Of all the promotional films made by local councils to promote their new towns, one soars above all the others in terms of ambition, imagination and sheer brazen camp. Cumbernauld Hit was made in 1977 by the new town's development corporation. When I interviewed some of the original architects and planners from the corporation for Concretopia they immediately regretted mentioning it. Unlike Gregory's Girl, the town's other notable film, Cumbernauld Hit is a rather bizarre affair. taking a cue from the megastructure that formed the town centre, the film became a comedy action thriller in the vein of The Italian Job, with a super-villain attempting to hold the town to ransom. When that villain is played by Fenella Fielding the result was never in doubt: how could the windswept modernist hill town resist the seductive stylings of the Carry On veteran? With helicopter shots, be-flared henchmen and a wucka-wucka soundtrack, Cumbernauld Hit is a public information film for the Confessions age. And it's gloriously good fun.
↧