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The
strange house: Debenham House, Addison
Road, Holland Park
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SECRET
CEREMONY filming locations
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CREDITS
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Weird
psychodrama from the gloriously self-indulgent tail
end of the sixties, with raven-wigged waif Mia
Farrow adopting blowsy Elizabeth
Taylor as a substitute mom.
This must be one of the few movies actually inspired
by its location. Director Joseph
Losey had long been fascinated by a bizarre house
in West Kensington and chose to film this oddball
melodrama here (though some interiors had to be recreated
in the studio).
The strange, brooding mansion, with tall chimneys
and startling turquoise tiles is Debenham
House, 8 Addison Road, between Holland
Park Avenue and High Street Kensington. The supremely
photogenic house was also seen in the colourful period
melodrama Trottie
True, the 1995 Richard
III and The Wings
of the Dove.
The area has to be the centre of London Gothic –
just around the corner in Melbury Road stood the house
where Michael
Powell filmed Peeping
Tom.
The bus ride is the 31 through Kentish
Town, north London.
The holiday scenes were filmed in Noordmeyer
on the Dutch coast.
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