Whip Duel added to the Archive

 

The dramatic 'Whip Duel' storyette has now been added to the archive.

There's an interesting background to this set which is developed at the Whip Duel index page

There's a connection with the film 'Song of Scheherazade', described in the previous post.

'Whip Duel' - inspired by 'Song of Scheherazade'

 In his blurb for the Royale Studio, photo storyette, 'Whip Duel', Basil Clavering compares the dramatic quality of his imagery with the Whip Fight scene in "Scherezade". This is a reference to the 1947 film 'Song of Scheherazade' starring Yvonne de Carlo and Brian Donlevy. It's a romanticised fantasy about a young Rimsky-Korsakoff being inspired to write his well-known musical suite whilst on a visit to Morocco when he was serving in the Russian Navy.

This contemporary poster includes an image of the whip fight (top right) between the young Rimsky-Korsakov and one of his shipmates over the honour of 'Cara', whom he wants to take back to Russia with him. The scene featured heavily in the official publicity stills and posters at the time (some of which are reproduced below) but for some reason, current synopses of the plot don't even mention it. I had to look up the film itself to find out more about it.

The scene starts with Rimsky-Kosakoff (right) trying to negotiate a way of smuggling his girlfriend aboard the ship to take her back home with him. His shipmate refuses to play ball and in the argument that follows he insults her, calling her a 'pick-up'. I think the whip he's holding (there's another one somewhere!) is connected with the mandatory 'ballet sequence' (see below).

Having got themselves thoroughly worked up, the protagonists prepare for the fight by standing nose to nose and taking it in turns to progressively discard trappings such as caps and sword belts, which they dramatically fling aside. This procedure is not without erotic overtones of course. Sadly though they don't get as far discarding any interesting clothes, not even their shirts, although bare chested fights weren't uncommon in movies of this era. 

Clavering may have been moved to emulate this introductory, confrontation scene in his storyette, the sailor's cap can certainly be seen lying on the floor in one picture, but I haven't found any pictures that explicitly confirm the existence of  such a sequence.  

If you want to see beef in this film you have to wait for the fantasy entertainment scene, which shows Yvonne de Carlo impassively seducing a sexy sultan, just a Scheherazade does in the 'Tales of the 1001 Arabian Nights'. The unsavoury sexual context and institutional, honour killing that underpins the story is usually glossed over in books for kids of course, but it finds a disturbing, modern echo in the 'honour' row that fuels the sailors' whip fight in this film.

The only other beef on the menu is Brian Donlevy who plays the Captain of the ship. Apparently he was told by the director to shave his chest for the bare top scene. That's an interesting exercise of power that is not without erotic interest in itself, particularly when the man ordered to shave has such a macho image. His incongruous, unshaved arms seen here - a protest perhaps - highlight what a fool he has been obliged to make of himself.

Donlevy looks much better with his clothes on, but the film's portrayal of the Captain is a weird mix of butch, sophisticated (an avid chess enthusiast) and plain camp (cigarette holder and frilly bed hangings - not to mention the hand on hip pose!). No wonder his crew are given to extravagant romantic gestures.

The whip fight itself is a spirited affair, recognisably Hollywood in style with wholesale destruction of the surroundings. It's dramatic nevertheless and reasonably convincing with a couple of blows seeming to land realistically. There's a still on the internet that shows Jean Pierre Aumont (who plays Rimsky-Korsakoff, right) being taught how to handle a whip for the film.

At one point Rimsky-Korsakoff is knocked to the ground by a blow and is unable to defend himself against some ruthless blows. Clavering's interest in corporal punishment is evident in much of the Royale Studio's output and documented in the biography of John Barrington (source ref 101), so it's easy to see how he might have got excited about this imagery. 

Unlike Royale's storyette, no clothes get torn by whip lashes in the movie, but a wall hanging does. That little detail might have helped to inspire Clavering although it's not clear whether he actually saw the film. His storyette description suggests he took his inspiration from stills published in the 'Picture Post' (probably those shown here). His job as a cinema manager would lead you to think he must have viewed such a notorious scene at the time it first appeared, but in 1959, 10 years later, it would have been next to impossible for him to view it again unless it popped up on TV and even then, in the absence of video recorders, he would have been obliged to rely on those magazine clippings and his memory to compose his visuals for 'Whip Duel'.

