There\u2019s nothing like the thrill of watching a movie made in your own backyard, especially if the cameras happened to be rolling there 75 years ago.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll get the chance to do that under the stars on Saturday night at Broadmead Village Shopping Centre, not far from where a Hollywood feature starring Rin Tin Tin, Jr., was filmed in the late 1930s.<\/p>\n
The final film in this year\u2019s Free-B Film Festival is Death Goes North, a murder-mystery released in 1939 and filmed in locations that included Rithet Estate Forest, which would become Broadmead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about how that piece of land became Broadmead and was meant to be a community,\u201d said Broadmead Village spokeswoman Heather Leary, recalling The Broadmead Story, the Broadmead Area Residents Association booklet that sparked film production memories. \u201cWe thought it\u2019d be fun to bring that piece of movie history back to Broadmead to share with the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea took shape after local researchers assembled information last year for a commemorative plaque.<\/p>\n
The 55-minute film presented by Broadmead Village and Victoria Film Festival was one of 14 low-budget \u201cquota quickies\u201d made here for Columbia Pictures by English-born promoter Kenneth Bishop. He made 12, including Death Goes North, under his Central Films banner, and two through Commonwealth Productions, which he formed in 1932 to take advantage of Britain\u2019s Cinematographic Films Act.<\/p>\n
Bishop\u2019s other features shot here included The Crimson Paradise, which made its world premi\u00e8re as the first all-talkie film shot in Canada at the Capitol on Dec. 14, 1933, What Price Vengeance (1936), Secrets of Chinatown (1934) and Manhattan Shakedown (1938).<\/p>\n
Addressing concerns about American dominance of the film industry, the British government introduced a quota system in 1927 that eventually stipulated that one out of every five films shown in Britain would have to be made in the British Empire. The law was rewritten 11 years later and effectively excluded Canadian films.<\/p>\n
Released in 1939, Death Goes North starred Edgar Edwards and Michael Heppell as two Mounties called in to investigate the murder of a timber baron. They get help from his niece, Elsie Barlow (Sheila Bromley), and her dog, King (Rin Tin Tin Jr.).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a B movie in the classic sense,\u201d said programmer Donovan Aikman.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was meant to be the second part of a double-bill \u2014 short, quick and fun, and the Mounties get their man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aikman said showing the film at Broadmead\u2019s outdoor shopping centre rather than the Cameron Bandshell, where the Mel Brooks sci-spoof Spaceballs will play Friday at 9 p.m., was a no-brainer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re pretty much showing it in the area where much of it was filmed, near Rithet\u2019s Bog,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were just beginning to clear it. It\u2019s a good little land-grabbing story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Aikman isn\u2019t holding his breath, he said there was \u201can off-chance\u201d someone associated with the production might still be around and show up.<\/p>\n
A woman who appeared in Convicted, the 1938 film noir filmed here and starring 19-year-old newcomer Rita Hayworth as a nightclub singer, showed up when he screened it in 2006.<\/p>\n
Background performers who appeared in Harry In Your Pocket also attended when the festival featured the James Coburn pickpocket thriller that was filmed here 42 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s more likely to be relatives at this point,\u201d said Aikman, who will precede Death Goes North with a classic Max Fleischer Superman cartoon and Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders, a Republic movie serial in which Canadian mounted police attempt to stop a foreign power from establishing secret missile bases in Canada.<\/p>\n
Filmgoers are encouraged to bring chairs and blankets. Snacks and beverages will be available from Broadmead Village merchants.
\n– See more at: http:\/\/www.timescolonist.com\/entertainment\/music\/film-goes-back-to-scene-of-the-shooting-near-broadmead-1.1322771#sthash.FAdvl9Cn.dpuf