Tiger Bay (1959)

What makes it different from others?

That was an excellent one.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Any time I see a movie or show with Halley Mills, my thoughts immediately go back to this movie. I saw it a long, long time ago, but the impact of her performance never fades. Other reviewers have summarized the story, so I will not bother. I simply want to be counted among those who feel this film is worth any trouble you may have to go through to find and watch it.

I also saw this movie as a young girl. It was evidently re-released after Hayley Mills became so well known in the US. I was mesmerized. She was so much more natural and less cutesy than in her Disney films. It was not until I was an adult that I saw Whistle Down the Wind and Gypsy Girl. In her early English movies she is far more natural. (Check Gypsy Girl out for an adolescent Hayley and a gorgeous young Ian McShane.) Although the ending leaves you hanging and wondering what happens to Korchinsky, it is also satisfying. I was just touched to see that he really was decent and truly cared for Gilly, enough to risk his future. Trivia: Michael Anderson Jr., who later starred in "In Search of the Castaways" in 1962 with Hayley, was an unacknowledged child on the wharf in Tiger Bay. I kept looking, thinking he looked familiar.

If only it could have been so.It made me cry as a 19 year old - no easy task as I thought I was pretty tough then although I had been quite upset when Trigger died I remember. Surely this unlikely pair were star - crossed lovers in everything but the physical sense?I am absolutely certain that Gillie would never forget the Polish sailor who was the first to break her young girl's heart. Mr J. Mills and Miss M. Jenkins give performances of great compassion without a single surplus gesture between them,they move seamlessly through their roles supporting and encouraging young Miss H. Mills without leaving her obvious gaps to fit into,a technique one sees far too often in lesser movies. Miss Mills herself has the inestimable advantage of appearing to be ordinary whilst in fact possessing extraordinary inner beauty.It is this quality above all that illuminates her performance.Add the fact that she is often lit so that her hair appears as a halo and it becomes clear that "Tiger Bay" is a movie that celebrates innocence. Mr H Bucholtz too is an innocent,despite the fact that he murders his girl - friend.It is clearly a crime passionel and in France he may well have been carried shoulder - high in triumph from the courtroom,but this is Wales in the 1950s and that was never going to happen. The key scene is where Miss Mills witnesses the killing whilst peeping through the letter - box.Her innocence dies as she watches the victim die and we are voyeurs at both deaths,watching through our own letter box like medium. Often dismissed off - handedly as a children's movie,"Tiger Bay" is in fact a movie about the end of a childhood.As such it is a small masterpiece.

I was 2nd Radio Officer aboard the British cargo ship OSWESTRY GRANGE, which sailed regularly between the UK and the River Plate, from June 1958 until February 1959. At the beginning of October 1958, we were in Avonmouth (Bristol), when the "Tiger Bay" cast and crew came aboard to film the dock scenes, which were supposed to be in Barry. The ship's name was over-painted with the name LA PALOMA, and the white Maltese Cross on the funnel was transformed into a white square. When we sailed, we had to have our correct ship's name painted on boards, which were suspended over the bows, and only removed when filming was taking place. Our unique funnel must have caused a lot of puzzlement aboard other ships.We then sailed up and down the Bristol Channel for a few days, while the filming of John Mills' arrival and boarding from the pilot boat, as well as the chase and jump involving the Hayley Mills character, took place. The jump was performed by a stunt woman, who was very much bigger than Hayley. It was a cold day, and the Bristol Channel looked very uninviting, but the stunt girl was cheerful and unperturbed. Fortunately for her, only one take was needed! The film people, including John and Hayley Mills, were very friendly. Of course, we had no idea what it was all about.I didn't manage to see the film until I was serving with the Zim Israel line, when it was shown in a cinema on Mount Carmel in Haifa in June 1960. I'd expected to see myself in the scene where the ship was leaving Barry docks (i.e., Avonmouth), but I'd ended up on the cutting room floor.I now have the film on DVD, and love re-watching it, because it's a really good film, with an amazing performance by Hayley Mills, and also, of course, because I can see my old ship again, and recall my youth and those fascinating days with the cast and crew.