A hair tonic salesman with a secret wife and a candy floss girl—Blackpool noir gets messy.
Set on Blackpool’s Golden Mile, Jim (Douglass Montgomery), a once promising scientist, sets up in business as a patent medicine man selling hair tonic at the fair with his ex-army colleague Dan (Ronald Shiner). Following a fight with local hoods over pitch spaces, Jim falls for Jane (Hazel Court), the girl on a nearby candy floss stall. The two begin dating but Jim fails to mention he is already married.
Cinematography
Blackpool's neon decay captured in gorgeous shadow-soaked 35mm.
Acting
Hazel Court sells candy floss like her life depends on it—because it does.
Director
George King
Douglass Montgomery
Jim Harding
Hazel Court
Jane Thompson
Patricia Burke
Diana Harding
Garry Marsh
Jerry Burns
Ronald Shiner
Dan Collins
Kenneth Griffith
Johnny
Eliot Makeham
Pop Thompson
Frederick Leister
Dr. Franklin
Richard Bird
Jennings
Michael Medwin
Cabby
Peter Jones
Pete
Erik Chitty
Schofield
Sam Kydd
Joe
Andrew Cruickshank
Inspector Baxter
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hazel Court later became a horror icon in Hammer films—this was her training in looking terrified of men.
The Golden Mile setting wasn't just atmosphere; post-war British noir often used fading resorts to mirror national decline.
GB
US
