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The Green Helmet. 1961, stars Bill Travers, Ed Begley, and Megs Jenkins " ... But once we invaded by a high-handed gatecrashing film company that, having been granted permission for the early morning photographing of static racing cars against a selected background only, proceeded to take over the whole village centre for the day to stage a hair-raising motor racing sequence in some story set in Italy. I myself knew nothing of it, until, going over after tea, I found buses and technical vehicles parked outside the Gate House and pandemonium reigning within. Challenged by one of the policemen hired to keep the "racecourse" clear, I asked what on earth was happening, as well I might. I soon discovered. The Salutation was draped with Italian flags - Italian advertisements disfigured its walls and windows, straw bales were stacked around the drive's bend as crash barriers in an approved Monte Carlo style and indeed, one way and another, a vaguely authentic Italian atmosphere had been quite skillfully achieved. Of course there were those who much enjoyed the whole unexpected and wholly unauthorized to-do; but it upset all normal arrangements and, in spite of the company's elaborate policing and other precautions, was nonetheless potentially really dangerous. There was, in fact, one quite nasty accident and another near one, and, briefly, I was not amused. " -- Clough Williams-Ellis, p. 78-79, Portmeirion, the Place and Its Meaning. |