This poster was dedicated to a less explicit crop of the 'grounded' image. Clearly the film's publicists also saw the scene as a useful bit of sensationalism which they could exploit. The film was a success at the box office but a critical failure. 

Read about Royale Studios 'Whip Duel'

110 Denbigh St (updated July 2024)

 Updated 20/7/24 with more information about the use of the house and garden

110 Denbigh St in 2022
click to enlarge

110 Denbigh St (seen in the middle of the picture above with the black door) was Royale Studio's base for the whole of it's existence from 1957-1962. According to the electoral register, it was Basil Clavering's home from 1957 to 1965. 

There's good evidence that Basil set up a studio there, reputedly in the cellar, but image 2 from the Whip Duel set suggests it was just a room in the main house. The genuine cellar shots that appear in Unapproved School, Part 2 and Escape probably led to this confusion, but were too small to accommodate backdrops and props. 

It's also claimed that Basil used the garden of No 110 for his photos, but this is very unlikely

 -  see separate section below.

Royale Studio Advertisement in 'Tomorrow's Man' magazine (1958)

When Dolphin Photography (later Hussar) was split off in 1960 they set up shop elsewhere in Golden Square. It's not known if the Dolphin pub seen at the right in the picture above had anything to do with the naming of Dolphin photography. There was bomb damage here during the blitz (see below) and it's a newish replacement building but could possibly be as early as the 1960's. Apparently there was formerly a 'New Dolphin' on the same site. Dolphin Square, once described as the most notorious address in London is just round the corner.

The house is situated in the Pimlico area of London, just north of the river and about 15 minutes walk from the Houses of Parliament, Tate Gallery and Buckingham Palace. The grand houses with room for servants tell you it was an upmarket area in the 1700-1800's, but by the 1930's many of the houses were split into rented rooms. Quentin Crisp in 'The Naked Civil Servant', relates how he rented such a room in Denbigh St as his first, unshared home. By Clavering's time, the nearby area around Victoria Station was notoriously seedy and home to the (then) infamous Biograph Cinema. 

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The 'Garden' Location(s?)

Basil uses outdoor 'garden' shots in these early photo sets:

• Unapproved School (Part 2) link pending
• Navy Romeo (Part 2)
• Captivity/Escape 
• Solo sets of Tibor Urgay, David Reid, Mike Scudder.

However, a modern aerial view of the house (outlined below in red) 

doesn't show very much garden at all at the property. 

Click here to enlarge

The small garden is bounded at either side by similar, Denbigh St properties and at the end by mews houses. These would have been coach houses for the property originally and for that reason align exactly with them physically and chronologically. Most were converted into residences and sold off when carriages fell out of use but they still formed the boundary of No 110's garden in Basil's time. 

This area sustained bomb damage during the war. The map below from Bomb Sight shows that 3 fell at the front of the property and 2 in the mews behind it. 

Click to enlarge

I don't think these bombing locations can be exact but it's been reported elsewhere that bombs fell directly on the mews buildings. However the same site describes what is there today as 'original surviving' and they don't appear to be modern rebuilds, so it's likely that these bombs were responsible for the large open space seen in the lower part of the aerial picture which includes the site of the post-war built Dolphin pub two doors down from No 110. It's possible that Basil had an undeveloped bomb site on his doorstep in 1957 but it's unlikely that it could have formed the elegant garden shown below in 'Unapproved School' (Part 2) and also used in 'Captivity/Escape', let alone the mature orchard-like woodland which was the setting for 'Navy Romeo (Part 2).

Unapproved School (Part 2)

This garden looks far too manicured to be an old bomb site. It looks like a public space such as a park but the availability of a functioning hose pipe and privacy considerations seem to rule that out. 

