Film brilliantly captures town’s heart and soul
A BIG salute to film director, Jack Spring and his crew for capturing Grimsby’s heart and soul, as well as its shady side for the big screen in Three Day Millionaire.
It has hilarity, intrigue, high class deals, sex and drugs and a hefty catch of Grimsby’s fishing heritage.
Jack Spring recruited a fine cast of talented actors for this voyage into Grimsby’s dark underbelly of crime, dishonour among thieves and binge drinking.
Colm Meaney, playing unscrupulous docklands owner Mr Barr, is no stranger to crime movies, such as Layer Cake and Con Air. He starts off with a vision to sell the port down the river to Divine Residential in a multi-million pound deal, shafting all the workers and the last remaining fishing crew.
In one of the funniest scenes, he is involved in a bedroom romp with some assistance. It is not often you read Meaney and sex in the same story, let alone the same sentence. But he carries on brilliantly as the glory-seeking entrepreneur who has a change of heart, though still womanising and worshiping money.
His name check for the Grimsby Telegraph is appreciated. The paper also gave permission to producers to include headlines and articles from the town’s local newspaper recording the decline of the once world-beating fishing industry.
The plight of women folk during Grimsby’s fishing industry so-called glory days is well-reflected by a strong female cast of Melissa Batchelor who plays Demi, nicknamed Pitbull and Grace Long as Queenie and Lauren Foster as Gilly. As with all trawlermens’ families, their survival instincts kick in and show the ingenuity wives and daughters mustered to stave off hardship and suffering with husbands, dads and brothers at sea.
Jonas Armstrong, as Mr G, James Burrows, as Curly, Sam Glen as Budgie and Michael Kinsey as Codge are Grimsby’s answer to “Ocean’s Eleven” to become a hapless four-man crime syndicate, assisted by getaway driver Robbie Gee.
They need wits, daring and a bond of trust to carry out a heist of Barr’s stash of cash. But the result is bungle and betrayal, another reflection of Grimsby’s fishing past.
Superbly written by script writer, Paul Stephenson, Three Day Millionaire has peaks of laughter and joy, scandal and sordid drugfuelled antics, more akin to Grimsby’s back street alleys and the bedrooms of terraced homes.
Towering at 6ft 9in and an avid Grimsby Town fan, Spring has succeeded in showing Grimsby’s heart and soul and is applauded for filming entirely in the town capturing many of the town’s landmarks.
High praise too for cameraman Kris Bilski using a drone to capture the town’s moody skyline day and night. With so much Grimsby townscape, streets, clubs, bars and local people as extras, it might be advisable to go and watch Three Day Millionaire more than once or twice to spot the well-known people and places. Three Day Millionaire is a feelgood movie with a wonderful blend of local, national and international stars.
Thanks to the film, The Casablanca Club, The Ross Tiger, The Wine Pipe, Freeman Street, Grimsby Fishing Village, Fishermen’s Mission, Central Hall, North Wall and the docks will have a global audience. The drag act at The Casablanca is comedy genius.
Three Day Millionaire has a fantastic soundtrack culminating in the uplifting Waterboys classic “Whole of the Moon.”
There is also a chance other film makers and producers will spot the wealth of talent and locations the Grimsby area has to offer. Lord Puttnam achieved it with Memphis Belle using scores of Grimsby extras and Sacha Baron Cohen also visited Grimsby once. But he only used one local actor for “Grimsby.”
Three Day Millionaire has set the record straight. In contrast to Baron Cohen’s Leicester Square premiere when he wore a thong and bath robe and brandished a toy revolver, surrounded by scantily-clad women, smart-suited Spring invited his family and friends to the first world premiere held at Cleethorpes Parkway cinema. He was joined by the writer Stephenson and producer Giles Alderson.
They successfully navigated the coronavirus pandemic and steered the film throughout its inception in 2018 to a grand premiere at the end of 2022.
It has been a labour of love and deserves awards for brilliantly portraying the perseverance, pride and spirit that people feel in Grimsby. A legacy for Three Day Millionaire will be to see all the young people who took part in the film, pursue their ambition to be part of the growing British film industry. Its future is in the safe hands of Spring and crew.
Three Day Millionaire, released by Shush film company goes on general release from November 25 and Parkway cinema is the only filmhouse in the world showing it from now onwards.