Some People [DVD]

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Director Clive Donner, who had been working in advertising, was approached to make a documentary to promote the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. Donner felt the documentary would only reach people who already knew about the scheme, and suggested they make a dramatic feature instead. [5] We arrived in Bristol three weeks before we started shooting to rehearse and soak up the ambience; the boys to learn the accent and ride the bikes and all of us went to youth clubs, dance halls and factories to see what was happening.

The theme tune is particularly catchy. A strange little wind-instrument plays an introduction, and this features in the movie as having been constructed by one of the kids (a cut by ex-Shadows Jet Harris & Tony Meehan is still available from i-tunes, though they didn't cover it in the movie). Monthly Film Bulletin wrote "Not without charm and showing, for the most part, a nice attention to detail, this teenage film (the profits of which go to the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme) is transparently well-meaning and made with obvious affection. Unfortunately, it has nothing to add to that now painfully familiar delinquency formula which combines a liking for coffee bars, motor bikes and guitars with an inability to talk reasonably to Father. The script fails not because it is heavily weighted in favour of the Kenneth More character but because of the needlessly naive way in which this is done. Relying mainly on superficialities for its effects, the film finally outcasts the one thoroughly rootless delinquent who should have been its main concern." [11] This was an excellent movie for its time. It touched more closely upon the growing pains of young adults than many another. Despite their 26-year age difference, Douglas and Kenneth More began an affair while working on the film, with More eventually leaving his wife and marrying Douglas in 1968. They remained married until his death in 1982. The story of three teenaged tearaways Johnnie, Bill and Bert who find themselves at odds with society. Following a brush with the law they have a chance meeting with a local choirmaster who offers them a way of making good.Sadly; politicians are more mixed-up than they ever were. Now, with lunatics like Harriet Harman and Patricia Hewitt resolutely destroying the nuclear family, marginalising fathers into non-existence, and feminising the education system, whilst selling-off school playing fields for development and criminalising almost every infringement of law; a whole generation of disaffected kids has arisen who are tragically represented by this movie's modern sequel: 'Kidulthood'. Britain is now officially the worst place in the western world to be a kid. (It's also the worst place to be old.)

So all in all, a fairly interesting film for various reasons, with the plot being somewhere near the bottom. This was pretty safe teen rebellion fodder then and even more so now. Blu-ray sleeve of the movie Made shortly before The Beatles burst onto the music scene, and as a result, Some People probably looked out of date almost immediately after its release. It’s now something of a curiosity piece, or a nostalgic piece of whimsy for anyone who happened to be a teenager during the early 1960s. Serious Charge (1959) An unmarried vicar, the Reverend Howard Phillips (Anthony Quayle), newly arrived in the parish of Bellington, attempts to force local…Not many films used to be shot in Bristol, England in the 1960s. But Some People was shot entirely in and around the old city going out of its way to show the main characters in the very spots they would actually have been hanging about in real life as aimless teenagers. I know for certain because my parents were courting teens at that very time in that very place. I showed them the film recently (yes they're still a couple 54 years later) and the locations were very accurate to life as they knew it. My father actually worked in the Aircraft factory featured. The dance club in the film was the top spot for young Bristolians to cut a rug in 1962, a favorite place for them and all of their young friends (the front door manned by no less than Dave Prowse (not in the film unfortunately), the actor who made good as Darth Vader in a slightly better known film.) Bristol has changed but not so much that anyone familiar with it wouldn't know most of the locales. Those with an interest in public transport will thrill at the plentiful footage of the famous Bristol ‘Lodekka’ buses while aviation geeks will get a similar thrill from scenes of Mr Smith at work: when he isn’t encouraging young tearaways to play nicely together he is an engineer overseeing test flights of the Bristol 188 ‘Flaming Pencil’ supersonic jet.

According to Kinematograph Weekly the film was considered a "money maker" at the British box office in 1962. [8] The film reportedly made a profit, in part because of its low cost. [9] Donner said the film was a "huge success" which made "a lot of money" for the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme and also reignited his film career. [5] Critical reception [ edit ] His anxieties and jealousy come to the fore as his friends embrace the step into the unknown territory of adulthood that Bill simply isn’t ready for. Having the film set in Bristol rather than London is a masterstroke, giving it an extra layer of authenticity, not least when the main participants wander around the department stores, cross the river, drop into a fish shop or have a drink in a pub.The Beatles in '62 looked exactly the same as the boys in "Some People" before they helped sweep youth into a new phase. What an exciting time it was but it was made so much more exciting by the fact that youth in the UK had struggled so hard to be different in the greyness of life after the war. Keeping the movie away from 'swinging London',the screenplay by John Eldridge reveals a very real down to earth quality about it,thanks to Eldidge keeping away from making the gang mindless rebels,by showing each of them to be confused,but well meaning,in their desires to find a good direction in life.Whilst some of the individual gang members sub- plots do feel over stretched,Eldridge smartly places the band dynamics right at the centre,which help to give the title a lively,jazzy edge.