''A Place to Go'' is a 1963 British crime drama film directed by

Basil Dearden Basil Dearden (born Basil Clive Dear; 1 January 1911 – 23 March 1971) was an English film director. Early life and career Dearden was born at 5, Woodfield Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex to Charles James Dear, a steel manufacturer, and his wife, Fl ...

and starring

Bernard Lee John Bernard Lee (10 January 190816 January 1981) was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven Eon-produced James Bond films. Lee's film career spanned the years 1934 to 1979, though he had appeared on stage from t ...

Rita Tushingham Rita Tushingham (born 14 March 1942) is an English actress. She is known for her starring roles in films including ''A Taste of Honey'' (1961), ''The Leather Boys'' (1964), '' The Knack ...and How to Get It'' (1965), ''Doctor Zhivago'' (1965), ...

and Michael Sarne. Set in contemporary

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common land, Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heat ...

in the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

, it charted the dramatic changes that were then happening in the lives of the British working class, fitting into the

kitchen sink Kitchen sink may refer to: * ''Freaks of Nature'' (film), a 2015 comedy horror film, also known as ''Kitchen Sink'' * ''Kitchen Sink'', a 1989 horror short directed by Alison Maclean * ''Kitchen Sink'' (TV series), cookery series on Food Network ...

school of film-making which was popular in Britain at the time. The film was based on the 1961 novel ''Bethnal Green'' by Michael Fisher.

Plot

Ricky Flint (

Mike Sarne Michael Sarne (born Michael Scheuer; 6 August 1940) is a British actor, writer, producer and director, who also had a brief career as a pop singer in the 1960s. Sarne directed the films ''Joanna'' (1968) and ''Myra Breckinridge'' (1970). He h ...

) dreams of escaping working-class Bethnal Green, where he works in a cigarette factory and shares a crowded

terraced house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

with his middle-aged parents Matt (

) and Lil, his pregnant sister Betsy (who soon gives birth), and her husband Jim. In order to get the money to leave, Ricky agrees to help local gangster Jack Ellerman rob the cigarette factory, and also gets Jim, a lorry driver hoping to buy an expensive transport licence, to join the plot. Ricky finds himself attracted to Catherine "Cat" Donovan (

), who has been dating another member of Jack's gang, Charlie Batey. Although Cat agrees to date and even make love with Ricky, she is fiercely independent and refuses to take orders from him or stop seeing Charlie, pointing out that she and Ricky are not engaged so she is free to do as she likes. Ricky's father Matt, a dockworker, also wants to leave his insecure job and strike out on his own, and eventually quits and becomes a busker with a

Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...

-like escape routine. Matt hates Jack Ellerman, who has been more financially successful than himself and was also his rival for Lil's affections many years ago. When Matt finds Jack and his gang at the Flints' house meeting with Ricky and Jim, Matt's anger on top of the stress of busking causes Matt to suffer a fatal stroke. On the night of the planned robbery, Jim decides at the last minute that he cannot go through with it and risk his family's future. Ricky takes Jim's lorry without his knowledge and fills in for Jim, as well as doing his own part of disabling the factory alarm. However, when Jack orders Ricky to stand guard with a lead pipe, Ricky finds himself unable to hit a police officer who approaches and disrupts the robbery, thus leaving it to Charlie to knock out the officer. Charlie later takes revenge on Ricky by setting fire to Jim's lorry. Ricky is badly burned attempting to put out the fire and recovers in hospital, during which time Cat visits him but also continues seeing Charlie. Meanwhile,

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

forces Lil to reluctantly move out of her home of 30 years into a new flat in another area. Jim and Betsy use the insurance money from the burned lorry to move into a house of their own, which Betsy had wanted, but she finds it somewhat lonely. Jim gives up his dream of being a transport driver for a steady job in a local factory. After Ricky is released from hospital, he finds Cat with Charlie at the local pub and attacks Charlie. The police arrive and arrest both men. In court, Ricky testifies that he and Cat are engaged and he was angry because she was seeing Charlie while he was in hospital. When Cat corroborates Ricky's testimony, the judge is lenient and lets Ricky off with a

fine Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...

