The Ship That Died of Shame, The Man Who Never Was and The Key

Like his director namesake Mike Leigh, Mike is a real expert on Weymouth and Portland-shot films.

First we're going to turn our attention to The Ship That Died of Shame which was made in 1955 starring Richard Attenborough, George Baker and Bill Owen.

This Nicholas Montsarrat story featured three demobbed sailors who rescue their old motor gun boat from the scrapyard and use it for smuggling along the south coast.

Mike says: "It was filmed around Poole Harbour, Poole Quay, Weymouth waterfront and other places along the coast.

"The film recently was included in the film festival in Wareham.

"George Baker, who many of you will remember as Inspector Wexford recalls being offered a part on the film after previously doing only a few lines in The Dam Busters.

"The director Basil Deardon was not keen on having him, preferring to have Terence Alexander well known from films and later in Bergerac."

The Weymouth filming of The Ship That Died of Shame used a torpedo boat that had been left over from the war and a Lt Commander as an advisor.

Mike tells us: "In this particular scene where a squabble breaks out over smuggling guns the director was at his worst criticising George's performance; with that Bill Owen walks off the ship and up the quay.

"The director calls out 'Where are you going?' and Bill said 'I'm not staying on this picture Basil if you're going to continue treating George like this.'

'What have I done?' asked the director? 'You know perfectly well,' said Bill who continued walking away with Basil running after him.

"Sometime later they both re-appeared, Basil with his arm round Bill's shoulder. George then said 'God bless you Bill. I was never bullied again!'

Mike's verdict is - it was a good film, had good reviews and took good money at the box office and with plenty of publicity George was an up and coming film star.

Another film with local connections is The Man Who Never Was which was made in 1955.

It starred Clifton Webb and Stephen Boyd. The story revolved around a true event of British disinformation in the Second World War called Operation Mincemeat.

A dead body was obtained, dressed up as a major and putting him in the sea near Huelva, Spain with false identification and documents claiming that the invasion was against Sardinia and Greece rather than Sicily.

Mike said: "When the body was found the Spanish passed the information to the Germans.

"This clever idea worked and the Germans did not realise the truth until weeks after the landings at Sicily had begun."

We have this photo of the filming of The Man Who Never Was at Weymouth harbour.

You can see the actor Stephen Boyd in the middle of the photo. Stephen also starred in Ben Hur and Genghis Khan.

Local people were given the chance to be extras in the filming of the movie.

Finally this week we're going to touch upon The Key, starring Sophia Loren, William Holden and Trevor Howard, which was filmed in Weymouth and Portland in 1958.

The story involves a romantic wartime plot where Sophia Loren passes her flat key to different officers once any are killed in action.

These men work on convoy boats escorting crippled ships to harbour.

Oswald Morriss the cinematographer remembered that they converted part of the promenade at Weymouth into a wartime theme.

Mike said: "Incidentally Morriss lived for some while at Fontmell Magna and recently died at the age of 98.

"He worked on many films including Goodbye Mr Chips."

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