In April 1965 the Eccles Journal reported that 17-year-old shop assistant Patricia Bent was to appear as the love interest in an American cowboy civil war drama.
Billed as Britain’s first western, ‘A Man Called Slade’ was written by Noel Evans from Urmston and tells the story of an American army officer who returns home after the Civil War, with Patricia playing one of three sisters in this gripping western epic.
For this demanding role the teenager, who was living on Northfleet Road in Peel Green at the time, had to learn to ride a horse, fire a six-shooter and speak with an American accent.
A company called Four Guns Production Company – an amateur group with associations to the Mancunian Colt Fast Draw Club – planned to make the 45-minute film.
Scenes were being shot in an indoor studio in Manchester and the rolling plains of North Wales for authenticity.
Patricia was taking this movie role seriously after a chance meeting with Noel Evans and was spending two weekends and two evenings a week having horseriding lessons in the badlands of Wythenshawe.
As a former pupil of Winton County Secondary School this could be her big chance for Hollywood fame and fortune, as she told the Eccles Journal.
“Its very exciting and if I make a success of the part, I hope to take up acting as a career.
“I’ve always wanted to appear in a film but I never thought I’d get the chance.”
It’s sad to say, pardners, but our researchers have scoured high and low for evidence of this film or the production company and have so far drawn a blank.
However I did find a book called A Man Called Slade by Cole Shelton, who is the author of quite a few western books including, Bullets for a Tinhorn, Crippled Gun, Gunlaw at Hangman’s Creek and the fabulously named, The Prodigal Gunslinger.
Could Cole Shelton possibly be an alias of Noel Evans? It would be great if it was.
A few years later, Eccles-born Cliff Twemlow would make several low budget films filmed around Eccles, Manchester and Cheshire which have become cult classics in their own right.
Read: The Lost World of Cliff Twemlow
Does anybody out there know if this film made the light of day? I for one would love to see it.
Also is Patricia Bent still around Eccles she would be in her 60’s – did anybody know her?
If so please contact me at tonyflynn@salfordonline.com and of course there is a fifty dollar reward – but you may have to take it from my cold dead hands…
