Notorious cinema murder Shooting that shocked city to become a film
IT is one of Bristol’s longestrunning murder mysteries – the unsolved killing of the manager of the Odeon cinema, who was gunned down in the office with the shots masked by gunfire in the film that was being watched by 2,000 people at the time.
And now, the story of the murder of Robert Parrington Jackson is being told in a new film, made by a young filmmaker who said he is amazed no one has made a movie about the murder before.
Alfie Skinner said he first read about the Odeon cinema murder of 1946 in a Bristol Post article, and said he wanted to turn it into a true crime drama film ever since.
The story shocked Bristol at the time, with speculation about what had been going on at what was then the biggest cinema in the city running rife as the police tried and failed to catch his killer. Mr Parrington Jackson was a 32-year-old father who had been an actor and radio presenter in the 1930s, and took over the running of the 2,000seat Odeon cinema on the corner of Union Street and Broadmead in 1939.
War broke out and he joined up, serving with the Royal Navy until he was demobbed. He had only recently returned to his role as the manager of the Odeon when, on May 29, 1946, the packed cinema settled down to watch a screening of a film called The Light That
Failed.
That was a film version of Rudyard Kipling’s story about an artist, Dick Heldar, who is shot in a British colonial war in Sudan and eventually goes blind. The 1939 film features gunshots in several places near the start of the film, and it was widely thought that the two shots fired in real life in Mr Parrington Jackson’s office shortly after the start of the film had been timed so that the sound would be masked by the movie soundtrack’s gunshots.
The cinema manager was soon found, lying in a pool of blood and groaning. One bullet had missed but another caused a head wound. During the film, a message was flashed up on the screen asking for a doctor to come and help, and he was rushed up to the Bristol Royal Infirmary, but died later that evening.
Police from nearby Bridewell Police Station were on the scene even before the film ended, and the screening was allowed to continue. In the subsequent days and weeks, it seemed everyone in Bristol had a theory about who had killed the cinema manager, with rumours of the jealous husbands or boyfriends of female members of cinema staff being suspects, or American sol
diers being involved, because the bullets fired in the office had come from a US Army-issue Colt .45.
Robbery had been largely ruled out at the time, because in Mr Parrington Jackson’s jacket pocket, the keys to the safe that held around £800 at the time – around £25,000 in today’s money – hadn’t been touched and the money was still all there.
Eventually, there were no firm leads and an American serviceman questioned over the killing was discounted, so police had to leave the case unsolved. In the following decades, Odeon staff and cinemagoers reported that the place was haunted – and that was presumed to be by the ghost of its tragic and dashing young manager.
There was one twist to the tale. In 1989, a long-time petty criminal from South Wales, known as Billy ‘The Fish’ Fisher, was dying. On his deathbed he reportedly confessed to his son Jeff, saying he had travelled to Bristol with an accomplice
Dukey Leonard, intending to rob the cinema while the film was being screened.
The pair got into the office with the safe, but Mr Parrington Jackson walked in on them and they panicked, fired a couple of shots and ran off. Mr Fisher told police about his father’s death-bed confession, but the case officially remains unsolved.
Now, South Bristol-based film maker Alfie Skinner, who grew up in Bedminster, Long Ashton and Cotham and is now based in Ashton Gate, is taking on the story in a short film. He’s studying for a film degree at UWE, and has written and is directing the short – and needs the help of people in Bristol and Bath.
“When I first read about the story in the Bristol Post I couldn’t believe no one had made a film to tell this story before – it’s an incredible and tragic story, with the shots being fired at the same time as shots being fired on the movie people were watching next door,” he said.
“I knew that I wanted to do something with this, and I wanted my first cinematic short to be an authentic Bristol story,” he added. The short film will be entitled A Shot In The Dark, and take the form of the story as told by those involved in the case – the staff and cinema-goers and police, with much of the script taken from or inspired by the police reports that Alfie has been poring over.
“I really wanted to get the narrative voices of those eye-witness accounts to tell the story from the perspective of those involved. We’re trying to put ourselves in the minds of those who were there, and by the end we wanted the audience to be second guessing everything,” he added.
Filming is taking place in two locations. The Little Theatre Cinema in Bath is doubling for the Odeon Cinema’s main auditorium, while The Raven cocktail bar in Bristol’s Old City is doubling for the foyer and bar of the cinema.
Alfie is looking for people who want to be extras to come forward and volunteer. The movie is being made on April 10-13 with another day’s filming on April 17.
He is also looking for anyone with 1940s clothes, props or scenery that could help create the sense of the Odeon in 1946, and A Shot in the Dark also has a crowdfunder for people who want to donate to help see the film get made.
“I’m really excited to get started on this, it’s going to be really good and hopefully tell this old Bristol story properly,” he added.
If you can help, email the producer tcoles2003@gmail.com