The brochure for the Colville Exhibition says Royale pictures "were taken in the basement of Clavering's home in Chelsea". This conflicts with other accounts which specify Pimilico. Colville don't mention the garden. Interestingly, when Basil died, his address was given as Chelsea. That house does have a garden, but not a very big one and I don't know if he owned it when he was living in Denbigh St.  

Before moving to Denbigh St, Basil lived briefly in 'Riverside', a road in rural Wraysbury. I have located the specific house (which at that time had a name, 'Halcyon', not a number) and it does have a big garden. The garden setting only appears in Royale's early pictures, so it's conceivable Basil was working on his Royale project while he was living there, then moved back to London to start up the business. 

Doug Strohl by George Greenwood ca 1958

Recently I came across this photograph of Doug Strohl taken by George Greenwood who owned the publication 'Man's World'. It was taken in the grounds of Man's World headquarters at 'The Manor House' in Worcester Park, Surrey. The flowers and fence seen in the background have a passing resemblance to the garden seen in 'Unapproved School' just above, unfortunately I haven't found a better view of the fence although Greenwood took lots of pictures at this spot. The brickwork is part of some steps which are right in front of the house, so it would be feasible to rig up a hosepipe. 

click to enlarge

This is the aerial view of The Manor House today (much altered at the rear according to it's Heritage listing). You can see it's bounded by a large area of parkland and trees. Many of Greenwood's photos show models perched on fallen boughs with lawn and trees in the distance and may well have been taken here too. 

By itself this is flimsy evidence for Royale's garden images but there was also a degree of connection between Greenwood and Royale. Doug Strohl in the picture above posed for Royale as well as Greenwood and they 'shared' other models too. More significantly, Man's World' (Greenwood's 'house' magazine) was the very first publication to print any of Royale's pictures, in December 1957. They continued to print them, often several images a month, right through to mid 1961 at least. I haven't found records after this but this is suggestive of cordial relations between them. 

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Other Outside Locations

UNAP1-18

Whilst it's almost certain that the garden images were not taken at Denbigh St, it is possible, that the house itself was used to photograph the last two, outdoor images in Part 1 of  'Unapproved School' which show (above and below) the two captives trying to escape by scaling outbuildings. 

The corner arrangement above is typical of 19th century terraced housing in Britain, where an angle is formed between the main part of the house and an extension at the rear which typically housed a kitchen. It was narrower than the rest of the building to allow for a rear window in the breakfast room, such as that seen on the right here. In the aerial photo you can see extensions like this clearly on all the Denbigh St houses and the place where this picture might have been taken.

The aerial picture (earlier) seems to show that the rearward extension at 110 Denbigh St is only one story high* just like this building. However the corrugated roof in this picture suggests it was an outbuilding rather than part of a house used as a home. Basil could afford to get his roof repaired! 

The gable end and church tower (?) seen in the distance don't seem to fit with the present day topography of the Denbigh St area. Therefore it seems unlikely that this picture was taken at Denbigh St and so the preceding one probably wasn't either. There is a church with a plain square tower next door to the Worcester Park building but it's not obviously the one in this picture.

There's another suggestion for the location of these images in the comments at the foot of this post

Incidentally, if this was Basil Clavering's property the security precautions are formidable! 

That barbed wire seems to be part of the storyline for Part 2 of the storyette.

~

Interior Locations

*In the Denbigh St aerial picture, there's a small first floor extension sitting on top of the kitchen, which typically would house a toilet or bathroom, maybe it's the one we see in Navy Gash.

~

I am indebted to P.M., who carried out all the research into where Basil Clavering lived

Article originally published 13/07/2023

2 Models Fleshed Out

Yves Grangeat - nude by John Barrington

 The Yves Grangeat story has been fleshed out with the addition of a group of pictures of him posing naked with his friend Gino, these join the 'Barrington Nudes' set. 

Also pictures of him with clothes on in a tidy-up of the Yves Grangeat index page

Pete Beale posing as a PT Instructor

The images in the Pete Beale solos set have been further enhanced to improve the presentation 

and there has been a complete overhaul of the Pete Beale Index Page to match the standard format.

His PBTI set with Tibor Urgay has been added to the Gallery.