THE SIEGE OF SIDNEY STREET

 

The latest issue of Richard Klemensen's wonderful LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS magazine, #48, has a feature article on British filmmakers Robert Baker and Monty Berman. The Baker/Berman team is best known for English Gothic films like THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS, JACK THE RIPPER, and BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE. 

The excellent article (written by John Hamilton) mentions a non-horror production from Baker & Berman, a 1960 film called THE SIEGE OF SIDNEY STREET. This movie is based on a historical incident in 1911, in which numerous police officers and elements of the British military battled a group of anarchists inside the city of London. The LSOH article inspired me to watch THE SIEGE OF SIDNEY STREET on YouTube. 

The movie begins in a unique manner, with a lone policeman walking down an empty street. The officer is suddenly shot, and then all hell breaks loose as other officers in hiding open fire. A young woman in a nearby hospital hears the gunshots, and she starts to have a flashback which tells of the incidents that have led up to the violent urban confrontation. 

The young woman's name is Sara (Nicole Berger), and she is an immigrant from Russia. Sara falls in with a group of immigrants with similar backgrounds, and she becomes smitten with one of them, a handsome man named Peter (Peter Wyngarde). Peter is called "Peter the Painter", because he's supposedly an artist--but his real vocation is being the leader of a group of political protesters who are trying to obtain money to help out those still being repressed in their homeland. Peter's group attempts a payroll robbery and the break-in of a jewel shop, but both crimes go wrong, with the latter resulting in the death of three police officers. Peter and two of his comrades are tracked down by a determined inspector (Donald Sinden) and the full clash at Sidney Street becomes the climax of the film. 

Before writing this post I looked up some basic info on the actual Siege of Sidney Street. Needless to say, like any controversial incident that happened over a hundred years ago, it was a complicated and complex affair that various historians still disagree about. I'm certainly no expert on it, so I can't tell you how accurate the movie is. I will say that there is actual film footage of the real siege available on YouTube, and it does resemble the reenactment staged for the movie. 

The film tends to shy away from any overt political discussions. Jimmy Sangster's screenplay is very vague when it comes to the motivations and the backgrounds of Peter the Painter and his associates. (Sangster once said in an audio commentary that he never did any research for the scripts he wrote.) I believe that Baker, Berman, and Sangster had no interest in highly detailed political/social history--they just wanted to make the siege the centerpiece of a thriller that would attract audiences. 

Donald Sinden gets top-billing as the resourceful police inspector, but his somewhat dull character can't compete with Peter Wyngarde's Peter the Painter. Wyngarde had striking looks and a distinctive voice, and he's always interesting to watch, especially here. Kieron Moore (the star of DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN) also gets a showy role as one of Peter's group, a brash bully who is always looking for a fight. Hammer veteran George Pastell has a small part as one of Peter's associates. 

One thing that is intriguing about THE SIEGE OF SIDNEY STREET is that the anarchists are not portrayed as obsessed, sullen outcasts. They are smartly dressed men who have a social life. The movie doesn't totally sympathize with them, but it doesn't demonize them either. 

The character of Sara was probably created to help humanize the anarchists (and also to have a reason to put an attractive young woman into the story). French actress Nicole Berger not only gets to be Peter Wyngarde's love interest, her character also receives the attentions of Donald Sinden and Kieron Moore. The second part of the film bogs down due to focusing on the travails of Sara. Berger is competent enough in the role, but she doesn't have a strong enough presence to carry the plot. 

THE SIEGE OF SIDNEY STREET was actually filmed in Ireland instead of London--a number of Dublin locations were much more suited to a very early 20th Century atmosphere. The real-life locations come off very well with Monty Berman's fine black & white cinematography. The overall look of the film is a combination of docudrama and noir. 

The climatic shootout is effectively staged and edited, and the sequence contains a notable cameo. In the actual siege the British Home Secretary, who at the time was Winston Churchill, showed up on scene. This is briefly documented in the film...and Churchill is played by none other than Jimmy Sangster. I find the idea of Hammer's best-known screenwriter playing one of the greatest figures in English history rather amusing. 

I found THE SIEGE OF SIDNEY STREET to be much like the other Baker & Berman historical films--it's well-made, decent entertainment, but a bit slow at times. It's also nowhere near as exploitative as one would assume. I wonder how the average British viewer would feel about this film, since being an American I knew nothing about the incident upon which it was based.