Terminus **** (1961, documentary, director John Schlesinger) – Classic Movie Review 10,562

John Schlesinger’s imaginative, classic 1961 documentary short Terminus, now poignantly dated, about a day in the life of London’s Waterloo station, was made for British Transport Films. It won the 1962 BAFTA Film Award for Best Short Film.

With its clever use of camera, montage and jazz music, plus a good sense of humour, it would be hard to imagine it being better done – though it would be great now also to have a modern version. If only the station still looked like this! And with steam trains too! It proved the stepping-stone for the director from TV to feature films.

Terminus features staff and passengers around the station, and is supposedly reportage, but it is not a true documentary as some scenes were staged, so it has to be called an imaginative documentary, with some of Schlesinger’s friends appearing in staged shots.

Most of the people shown are members of the public but there is also a handful of actors. with Margaret Ashcroft [Margaret Perry] (a relative of Schlesinger) as Mother, Gertrude Dickin (Roland Curram’s aunt) as the confused elderly woman asking about train, Margaret Lacey as elderly lady at lost property office, Matthew Perry as Little Lost Boy and John Schlesinger as a cameo as a passing, umbrella-carrying businessman passenger.

The tearful and apparently lost child (Matthew Perry) was temporarily abandoned deliberately by his mother Margaret, an actress relative of Schlesinger. Police take him to an office where an announcement is made for his mother to collect him. Other actors include the handcuffed convicts and the confused elderly woman.

But at the inquiry centre a couple of dozen people are taking phone calls with questions about travel; the boat-train Victoria Castle arrives and friends greet the passengers; the handcuffed convicts are placed in a carriage; the lost property office is filled with umbrellas; a coffin is placed in the guard van; Jamaicans board the train to Southampton; then finally girls drink Kia-Ora, sailors smoke cigarettes, passengers sleep on benches, and a bag-lady checks the bins for food. It is all so flavourful.

Terminus is directed by John Schlesinger, runs 33 minutes, is made by British Transport Films, is released by British Lion Film Corporation (1961) (UK), is written by John Schlesinger, is shot in black and white by Kenneth Higgins [Ken Phipps] and Robert Paynter (additional photography), is produced by Edgar Anstey and is scored by Ron Grainer (also conductor).

It was filmed in August 1960.

It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, before it was disqualified when it was found to have been released before the eligibility period.

It was released on DVD by BFI Video in 2006 (UK).

See also Every Day Except Christmas directed by Lindsay Anderson.

Schlesinger started in films as an actor, debuting as German Guard (uncredited) in Sailor of the King (1953). After making documentaries for the BBC and filming Terminus, he made the transition to feature films in 1962, with the kitchen sink drama A Kind of Loving (1962).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,562

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com