That Sinking Feeling

That Sinking Feeling is a 1979 Scottish comedy film written and directed by Bill Forsyth, his first film as a director. The film is set in his home city of Glasgow (the Calton, Bridgeton and Parkhead areas) in Scotland. The young actors in film were members of the Glasgow Youth Theatre. The film also features Richard Demarco, the Edinburgh gallery owner, playing himself. The four main actors went on to feature in Forsyth's following film Gregory's Girl.

This article is about the 1979 film. For other uses, see That Sinking Feeling (disambiguation).

That Sinking Feeling
Promotional movie poster
Directed byBill Forsyth
Written byBill Forsyth
Produced byBill Forsyth
Starring
CinematographyMichael Coulter
Edited byJohn Gow
Music byColin Tully
Production
companies
  • Glasgow Youth Theatre
  • Lake Films
  • Minor Miracle Film Cooperative
Distributed byGTO
Release dates
  • 28 August 1979 (1979-08-28) (Edinburgh)
  • October 1980 (1980-10) (UK)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryScotland
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10,000[1]
Box office$90,000[2]

Plot

Ronnie (Robert Buchanan), Wal (Billy Greenlees), Andy (John Gordon Sinclair) and Vic (John Hughes) are four bored, unemployed teenagers from Glasgow. One day, Ronnie comes up with the idea of stealing stainless steel sinks from a warehouse and selling them. Their plan involves dressing up as girls and using a strong tranquiliser ('stop-motion potion') on the driver of a bread van (Morton's Rolls).

During the robbery they encounter a ninja style thief (John Gordon Sinclair) who asks to join them. They steal 74 sinks but do not manage to sell many. Richard Demarco buys four in a pile as an artwork at the bargain price of £200.

They still have many to sell, still in the back of the bread van, when they accidentally take an identical van and end with a load of doughnuts. Meanwhile the heavily tranquilised van driver ends up in hospital, and it is thought he will awake in 2068.

Cast
  • Tom Mannion as The Doctor
  • Eddie Burt as Eddie the Van Driver
  • Richard Demarco as himself
  • Alex Mackenzie as The Tramp
  • Margaret Adams as Gang Girl
  • Kim Masterton as Gang Girl
  • Danny Benson as Policeman
  • Robert Buchanan as Ronnie
  • Drew Burns as Pete
  • Gerry Clark as the Night Watchman
  • Anne Graham as Computer Nurse
  • Billy Greenlees as Wal
  • John Hughes as Vic
  • Eric Joseph as The Wee Man
  • Allan Love as Alec
  • Derek Millar as Bobby
  • James Ramsey as Alan
  • Janette Rankin as Mary
  • Margaret McTear as Ward Nurse
  • Douglas Sannachan as Simmy
  • David Scott as Hi-Fi Salesman
  • John Gordon Sinclair as Andy
  • Tony Whitemore as Boy in Daimler
  • Tom Baxter as Boy in Boat
  • Hannah McKay as lady in phone box

Production

Forsyth said "I couldn't actually afford real actors, and I certainly hadn't had any experience working with them. So I asked the teenagers at a Glasgow community centre if they would appear in my movie at no pay. Actually, I promised them points in the film (a percentage of any profits)."[2]

Locations

Filming took place on location around the city of Glasgow; scenes featured locations such as Kelvingrove Park, Dennistoun, Springburn and Bishopbriggs railway stations, Cowcaddens, Sighthill, Whiteinch and Woodside. Allan Court (which was a building site at the time) in Gardenhall, East Kilbride was also used as a location for the night scene.

Dubbed soundtrack

The film was released in the United States four years after the United Kingdom, following the success of Gregory's Girl and Local Hero. For the American market, (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) the soundtrack was re-dubbed using more mainstream accents from Edinburgh.[3] The MGM version cost more to re-dub than the entire budget for the film itself.

Release

Critical reception

In 1987 Forsyth said the film earned $90,000, "and we still haven't seen any profit from it."[2]

Philip French, writing in The Guardian, described the premiere of That Sinking Feeling as "Among the happiest surprises of my years as a movie critic", writing that the arrival of the film marked Bill Forsyth as a "major new talent".[4]

Vincent Canby, in The New York Times wrote that "That Sinking Feeling doesn't have quite the panache of Gregory's Girl and Local Hero" but nonetheless praised it as "amiable", "funny" and "gentle".[5]

A review in Empire gave That Sinking Feeling four stars out of five, calling it "funnier, meaner and less wistful than [Forsyth's] subsequent successes".[6]

DVD release

In September 2009, a restored copy of the film was re-released on DVD by 2 Entertain. This has generated controversy however due to the use of the re-dubbed soundtrack, which had the effect of impinging upon the delivery of the dialogue and character of the film.[3]

The British Film Institute, through their Flipside arm, released the film on DVD and Blu-ray on 21 April 2014, with the original Glaswegian dialogue track restored. This release also featured an audio commentary by Bill Forsyth and critic Mark Kermode, as well as other short films Forsyth was involved with.[7]

References
  1. BILL FORSYTH TAKES A LOOK BACK IN LAUGHTER Robertson, Nan. New York Times12 Feb 1984: A.19.
  2. BILL FOSYTH'S OFFBEAT CONTRIBUTIONS ENRICH THE WORLD OF LOW-BUDGET FILMS Reich, Howard. Chicago Tribune 19 Sep 1985: 7.
  3. Jane Graham (9 October 2009). "That Sinking Feeling: The heist that stole an accent". guardian.co.uk.
  4. Philip French (18 May 2014). "That Sinking Feeling – Philip French on Bill Forsyth's brilliant 1979 debut". The Guardian.
  5. Vincent Canby (15 February 1984). "FILM: 'THAT SINKING FEELING'". The New York Times.
  6. William Thomas (1 January 2000). "That Sinking Feeling Review". Empire.
  7. "Bill Forsyth's That Sinking Feeling Detailed". 6 March 2014.
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