Can't some film buff check this out?!!! Or will I have to investigate further myself?!!!
Another film featuring GP (some good shots of the Royal Oak end ) and Braemar Rd is this one - http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0069374/
Robin Askwith is footballer Roger Maitland in a plot described thus:
A reporter tracks down a missing German slut in London. From the title and poster art, one might expect a cheap and dirty dubbed German sex film here, so its quite a surprise to find a sordid, arty and witty little British melodrama, full of cheap and dirty sex to be sure, but more akin to classic 60s Brit-Pop like "The Touchables" and "Performance," with a touch of "Smashing Time" thrown in. This exciting film does a great take on sleazy 60s London, as we visit basement strip joints, psychedelic dance clubs and spooky mob-run gambling dens, all with a gritty real-world feel to them. There is enough weird sex to keep the most jaded viewer occupied, including lesbianism, marital betrayal, a great hippy orgy and a gang rape. Even cooler, however, are scenes told in flashback that are in actual 3-D. These scenes are quite bizarre without glasses, and with them, surely even wilder. One great shot has Greta shoving her great big boobs into the screen. There's also a great/awful theme song, sung by "Huckleberry Fynn," and enough plot loopholes to keep you going "Huh?" all night. Surely a lost goody.
Robin Askwith is footballer Roger Maitland in a plot described thus:
A reporter tracks down a missing German slut in London. From the title and poster art, one might expect a cheap and dirty dubbed German sex film here, so its quite a surprise to find a sordid, arty and witty little British melodrama, full of cheap and dirty sex to be sure, but more akin to classic 60s Brit-Pop like "The Touchables" and "Performance," with a touch of "Smashing Time" thrown in. This exciting film does a great take on sleazy 60s London, as we visit basement strip joints, psychedelic dance clubs and spooky mob-run gambling dens, all with a gritty real-world feel to them. There is enough weird sex to keep the most jaded viewer occupied, including lesbianism, marital betrayal, a great hippy orgy and a gang rape. Even cooler, however, are scenes told in flashback that are in actual 3-D. These scenes are quite bizarre without glasses, and with them, surely even wilder. One great shot has Greta shoving her great big boobs into the screen. There's also a great/awful theme song, sung by "Huckleberry Fynn," and enough plot loopholes to keep you going "Huh?" all night. Surely a lost goody.
Northern Beestard
INVALID EMAIL
And of course who could forget the not quite Bafta winning Mike Bassett football manager. I was a bit confused at first to find that the Ellesmere Port based Wirral United were playing their home games some 200 odd miles away in West London, then it dawned on me that the producer must be a ranger hating bee fan, heh.
Silly Chip
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Re. The Great Game
Sorry to be so disbelieving but i still have yet to see this film on TV and my searches on the internet for a copy have proved fruitless
Will I ever see this film? :sad:
rebus
Chin Laden
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arsenal-Stadium-Mystery-Leslie-Banks/dp/B0009PZ88ARe. The Great Game
Sorry to be so disbelieving but i still have yet to see this film on TV and my searches on the internet for a copy have proved fruitless
28 for sale at the moment.
sgaz
Griffin Park = Camp Nou
And Harry Enfield and Chums were filiming at GP the other week according to the Brighton match programme :computer:
SmiffyBee
A Beautiful Lie
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He was talking about "The Great Game", not "The Arse Stadium Mystery"
mhead bee
Well-known member
Lord of the rings
rebus
Chin Laden
Taxi for me. I haven't seen this broadcast before.He was talking about "The Great Game", not "The Arse Stadium Mystery"
Owlsmoor_Bee
Moderator
This Friday coming ?