Clifton

The Clifton Cinema in Wolverhampton, started life as the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1865 and over the years was known as ‘The Star’, ‘The Hippodrome’ or, as it was known locally, ‘The Blood Tub’.  No, not because it showed horror movies but because it was built on, or near, the site of an old slaughter house! It was converted into a cinema in 1931 and by 1948 had became the Clifton Cinema. Bingo took over in 1966 but in 1978 the building was declared unsafe and demolished. Old and often smelling of flea powder, this was a cinema to die for if you enjoyed horror films! so it wasn’t really odd that although I’d seen films in the ABC, Odeon and Gaumont during my childhood, I’d never visited the Clifton. However even before I started paying to watch movies, I’d always been thrilled by it’s display of posters and stills, which always seemed to be horror/fantasy. The poster for a film with the title of ‘Varan: The Unbelievable’ had fascinated me in particular, however it would be perhaps 12 months before I eventually walked into the foyer and purchased my first ticket there.  80% of what they screened were reissues, among those gems were,  ‘Frankenstein’s Daughter’, ‘How To Make A Monster’, ‘Attack Of The Puppet People’, ‘Attack Of The Crab Monsters’, ‘Mr Sardonicus’, ‘Corridors Of Blood’,  ‘Invasion Of The Saucer Men’, and many many more. One of the first double bills I ever saw there was ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ & ‘Premature Burial’!! Any new film they screened had most likely been rejected by the big circuits ABC & Rank, but were just up my street. Films like ‘I Married A Werewolf’, ‘The Crawling Hand’, ‘Horror Of Party Beach’,’ Duel Of The Space Monsters’, ‘Reptilicus’, to name but  a few, as well as vast quantities of ‘Sword & Sandal’ movies. This was another cinema that showed regular Sunday only double bills, but as it was directly opposite the ABC I could easily manage to see both sets!! This was the only cinema I frequented that also had Monday for three days and Thursday for three days programming! So some weeks  I could see as many as six films at the Clifton alone. They did have some ‘classic reruns’ too, like ‘The Wages of Fear’ with Yves Montand, and ‘The Fiends’ with Simone Signoret, they also had their fair share of ‘adult’ films too, so it wasn’t unusual to find a film like ‘Nude Camera’ (a nudist film) being shown as the other half of a double bill, along with a horror. This cinema was almost my second home, and provided me more 40’s and 50’s movies than any other movie theatre I’ve visited in my entire life! My patient and understanding Mother often supplied entrance monies. The only film I can remember missing out on was a film called ‘The H-Man’, just because it didn’t sound very promising, but which I later discovered was a Science Fiction/Horror from Japan’s Toho Studios, from 1958. I now own the DVD and Blu-ray.