Identifying the Navy Romeo/DTS models

 

Navy Romeo 14, Part 1 

One of the puzzles of Royale's Navy Romeo series is the bewildering changes in the appearance and build of the actors from one scene to another. For example, is the handsome Ted (far right in picture 14 of Part 1) the same person as we see emerging from the car in picture 16 (Part 2) below? 

Navy Romeo 16, Part 2 

Is Spike, also seen also in the middle of picture 14 (top),

 the same Spike we just glimpse taunting Ted in picture 28 below.

Navy Romeo 28, Part 2 

Is he the same Spike we see later departing the scene in picture 36?  (middle, shown below)

Navy Romeo 36, Part 2 

Are any of the men in Part 1 actually the same as those in Part 2? Or were these Parts produced separately and married together which the discontinuities in style and plot seem to suggest?

Even allowing for the imperfect quality of most of the surviving images, we rarely see clear, close-up pictures of the men's faces in this series and despite their military pedigrees they don't even have tattoos, which are normally a great aid to identification. 

TOM HARDING

Tom Harding presents the fewest ID problems. The only place he's fully named is in Navy Gash, in Navy Romeo he's called Tom and not named at all in DTS. However we see a lot of his face in Navy Romeo Part 2 (pictures 17, 18, 32) and in in DTS and it's clearly the same man as in Navy Gash. Identifying Tom in Romeo Part 1, however, is more difficult. The nearest we get to a decent shot of his face is a series of indistinct profiles (e.g. 03) in which he looks much more lean and youthful than the frontal images in DTS and NARO2. However we can see his dark, curly hair and there is something of that lean look in the rear view of him seen in 19 from Romeo Part 2 (extreme left)

TED

Ted doesn't appear in Navy Gash, he is named in Navy Romeo and the Ted we see being pulled out of the car in Navy Romeo 16 and being manhandled in 17 and 18 is plausibly the same Ted we see in the middle of  DTS02. The Ted we see tied up in Romeo Part 2 picture 23 isn't obviously the same man, but does have similar curly hair and the distinctive gaiters and boots.

Tying Ted into Part 1 is more problematic thanks to the lack of clear, full face shots. There are two glimpses of him where there is a fair amount of similarity, however - in picture 05 and in the mirror reflection in picture 02. There is other circumstantial evidence linking his appearances in Parts 1 and 2 - the gaiters, of course, but also Ted's chunky build in picture 04 is a good match for his figure in No 34 in Part 2. His very different appearance in 14, which first triggered my doubts on this identification issue, actually pairs reasonably with well with the way he looks in No 31.

 I've not found a solo shoot for Ted in the Royale Catalogues despite his attractive muscular build, nor any other mention of him in other Royale sets. I'm still wondering if he has another identity.

SPIKE + NED WILLIGAN

The model called Ned Willigan in Navy Gash is pretty obviously the same man we see on the right in   DTS02 and is a pretty good match for the man called Spike in Romeo 17, 31 and 36.

Spike has a slightly different look in the water-throwing pictures in Part 2 (e.g 24, 25), where the slicked-down, dark hair at the back of his head doesn't seem to fit with the light curls we see tumbling from under his cap in the front views (just above). However his eyes in 24 do match those in 31. In this and other pictures of Spike in Part 2, (e.g. 21, 22), he does have curls at the front, but it's layered elsewhere and fairly well greased (perhaps with a contemporary product called Brycreem) which would explain the darkening. 

1950's Hair Care (featuring cricket star, Dennis Compton)

 Spike's face also appears particularly different in 28 . However the distinctive hand-on-thigh pose he uses is also seen in the 'gloating pictures' 31 and 32, in NARO Part 1, picture 14  and in DTS03. The DTS picture gives us other circumstantial evidence for linking to Spike into both Romeo Parts 1 and 2 – it's the tiny tear on his right thigh which is also visible in both NARO 1 (10 ) and NARO 2 (21). Having said that, Spike is not the only man who wears these split trousers at Royale.

The best facial shots of Spike in Navy Romeo 1 are 09 and 14 but these are not very helpful in identifying him as Ned from DTS and Navy Gash. However the eye and cheek area seen in the rear, three quarter views in 03 and 04 could credibly be the same man we see in the gloating images of Navy Romeo Part 2. The tiny glimpse of his face reflected in the mirror in 08 is also unexpectedly persuasive, when seen in the original image.

Incidentally, Spike is wearing dark shoes in the Part 1 pictures e.g. 08, 14 and in the DTS thumbnail above. But he wears white shoes in the Garden trio also above and throughout Part 2. This tiny discontinuity supports the theory that Parts 1 and 2 were created in separate shoots.

SPIKE MILLICAN

But just when the identity issue seems (more or less) resolved up pops this...........

This reference implies 'Spike' is Spike Millican not Ned Willigan.

Royale Studios - Catalogue Thumbnail for set SPM

It's very hard to see the man in this thumbnail as the boyish Spike from the closing scenes of NARO 2 although he does have the same tousled hair at the front and the same distinctive cleft chin. 

His gaunt look here is rather like “Tom's” shocking appearance in the DTS04 bench trio but I'm pretty sure it's not that man. It's the same side lighting effect though and unusually for Royale, his whole crotch area is hidden in shadow bar a suggestive 'ridge'. From his face and stance it looks almost as though he's just had a bucket of water tossed over him. Or perhaps it's his modeling - or romantic - aspirations which have just been doused.

There are 2 possible, simple explanations for the names puzzle. 

What may have happened is that the writer for the catalogues has simply mixed up the names Willigan and Millican. That's easily done, these were probably not real names anyway and confusion would have been fueled by the similarity of both names to that of a very well-known, zany comedian of the time, Spike Milligan (famously one of 'The Goons'). His odd appearance and bizarre personality must have led to some joking at the expense of any model with a similar name. Indeed 'Spike' may a nickname based on this association, Millican certainly looks crazy enough to earn it in his solo photo above and Ned shows similar 'crazy' traits in his taunting of Ted tied to the tree. Thus it may be that Ned Willigan and Spike Millican are the same man and the SPM thumbnail is just a terrible portrayal of him.

Alternatively the curly-haired man in Navy Romeo is Ned Willigan and not Spike Millican and Millican's catalogue entry referencing Navy Romeo is simply incorrect. 

 Unfortunately I haven't been to dig out corroboration for this but sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that the Navy Gash catalogue description is not error-free either, check the words on the shirt there against the photo.