Police Box Obsession

[simonharries]

This isn't about obsession with police boxes (though that's no bad thing - I've certainly got it!) but the police box which appears in the 1949 Robert Newton movie "Obsession". A constable runs down a cobbled street up to a box shrouded in darkness; as he enters, the light comes on... The briefest shot, but worth a look. It's clearly some kind of prop - the sign box has a Roman font, while the windows are glazed simply, almost like the 2005 TV series box. Thought it might be of interest anyway...

[Rassilons Rod]

City of Death, fab stuff, but I reckon that Tom Baker lost it a bit when he went for the purple look (if our esteemed moderator will forgive the opinion).

Anyhow - the Soane family tomb (or stone telephone box):

I'm no mod, but I've always loved theburgundy outifit. A bit of a dress uniform I grant you. But I loved it then and I love it now!

[Scarfwearer]

.... and the door looks like it opens inwards like a TARDIS - apparently on the real boxes it always opened outwards. Or so I've been told...

Fascinating!

Crispin

[ironageman]

Yet they thought to put a St John sign on the thing. I wonder whether it's meant to be a London box or a generic one (it's a bit like a Leeds box) - where is 'Obsession' set, please?

[simonharries]

London. The action takes place in Robert Newton's expensive house, his club and his blitz-damaged cellar hideout where he tries to poison and murder his wife's lover... Naunton Wayne is the terribly naice detective who trecks him dewn!

[ironageman]

Sounds like good stuff. Here's a still from The Ladykillers (1955) showing a fake red telephone box -

- so it was evidently standard practice to go to the trouble of mocking these up rather than using the real thing. I wonder why.

[Scarfwearer]

Here's a still from The Ladykillers (1955) showing a fake red telephone box -

Definitely a fake red

Crispin

[Mark]

Interesting that the lights come on when the doors are opened, just like the Cushing prop.

As for using prop red phone boxes, I think it's just the same as policemen, there's never one about when you need one!

they used a prop telephone box in "Rose", when the TARDIS materialises on the embankment opposite the London Eye.

[kiwidoc]

And in the goodbyes sequence of NewEarth - each time it's just a blur in the background..

[chriskingbees]

Hi All
First, thanks Simon, I'd seen that film years ago but didn't know the title.
Next. Now we are in KB and son's home soil here. The Kiosk in Ladykillers is indeed a prop but the design is that of a concrete k3 and therefore should be white with red glazing bars, although it is red in the film.
Next prop kiosks in DW
This is Remembrance and is a prop, though a very good one



Close up the bars aren't even level



Next Resurrection and a GRP k8



Not so much a fake, more of a cheap copy that is used by gatemen and such like.
There's lots of other instances in the programme of phone boxes and in general it seems that if it is used by an actor/ess then it's a prop. i.e. The Daemons has a real k6 by the green.
My son, Robert_punk is something of an expert on phone boxes and he can spot a prop a mile off.
Sorry to go on
Many thanks
KB

[robertpunk]

Another prop in Ladykillers, not that the sign says Box and not Post

[policeboxnut]

Going back to that Obsession thing - the original police boxes that were launched on to London's streets to promote them and as such were not the final cut as it were, had Roman font...although thinking about it, they only said police.
I don't know why people don't spend a few more minutes thinking these things through before building props. I mean the 2005 box could have been spectacular and it was so nearly there but then they made the squares too square and too big. If the stiles had been thicker and the squares smaller it would have been the most accurate Tardis to date. Every box so far has been just a little bit off in terms of accuracy as far as the original Met box is concerned. Even the Earls Court box isn't quite right. If the windows were original and it sat a little bit taller out of the ground it would have been perfect. Oh well...

[policeboxnut]

Sorry - went off topic - ranting...

[purpleblancmange]

For me, there has always been a difference between a Police Box and the Doctor's TARDIS - I see the shapes as two entirely different things, although they are a variation on a theme.

The 2005 prop could have been a hell of a lot different, as many people here will know.  The reason it's taller and chunkier now is because this stemmed from a conversation with Ed Thomas and the external contractors who were bidding for the build job - it was them who said it should be bigger and this idea was carried over after they left the project.

One of the best things about building replica TARDISes is that it is so forgiving to the builder's own preferences as to which details they like - just look around here and see how different our replicas are - not one of them is identical to a TV prop... and that is just so great!

Now, if I were building a Police Box prop for a period drama, then that would be a different matter entirely - I'd aim to make it as accurate as could be.

EDIT:  The Remembrance phone box prop... I have a feeling that is one of the replicas that were cast off of an actual piece of street furniture - and if I'm right, it was done by Once Upon a Way Trading Limited, who also did that hideous Police Box (the pattern for which they built from scratch, as you can tell). 

[chriskingbees]

Hi
Yes Purp I'm sure you're right about the k6 mould which makes Robert's prop spotting skill all the more amazing.
I've got mixed feelings about the new series prop. I thought that, given the budget and expert help they had (And chose to ignore ) they'd get it bang on. Maybe they wanted to give the tardis it's own identity. New viewers have thier own tardis now, as it were, and that must be a good thing and after all there is masses of merchandise surrounding it. Of course I'm hopelessly biased of to the met box, but the tardis has grown on me over the last two years. Having said that, as the politicians say, I'm not ever going to get used to that lamp
Many thanks
KB