Soho Bites 38: East of Piccadilly (1941)

02/27/23 • 53 min

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Murder mystery? Rom-com? And, as an afterthought.... wartime boosterism?

East of Piccadilly (1941) was known as "The Strangler" in the US and was directed by Harold Huth. It stars Judy Campbell & Sebastian Shaw and was written by the then quite young J Lee Thompson. It tells the story of a murder investigation and is (extremely) loosely based on a real life case, that of the "The Soho Strangler".

1940s UK film expert, Mel Byron, comes all the way in from Talking Picture TV Podcast HQ to talk about the film. It's her third visit to the podcast - she wasn't that keen on Street of Shadows and her second visit was for Soho Conspiracy which is possibly the worst film ever made. Apologies to Mel. Will she like this one more?

The 1930s Soho Strangler case upon which the film is supposedly based, is largely forgotten now but not by our other guest, Michael J Buchanan Dunne. Mike is the creator of the Murder Mile podcast and at the time of publication has just released the third episode of a TEN PART series about the Soho Strangler.

At the time if writing this, East of Piccadilly is simply NOT AVAILABLE to stream (legally) anywhere online. It does sometime crop up on certain streaming serivces - if you fill in THIS FORM you will be notified when it appears (can't guarantee it will be free though!)

However, if you are based in London or are ever a visitor to our beautiful city, you can watch East of Piccadilly in the BFI Library. Grab yourself a terminal and ask one of the nice librarions for help. The reference number is N-626109.

Did the director of East of Piccadilly, Harold Huth cast himself in a small uncredited role as a Spiv in Joe's cafe? You decide.

The Spanish version of the film poster is ace!

A 1938 article in the Chicago Tribune about the Soho Strangler case.

Mel Byron is on Twitter and has a website.

You can also follow Talking Pictures and the podcast on Twitter.

Murder Mile Mike is on the Twitters too as his girlfriend. Catch up on the Murder Mile podast HERE.

If you want to keep up to date the efforts to bring the Kino Cinema back from the dead, follow Kino Quickies.

The originator of Soho Bites,

Murder mystery? Rom-com? And, as an afterthought.... wartime boosterism?

Did the director of East of Piccadilly, Harold Huth cast himself in a small uncredited role as a Spiv in Joe's cafe? You decide.

The Spanish version of the film poster is ace!

A 1938 article in the Chicago Tribune about the Soho Strangler case.

Mel Byron is on Twitter and has a website.

You can also follow Talking Pictures and the podcast on Twitter.

Murder Mile Mike is on the Twitters too as his girlfriend. Catch up on the Murder Mile podast HERE.

If you want to keep up to date the efforts to bring the Kino Cinema back from the dead, follow Kino Quickies.

The originator of Soho Bites,

Previous Episode

Soho Bites 37: Beat Girl (1960)

Attention jiving scum! This is one is straight from the fridge dad.

It doesn't get more Soho than Beat Girl (1960) - coffee shops, beatniks, strip clubs, The 2 i's.... it's got the lot.

Gillian Hills leads the cast of Beat Girl, which also stars Adam Faith, Christopher Lee, Shirley Ann Field and, in a very small role, a young Oliver Reed.

We met novelist, Des Burkinshaw in the bar of the Soho Theatre to talk about Beat Girl which is the closest we could find to a bohemian coffee bar.

Des is a huge fan of John Barry, who wrote the music for Beat Girl and he recently concluded a two year stint as the presenter of the Museum of Soho Show on Soho Radio.

You can stream Beat Girl right now on TPTV Encore.

Also on TPTV Encore is this 2016 BFI interview with the star of Beat Girl, Gillian Hills, about the making of the film. It's well worth a watch.

Back in the day, Des actually met one of the stars of Beat Girl and grabbed this selfie.

Gillian Hills released a four part podcast about her life in December 2021.

Follow Gillian on Facebook.

Our other guest for this episode is Paris based journalist Hanna Steinkopf-Frank. Paris is some distance from Soho - the connection is that Gillian Hills became a Yé-yé singer and Hannah came on to talk about this genre.

What's Yé-yé? Find out in this article by Hannah.

Follow Hannah on Twitter and check out her website.

You can also follow Des on Twitter.

There' s a LOT of music in this episode. Here's a track list:

Eiko Shuri - Yé-Yé

France Gall - Poupée de cire, poupée de son

Françoise Hardy...

Next Episode

Soho Bites 39: Nighthawks (1978)

Thirty nine episodes in and we finally do a gay themed episode of the show. About time too!

Nighthawks (1978) was directed by Ron Peck and was based on a script developed by him and Paul Hallam. It stars Ken Robertson as Jim, a geography teacher at a London comprehensive school who spends his nights looking for love in gay bars, clubs and discos (discos were still a thing then).

To talk about Nighthawks we're joined by Prof Glyn Davis of St Andrews University. Turns out he's not as Welsh as you expect him to be!

Watch Nighthawks on the BFI Player or buy the DVD which has a ton of bonus features.

Ron Peck named the film after Edward Hopper's 1942 painting. Both, he said were about, "essentially lonely people, trying to come together, maybe succeeding for a while"

Our other guest, author, Will Hampson, has been living with HIV for three years. His book, The Lost Boys of Soho, is an account the months following his diagnosis.

Follow The Lost Boys of Soho on Instagram

The director of Nighthawks, Ron Peck, died in Novemeber 2022. Here an obituary.

Some of the filming locations in Nighthawks.

Some 1978 press clippings about Nighthawks.

Interesting experimental by Ron Peck & Paul Hallam - "Soho"

Soho has it's very own sexual health clinic for LGBT people - 56 Dean Street.

The Terence Higgins Trust is one of the oldest HIV charities.

If you want to keep up to date the efforts to bring the Kino Cinema back from the dead, follow Kino Quickies.

The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has a new book out all about.... guess what? Films set in Soho! Get your copy at Foyles.

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