The Starfish

In deepest, darkest Cornwall lurks a nasty sea witch called Meg who pursues innocent holiday-making children from London. A local fisherman comes to the rescue, but will he be able break her evil spell in time? Triple Oscar winning John Schlesinger made this film together with Alan Cooke, who went on to become an illustrious TV director, when they were both undergraduates at Oxford University.

As students the duo had previously made Black Legend (1948), their very low-budget take on the film noir genre. The Starfish was shot in Cadgwith on the Lizard Peninsula in the south west of Cornwall. Schlesinger and Cooke chose the location because it was an unspoilt fishing village and the locals were receptive to the film crew and some of them were happy to be recruited as members of the cast. A contemporary Sight and Sound review gives the locals' performances credit: "As the young fisherman Kenneth Grifftiths indulges in over-calculated mannerisms that the simple and effective playing of the local folk, and the children, show up badly". Griffiths had previous appeared in Bond Street (1948) and Blue Scar (1949). He later gained a reputation as a maverick actor/director, which didn't escape the attention of BBC2 head David Attenborough, who threw some important controversial historical film commissions his way.