ON LOCATION

REEL SPOTS BEHIND THE CAMERA

WHAT?

In period horror Witchfinder General (1968), Matthew Hopkins (Vincent Price) oversees the burning of Elizabeth (Maggie Kimberly) in a town square.

WHERE?

The Guildhall, Lavenham, Sudbury, Suffolk

GO?

The Lavenham Guildhall is a National Trust property steeped in almost five centuries of history, with both a religious and an industrial past (it famously produced dyed cloth), and can be visited all year round, though it isn’t open every day. Kubrick’s masterpiece Barry Lyndon and, um, TV’s Lovejoy were also filmed in and around the Guildhall.

IS IT BOLLOCKS?

Buff investigates the facts behind movie true stories.

SPOILER ALERT!

Q In reality, was the Von Erich family so beset by a tragic ‘curse’ that four out of five Von Erich brothers died by early adulthood?

As any biopic must, Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw condenses events for a feature-length running time. The Von Erichs (real surname: Adkisson) faced a truly unfathomable amount of tragedy, with firstborn son Jack Jr. dying as a child, David (Harris Dickinson) and Mike (Stanley Simons) dying in their 20s, and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) dying at 33. While it’s true that Kevin (Zac Efron) is the last surviving brother, the film doesn’t include an additional real Von Erich brother, Chris, who also died (like Mike and Kerry, by suicide). Durkin has said in an interview with Vulture that, ‘The movie just couldn’t withstand another brother’s death.’ Some of the brothers’ wives and children are also left out for narrative and pacing purposes, but upsettingly, there’s further tragedy to unearth there: David and his first wife lost a daughter in infancy. The truth is sadder than fiction, to appropriate a cliché.

VERDICT MOSTLY NOT BOLLOCKS

Want us to investigate if a movie scenario is bollocks or snapped yourself at a film location? Contact us at [email protected]

ALTERNATIVE BOX OFFICE

The biggest movies… STARRING HILARY SWANK

01 MILLION DOLLAR BABY 2004............................................................ $216.8M

02 P.S. I LOVE YOU 2007 .................................................................................. $156.8M

03 NEW YEAR’S EVE 2011 .................................................................................... $142M

04 THE CORE 2003 ................................................................................................ $73.5M

05 THE REAPING 2007 .......................................................................................$62.8M

06 THE BLACK DAHLIA 2006 ........................................................................ $49.3M

07 LOGAN LUCKY 2017 .......................................................................................$48.5M

08 THE GIFT 2000..................................................................................................$44.6M

09 FREEDOM WRITERS 2007 ......................................................................... $43.1M

10 BOYS DON’T CRY 1999 ................................................................................. $20.7M