Although this film is clearly a collaborative effort of the Leeds Mercury Movie Makers, and beyond, it has all the hallmarks of being the brainchild of Leeds amateur filmmaker, and all round inventor, Alan Sidi.  Alan was a member of Mercury Movie Makers, of which more can be read in the Context for A Vision Fulfilled (1982).  The credit for Group 16 is a reference to the fact that the club specialised in using 16 mm film (as opposed to 8 mm).  The group made many fine films, and many of them...

Although this film is clearly a collaborative effort of the Leeds Mercury Movie Makers, and beyond, it has all the hallmarks of being the brainchild of Leeds amateur filmmaker, and all round inventor, Alan Sidi.  Alan was a member of Mercury Movie Makers, of which more can be read in the Context for A Vision Fulfilled (1982).  The credit for Group 16 is a reference to the fact that the club specialised in using 16 mm film (as opposed to 8 mm).  The group made many fine films, and many of them can be seen on the YFA website.  As can be seen, this is a very ambitious film for amateur filmmakers to make, and there are many credits.

Among those credited is Reg White, a prominent member of MMM who donated the films, and who appeared on the recent Melvyn Bragg TV series, Reel History of Britain.  Keith Overend, Ken Leckenby and John Murray were all filmmakers in their own right who have donated sizeable collections of films to the YFA.  For more on the latter two see the Contexts for Out and About (1974) and Huddersfield International Club Opening Night (1968) respectively.

The dates for making the film can be determined by the date of the Daily Mail being read by one of the working class would-be thieves, with the headline “Spy Brothers Breakout”.  This refers to the two self-proclaimed British Government spies, brothers Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn, escaping from a top-security prison in Ireland where they were serving sentences for armed robbery, on 11th March 1974. Whilst the Yorkshire Post carried an article on the filming of the crash scene on 11th October 1974.  As well as this film, MMM also made a documentary film on the making of the crash scene in The Devil God, called Crash Spectacular.   The Context for this film provides more information on the making of The Devil God.

Members of both of the Leeds cine clubs made several comedy spoof films during the 1970s that can be related to commercial films or TV programmes of the time.  This one might be classed as a comedy thriller, using the traditional tropes of both the working class robbery and the more refined and sophisticated thief – reminiscent of David Niven in Casino Royale.  Bringing the two together is not altogether different to the Italian Job, with Michael Caine and Noel Coward as the working class and upper class thieves respectively.  The recent movie Flypaper has a similar plot of two lots of thieves arriving to steal from the same bank at the same time.

Knowing Alan Sidi, one wonders whether the unsophisticated plot was simply a way of him writing off his old car in glorious style!  He was known as someone who liked his classic cars, and took pride in them.   Alan was known for his sense of humour, as evidenced in several of his films, most notably in Too Many Cooks (1966), where he makes an appearance along with his wife and his two children, playing leading parts.  One of them, Fiona, turns up again here, acting very capably well above her actual age, as Chris, the wife of the sophisticated thief Dave.

The statue that is the object of the theft is probably also the result of Alan Sidi allowing his imagination to run free, bringing together all sorts of traditions in his usual comic way – it has a passing resemblance to the Devil as seen in the Codex Gigas (Giant Book, aka the Devil's Bible), crossed with Bugs Bunny.  The dynasty, judging by the name, seems to allude to Chinese history.  The nearest figure in Chinese culture resembling a god is the Shén, although here the closer connotation of spirit marks it out from the Old Testament portrayal of God that influences Christianity, Islam and Judaism.  The Chinese equivalent of the Devil, mogwai, also differs significantly from the Christian conception; itself a rather dubious notion even in Christianity, see the Context for And so to Hell (1956).  Statues of gods having curses aren’t that unusual, and neither are objects that are stolen becoming cursed – for a fairly obvious reason.

One of the standout features of the film is the musical soundtrack which gives it a great atmosphere and drama.   The odd piece out is the Arabian Dance from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite that accompanies the middle class couple in their home.  The rest is all provided by Pink Floyd’s avant garde double album Ummugama, which came out in 1969.  The use of this as a soundtrack may have been suggested by Keith Overend, who used Pink Floyd’s One of these Days (off the album Meddle) in one of his own films, This Horrid Place, also made in 1974. 

Whatever the source, it was surely inspirational in the way the driving rhythm of Set the controls for the heart of the sun perfectly matches the  speeding cars, whilst A Saucerful of Secrets creates a spooky night time atmosphere.  The two tracks, both from the live section of the album, have been blended together very cleverly in the film.  In fact Set the controls for the heart of the sun is apt also as the lyrics – though barely audible in the film – have allusions to both China and to greed.  The music for the crash comes from Sisyphus (a Richard Wright solo project), while the end is accompanied by the opening of The Grand Vizier's Garden Party (a Nick Mason solo project), with its allusions also to the east – both tracks from the studio set.   

Whoever suggested the soundtrack might have been influenced by Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1969 film on the counter-culture Zabriske Point, which used a modified version of Careful with that axe Eugene, another live track off Ummugama, titled Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up, which also accompanies an explosive ending – again replayed from different angles and in slow motion.  The voice of dj Fluff Freeman overheard on the radio, has a marginal connection too, as he attended Pink Floyd’s performance of Dark Side of the Moon before its release the previous year.  The music on the radio sounds as if it could be Paul Rogers while he was still with the band Free. 

Re-watching the film in 2008, Reg White and Alan Sidi were as animated and as excited as when they first made it.  And as well they might be, it shows the great delight that the amateur can have when let loose to indulge his or her imagination and use all of their talents.