TIGER BAY

UK, 1959, 105 minutes, Black and White.
John Mills, Hayley Mills, Horst Buchholz, Yvonne Mitchell.
Directed by J. Lee Thompson.

Tiger Bay is a first-class thriller, set in Cardiff and its docks and slums. Hayley Mills, at the beginning of her career as a child star, is effective as the little girl who witnesses a murder. She works well, as she did in several subsequent films, with her father, John Mills. Horst Buchholz gives human credibility to the role of the pursued Polish sailor. Excellent melodrama.

1. The tone of the title, the Cardiff background, the seaport, the world of sailors and foreigners? How did this add atmosphere to the film?

2. How successful was the film as a thriller? Its use of thriller conventions, the criminal, hunted, menace to the little girl? The climax? How was audience interest and suspense retained?

3. What value did having a child in a central role have for the film? Did it involve audiences more? Did it make it more human? The role of feeling and sentiment?

4. How attractive a character was Korchinsky? His arrival and naivety and joy, the awareness of his jealousy, anger, anger enough to kill? Was this credible? What explained this aspect of his character? The resulting fear, the sequence in the church, frightening Gillie, then praying? Why did the two become friends? The suspense of the sequence at night and the hotel. going away from the city? What bond was established between them during their night. the games, their love for each other? How shrewd was he in organising his escape? Did the audience want him to escape? Audience response to his pursuit in the ship? The tenseness of the interrogations? Was it credible that he should try to save Gillie? The repercussions for him for the future? How well explored was his character?

5. Was Gillie an attractive figure? As a little girl, her involvement with the children in the city, their games, guns and violence, the importance of her lies? How callous as a child in her feelings was she? Her relationship to her aunt? Tormenting the people in the flats. the bomb? The inevitability of her spying, her fear, her wanting the gun? How important was her wanting the gun above everything else? The importance of the chapel sequence and the abrupt ending to her singing? Her fear, the change of attitude to Korchinsky? Why did she become his friend? The desire to go away to sea, the games, her love and support for him, being pursued by the people at the picnic? Why was she relentless in her lies with the Superintendent? The tenseness of the interrogations? Her loyalty to Korchinsky? His disillusioning her and her falling into the sea? The bond between them when he saved her?

6. How convincingly did the film portray the interaction of Gillie and Korchinsky? In terms of fear, threat, menace, knowledge, communication, support. love?

7. How important was the Inspector in focusing attention on objectivity? Could the audience identify with him? His exasperation at Gillie's lies? His search for the truth? Doing his job? The conflict with the ship's Captain? The impact of the events on him finally? Convincing?

8. How did the minor characters add to the quality of the film? The particulars of their characterisation, the detail of the incidents in which they appeared? How did each contribute? Anya and her relationship to Korchinsky and the murder? Aunt Phillips and her looking after Gillie, her attitude towards the police? The neighbours in the flat, the wife. the policeman? Barclay and his relationship to Anya. his position in the city. his fear and attitude towards the police? The choir and the choirmaster? The police assistance? The children? The landlord? The West Indian girl and her helping Korchinsky with his passport? The Port officials. the ship's Captain and crew? What facets of human behaviour did they illustrate?

9. What did the film have to say about truth and lies and the consequences of telling lies? What attitude did the film take on moral issues?

10. What did the film have to say about guilt, innocence. justice and its execution? was this well explored and realistically?