. Ricky and Cat then decide to make their engagement a reality.

Cast

as Matt Flint *

as Catherine Donovan *

as Ricky Flint *

Doris Hare Doris Breamer Hare, MBE (1 March 1905 – 30 May 2000) was a British actress, comedian, singer, and dancer best known for portraying Mabel Butler in the British sitcom ''On the Buses'' and its film spin-offs, after replacing the original actres ...

as Lil Flint *

Barbara Ferris Barbara Gillian Ferris (born 27 July 1942, London) is an English actress and former fashion model. She appeared in a number of films and productions for television and is possibly best remembered as Dinah, the young woman who eloped with Dave ...

as Betsy * John Slater as Jack Ellerman * David Andrews as Jim *

William Marlowe William Marlowe (25 July 1930 – 31 January 2003) was a British theatre, television and film actor. He served in the Fleet Air Arm and hoped for a career as a writer before training as an actor at RADA. He was cast in '' A Family at War'' (1970 ...

as Charlie Batey * Michael Wynne as Pug *

Roy Kinnear Roy Mitchell Kinnear (8 January 1934 – 20 September 1988) was a British character actor. He was known for his roles in films such as The Beatles' ''Help!'' (1965), Clapper in ''How I Won the War'' (1967) and Planchet in ''The Three Musketeers ...

as Bunting *

Norman Shelley Norman Shelley (16 February 1903 – 21 August 1980) was a British actor, best known for his work in radio, in particular for the BBC's '' Children's Hour''. He also had a recurring role as Colonel Danby in the long-running radio soap opera ''T ...

as Magistrate *

Jerry Verno Jerry Verno (26 July 1895 – 29 June 1975) was a British film actor. He appeared in 39 films between 1931 and 1966, including five films directed by Michael Powell, and two with Alfred Hitchcock. He was born in London. As well as appearing i ...

as Nobby Knowles

Differences between the book and the film

In the book, Charlie's character is called Spider and Matt's busking act is fire breathing not escapology. When Jim changes his mind about the robbery, Jack postpones it, and they set fire to the van that night in revenge. Ricky and Jim go to confront Jack and his gang, but Ricky has a change of heart, leaving Jim to be badly beaten. Ricky flees the scene upset and, longing for his father, he tries to simulate Matt's fire-breathing act and that is how he burns his face. The botched robbery goes ahead after Ricky leaves hospital and the next day, racked with guilt, Ricky and Cat go to apologise to Jack and to tell him that they don't want to be involved in the gang anymore. Jack threatens to have Ricky beaten up if he refuses to stay in the gang but Ricky chooses to take the beating. Afterwards Jack confides that he felt like Ricky was a son to him, heavily hinting that he is actually his real father. Ricky and Cat escape down the canal on a small boat and plan their future life together.

Production

Locations

The greyhound racing scenes in the film were set at

Clapton Stadium The Clapton Stadium, also known as Millfields Road, was a football ground and greyhound racing stadium in the Lower Clapton area of London. History The stadium was originally named Whittles Athletic Ground and was mostly used for whippet racin ...

. Pub scenes were filmed at The Acorn in Bethnal Green (demolished in 2019) Closed Pubs website
/ref> and an exterior shot o
The Angel
in City Road, Islington. The rest of the outdoor shots were filmed on location in Bethnal Green.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Place to Go, A 1963 films 1963 crime drama films British crime drama films Films directed by Basil Dearden Films set in London Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films shot in London Mass media portrayals of the working class Social realism in film Films and television featuring Greyhound racing Films with screenplays by Michael Relph Films with screenplays by Clive Exton Greyhound racing films 1960s English-language films 1960s British films