This film is part of Free

In Pawn

Fur flies in a delightfully cynical 1950s cine club comedy about marriage and infidelity.

Amateur film 1952 16 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for North East Film Archive

Overview

Wise to her wily ways, a husband calls his wife’s bluff when she plots to keep a gift after a clandestine affair on the coast. The happily-ever-after gets short shrift in this 50s matrimonial comedy espousing double standards, made by a cine club crew with the Newcastle and District Amateur Cinematographers Association.

Shooting locations for the film include Durham railway station, the Park Hotel in Tynemouth and the exterior of the immensely popular Oxford Galleries dance hall in New Bridge Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, which was built by City Amusements in 1923 for £75,000 and opened as a ballroom in June 1925. In its early years, there was a central fountain and a ‘pen’ where professional lady hostesses could be hired for 6 pence a dance. It continued as a dance hall until the late 1960s, when it started its string of nightclub reincarnations. The building was demolished in 2015.