Brighton v Southampton FAC?

[derby1884]

Set in Brighton in the early 60s, the movie "Jigsaw" stars Jack Warner as a detective who had procured a stand ticket for the "big Cup tie" between Brighton and Southampton, only to find his Saturday afternoon disturbed by the discovery of a dismembered body in a trunk in a cottage in Saltdean.

Excellent (and rather groundbreaking) movie it may well be, but I was wondering whether the Cup tie itself was made up by the screenwriter or whether it had actually taken place.

Everything else in the movie is based upon reality (including the subject matter) so I thought it might be possible.

Ever since the Statto website disappeared I never know where to (reliably) look up these things.
Anyone tell me for sure?

(Jack st Saltdean looking suitably perturbed)

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[Five and In]

The Head to Head sites usually help, but I struggled to find much at all for Brighton v Southampton.
Had a look at season by season results for Southampton from 1959 to 1970 and no mention of an FA Cup tie with Brighton.

[derby1884]

As I suspected!

Thanks for trying though.
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[Pete’s Picture Palace]

The only FA Cup ties between these clubs were on:-

15th Jan 1910 at Brighton
31st Jan 1925 at Southampton
8th March 1986 at Brighton

This is the link to the very helpful 11v11 site:-

https://www.11v11.com/teams/southampton/tab/opposingTeams/opposition/Brighton%20and%20Hove%20Albion/

[Five and In]

Pete’s Picture Palace wrote:

This is the link to the very helpful 11v11 site:-

Nice one Pete.
That's the site I've been trying to re-find for ages.
For some reason I thought it was called head to head of which there are several, but none as good as 11 v 11.

[derby1884]

That's definite, then!

I wonder what the ticket was that Jack Warner waved in front of his guv'nor on the Saturday morning?

No matter, that's one less marble rolling around my cranium now.
Thanks, guys.
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[BHA1]

Albion 3 Southampton 5, 28th April 1962 by Tim Carder

No one can surely imagine Albion succumbing 5-3 at home to Southampton, yet it did happen in the very watchable British film Jigsaw. The film is viewable on the video-sharing website YouTube.

Shot in black and white, written and directed by Val Guest, Jigsaw is a crime drama that follows the detective work involved in solving a murder after a woman’s body is found in a lonely house. Great play is made of the modern technology - radios, telex machines, identikits - and forensics.

Jack Warner plays Detective Inspector Fred Fellows, Ronald Lewis is Detective Sergeant Jim Wills, and there are plenty of other familiar faces. The acting is good and the screenplay first-class in a low key way.

But while it’s a good film in its own right, what makes it a “classic” for me is the location shooting in Brighton, Lewes and surrounding areas. (The isolated house, while said to be in Saltdean, is actually in the still-unmade road known as The Highway at the eastern end of Peacehaven, opposite the Rushy Hill caravan site.)

When we first meet Det Insp Fellows he is very much looking forward to going to the big football match. “Oh sergeant, ever seen a gold nugget?” he asks, proudly displaying a slip of paper.
“No Sir.”
“Well here’s the day’s equivalent. Third row, block C, 3:15 kick-off.”
“Should be quite a match, sir.”
“Yeah, we’ll have the hide off ‘em!”
As Fellows walks along the police station corridor, he hears: “The supe’s [superintendent] looking for you Fred.”
“I know. He’s probably heard about my ticket!”
After assigning Fellows to assist Det Sgt Wilks with a commercial burglary, the superintendent says: “It could have been worse, you know. I could have asked you to miss that football.”
Fellows’ instant reply is: “In which case I might have had to bring my retirement forward!”
When Wilks offers to hand the entire case to Fellows, the senior man responds: “It’s your case and my rest day. And come two o’clock you’ll be doing your own duty as an upstanding and promising member of the police force. Right?”
“Right sir.”
“And I’ll be getting ready to watch the kick-off.”

However, the investigation leads to the discovery of a body. Fellows, who will now have to miss the game, hands evidence to Wilks. “Oh, get these off to the lab, will you: brunette hair, some grains of face powder. They may be able to locate them.” The sergeant also takes the match ticket. “Not that!”
“Looks like Brighton’ll have to play without their cheerleader,” says Wilks, smiling.
“”I don’t see what’s so funny about that. I paid over the odds for this.”
“Uncle Fred, as an upstanding member of the police force, wasn’t that rather unethical?” asks Wilks in mock admonition.
“No more unethical than you calling me ‘Uncle Fred’ when I’m an inspector on duty”
“I’m sorry sir,” says Wilks, himself admonished.
“You’re not half as sorry as I am!” says the man who is now going to miss the big event at the Goldstone.

Later on, Fellows walks to Brighton Town Hall which then housed the police station. He buys an Argus from Joe, a seller outside Bartholmews who comments, “I see we’ve had another murder.”
“You can say that again. Five-three on our own ground. That’s not a murder, that’s a massacre!”

Back at the site of the killing the two detectives find some writing imprinted onto a notepad: the written sheet has been removed. As Fellows employs an old trick to display the writing, Wilks comments: It’ll probably say ‘Two pints of milk please’.”
Fellows bemoans: “As long as it doesn’t say ‘Brighton 3 Southampton 5’.”
And that’s it as far as Det Insp Fellows and his missed Albion match are concerned. But when was this fictional game?

The script refers to Thursday, 19th April, as the Thursday before Easter - and that’s exactly what happened in 1962, the year the film was made. Later on, there are comments that make it clear the investigation is taking place a week after Easter. As kick-off was 3:15pm, we can pinpoint the date: Saturday, 28th April 1962.

In reality, Albion had already drawn at home to Southampton at the Goldstone that season, a 0-0 draw in February 1962. Bottom-of-the-table Albion were at Derby County on the day in question, 28th April, and they lost 2-0 in their last Second Division match for ten years. And although I wasn’t yet watching the Albion then, I suspect Jigsaw may have been more enjoyable than the whole of that 1961/62 season. Thoroughly recommended!

[derby1884]

Great write-up, thanks. Didn't realise it was Peacehaven and not Saltdean.

I fear the movie has now been removed from YouTube but is still available on Vimeo and/or Daily Motion.

May have been based on the true-life case of Tony Mancini, who committed a similar crime in 1934 in Brighton.

He was acquited at trial that year at Lewes Assizes but, 42 years later, admitted that he'd done it.
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