Celluloid Brixton, criminality and Black Joy.

As a virgin blogger I though I’d write my first post about what I know; old films and Brixton.

I love Brixton, but unfortunately it seems long before the 80s riots the area had an infamous association with criminality, however thankfully others feel the same as I do; this was a recent display in Windrush Square.

My VPlus is always set for something old on TCM and recently I watched for the first time a film called Victim (1961) starring Dirk Bogarde. Set in London’s swinging 60s it tells the story of a group of men being blackmailed because they are homosexuals; which was not legalised until 1967. In the film one of the men (who are described in derogatory terms by their local pub landlord and a policeman) receives an envelope containing a blackmail letter; his address is 9 Rosebank Road SW9 which is Brixton.

(Yes I Goggled it, there is only a Rosebank Road in E17).

TCM also has been repeating Dial M for Murder (1954). Cheating wife Margo’s husband wants her killed to claim the life insurance. Margo’s lover tells her that the blackmail letter in his hand was posted in Brixton. The film is then played out in their lovely flat in Mayfair.

If you want a real slice of celluloid Brixton life try the 1977 film Black Joy. It starred Norman Beattie who later played the barber in the TV show Desmonds.