Documentary News Letter (1940)

14 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER FEBRUARY 1940 FILM SOCIETY NEWS AFTER AN AUTUMN scason ill which London, for the first time in many years, was virtually without Film Society performances, it is good news that the London Scientific Film Society has opened up again. Programmes in the past have been of especial value in the work of interpreting science to the layman, and the wide scope and catholicity of its shows have been enthusiastically received. It is very important that this enterprising body should be fully supported, as wartime conditions tend to make its existence precarious. At the first performance of the season seven films were shown, including several "Secrets of Life" films, a Len Lye colour-experiment. Bell's film on Gears, and Cavalcanti's Men in Danger. Subscriptions for the season of four performances cost lO.v. or 15^., and membership can be obtained from the Secretary, 30 Bedford Row, W.C.I ; telephone: Chancery 5201. Meantime, there is much encouraging news from the provinces. The Lochaber Film Society, which flourishes exceedingly in the relatively sparsely populated district of Fort William, Scotland, is not merely giving good shows, but arranging link-ups of great civic value. When, for instance, it showed The Londoners (John Taylor's L.C.C. Jubilee Film), members of the Fort William Town Council received special invitations, and local Post Office workers are invited when G.P.O. Film Unit productions are shown. Moreover, the secretary reports that the local cinema has been persuaded to play Professor Mamlock — probably the first time a foreign language film has been shown commercially in such a small town. In the Manchester area both the Manchester and Salford Film Society and the Merseyside Film Institute Society are centres of great activity. Manchester and Salford report that within three days of mailing the prospectus for the season membership reached 200, and is still climbing. Programmes already announced include Peter the Great, Amphitryon, Roads Across Britain, Spare Time, and Drame de Shanghai. The two societies also gave a joint performance which included a talk by Herbert Hodge. The Merseyside Film Institute Society also sponsors special film shows at the Philharmonic Hall, which include a wide variety of documentaries and other shorts, and feature films such as Green Pastures. Both Societies also run sub-standard lecture meetings, at which pioneer films like Caligari are shown and discussed. Other Societies still in action include Edinburgh, Tyneside, Birmingham, Street, and Sheffield. We should be glad of full monthly reports from these and any other societies. Our press day is the 12th of each month. This page should be a useful forum for the exchange of news and views between all Film Societies, but it can only achieve this end if all secretaries will cooperate. Correspondence on Film Society topics will be welcomed. BOOK REVIEW Nobody Ordered Wolves. Jeff"rey Dell. Heine^ mann. Is. 6d. IF ONE TAKES this book as a skit on the British Film Industry, it is very funny. Extravagarice, waste, stupidity, subservience and crooked dealing are the proper materials for humour. But when one realises that Mr Dell's material is only very slightly distorted in the telling and that the diflference between straight reporting and a work of fiction is conditioned more by the laws of libel than of creation, laughter remains but is tinged with indignation. Dell's story, the respective fortunes of Philipi Hardcastle, storywriter, and Napoleon Bott, the colossus of the British Film Industry, departs from the truth chiefly in that Mr Bott ends up a bankrupt, whereas his counterparts in real life prosper and wax fat. Nobody Ordered Wolves does not discover a new novelist to the public. Outside the film business, his story is rather weak. The construction of the book is loose and diversions such a^| the career of Miss De la Roche, nee Amji Spragget, instructive though they are, are! irrelevant. But his knowledge of the film world, his characterisation of Bott, Mr Cripps, Miss Carr and a dozen others, is accurate and amusing. It is a change from the showdown novel of Hollywood, because the British Film Industry, while imitating the worst features of Hollywood, has introduced a number of quirks of its own. A FILM ABOUT SCIENTIFIC COOKERY PRODUCED BY ARTHUR ELTON DIRECTED BY NORMAN McLAREN RUNNING TIME 18 MINUTES T~^HIS is a two-reel film. The first part is a scientific description of the gas -* flame. Its flexibility is discussed and then it is shown as the basis of the gas cooker. This sequence is mainly in diagram, and the special qualities of a gas flame are thus made clear. The scientific accuracy of the "Regulo" and its working are depicted. ' I ^HE second part of the film shows the gas cooker at work, and many difi'erent ■*■ styles of cooking are demonstrated. AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE FROM: THE BRITISH COMMERCIAL GAS ASSOCIATION, 1 GROSVENOR PLACE, LONDON, S.W.I