Hell Is a City: the making of a cult classic - in pictures

The Refuge Assurance building (now the Palace hotel) on the corner of Oxford Street and Whitworth Street was a key location in the film's climactic chase sequence. Here, lead actor Stanley Baker stands in front of its famous clock tower Photograph: StudioCanal

The crew perch precariously on the Refuge building's roof as they film Baker – who plays Inspector Harry Martineau – and John Crawford fighting on a parapet Photograph: StudioCanal

Baker (shown here looking through the camera), one of Britain's biggest box-office draws in the late 1950s and early 1960s, was also a keen student of cinematic arts. He would go on to produce a string of films, including Zulu (1964) and Robbery (1967) Photograph: StudioCanal

Baker in conference with director Val Guest, who was responsible for many homegrown films that have since become cult classics, including The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Expresso Bongo (1959) and The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961). The white mark in the sky isn't a plane, but an original crop mark left from when the picture was first used Photograph: StudioCanal

Back on the roof of the Refuge building, Baker adds some fake blood to his shirt Photograph: StudioCanal

Billie Whitelaw is placed in the correct position for an in-studio bedroom scene by director Guest. Crawford is standing next to Guest, opposite Whitelaw – who went on to a sparkling theatrical career as a regular collaborator with Samuel Beckett Photograph: StudioCanal

Baker fixes his tie during a break in the filming of the rooftop chase Photograph: StudioCanal

Lois Daine, who played bookie's daughter Cecily Wainwright, touches up between takes. Hell Is a City was her first screen credit Photograph: StudioCanal

Baker takes Daine's pulse – as a joke – as they prepare to shoot a scene. Daine's character has just been murdered and dumped on the moor Photograph: StudioCanal

An early example of product placement? Baker downs some liquid refreshment on the Refuge roof Photograph: StudioCanal

Baker looking casual outside Errwood House, the exterior location of the Hawkins house where Don Starling hides out. It's in the Levenshulme area of the city Photograph: StudioCanal