Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER No. 3 1944 29 Atlantic Trawler. Producer: John Taylor. | Director: Frank Sainsbury. Camera: A. Jeakins, iZhic Fowle, Cyril Phillips. Production: Realist -ilm Unit for M.O.I. Length 20 mins. [Subject: The life of Atlantic trawlcrmen in warime. Treatment: The documentary movement was to a ;reat degree nurtured on the fruits of the sea, lerring perhaps more notably than white fish. \nyhow, there is a consistent line of fishing films rom Drifters, through Granton Trawler and Worth Sea to the film here reviewed. It might veil be expected that by this time there was little lew that could be portrayed, and that we should De seeing once again all the admirable shots of vater, seagulls, and ships against the sky, plus ■;uitably intimate shots of the men themselves. Sainsbury has produced all this and done it well, out he has added new and valuable elements. In he first place he has stressed, with great effect, ■he strange change which has come over the deleted trawling industry in wartime — not merely he dangers but also that special atmosphere vhich relates to the fact that so many of the boats ire on active service. Secondly he has given us, vith sympathetic insight, the first true picture of the trawlermen ashore ; this sequence is one of i he nicest jobs seen in a short documentary for >ome time, but we understand that it has now oeen removed by the M.O.I. Propaganda Value: Good. 5 Welcome to Britain Strand Film Co. Producer: Arthur Elton. Assoc. Producer: Legh Clowes. Director: Anthony Asquith. Camera: Jo Jago. 'M.O.I. 1 hr. From the earliest days of talkies, when addressed directly from the screen by Cabinet Ministers, Celebrities and Experts, I have always slid down in my chair, behind the head in front. 1 I was very suspicious and uneasy when Frank 'Craven came up to that fence in Our Town and spoke to me. This is just a personal complex, reprehensible if not actually contemptible. It is remarked only as making the more remarkable my enjoyment of Welcome to Britain. After the way it began, too. American troops disembarking and Brass Hats lined up in front of a wall. At first glimpse, I knew I was going to be Spoken To. The director didn't rush matters. About half a dozen shots before it happened. The suspense. ... I had a fmind to risk Court Martial by sneaking out. When this talking was over, the "director" tof the film, Burgess Meredith, was left with a firm, large sounding but vague command from the General. Perhaps his perplexity struck a chord of sympathy. Anyway, when he looked up and said that having been three weeks in England he was obviously the very man to tell us all about it, I began to relax and have a good time. Later they threw in Bob Hope and Beatrice Lillie but, though Bob Hope was particularly spontaneous-sounding and funny, these two irrelevant sequences were hardly necessary. The haphazard, slightly worried and uncertain progress of Burgess Meredith was so diverting I was sorry that, at the end of an hour, he was abruptly detailed for a Battle Course, leaving lis film unfinished, with scarcely time to say goodbye. If Burgess Meredith isn't the best actor on fhe screen, he is the best ever to have spoken directly from it to his audience. He just does what he likes and it seems OK. He beckons the camera close and whispers to us, he makes silent comment and loud spoken comment, demonstrating what should and what should not be done ; he even upsets one of the players who doesn't understand that his asides are addressed to us. He even tackles Brass Hats on our account so that they speak to him and we listen — strange as it seems he never becomes smug, smart or affected nor seems an actor in the Academy Award sense at all. He's too good for an Oscar. The purpose of the film is to explain England and the English to newly arrived Americans. They may be reckoned more than normally resistant to appeals of any kind, but this one is so persuasive and clear, sympathetic and vigorous that anyone will surely like it, whatever his mood. I wish the incredibly quaint schoolroom sequence had been less unreal, and it looks as though serious reference to unnecessary travel was cut out, which is a pity. However, there is plenty that is good. If the public could see this they'd wonder why only American soldiers are so understandingly approached by the M. O. I. Surely the answer is not just Burgess Meredith? Cambridge. Everyman Films. Director: Richard Massingham. Camera: Alex Strasser. British Council. Length 25 mins. Subject: The University of Cambridge. Treatment: The film covers most facts of University life. Colleges, lecture halls, games, spare time. The interiors are very well shot, and there is some extremely good quality sound in the sync, sequences. On the whole it is a pleasant enough film to look at, even occasionally visually exciting. But it has very little to say. One feels all the time that the commentator is talking for the sake of filling in gaps. Even the shots of Sir William Bragg and the Master of Trinity and others talking to students add little to the film, as they also seem to suffer from the general rush of platitudes. Perhaps if the commentary had been spoken in a more professional way it might not have appeared so dim or, on the other hand, perhaps the British Council had nothing to say about Cambridge. Propaganda Value: In the phraseology of the film trade press : "Acceptable popular for goodclass halls, with useful picture angle for foreign consumption." Trailers. Various Units. Treatment: Reviewing these trailers the day after seeing them, it is extremely difficult to remember what any of them were about. There was one about fuel saving and one about Income Tax and another about something else. Different techniques were used and the one done by cartoon was amusing. But surely the message of a trailer should last a little longer than this. One remembers the time when trailers were the brightest flowers in the rather thorny bouquet of the M.O.I. Films Division. This new group of trailers shows that times have changed and for the worse. A trailer's job must be to shock the seat-changing, chattering audience into attention, and at one level of consciousness or another, leave a message. None of this present group, although they are all competently made, could possibly hold anybody's attention. It would be interesting to know why the quality of the trailers has fallen and what has happened to all those bright ideas which, even if they sometimes annoyed the audience, at least compelled their attention and made people listen to the messages they had to give. Minefield. Army Film Unit. M.O.I. 15 minutes. Subject: How a minefield is cleared. Treatment: It is possible that one of the growing points of the documentary film is being carefully nurtured by the Service Film Units. Just as there is a growing and extremely important tendency to make highly specialised films aimed at a particular purpose and for very definite types of audience, so there is a trend towards presenting a documentary subject in as dramatic a form as possible for general cinema audiences. The recording of fact and the presenting of those facts in as dramatic a way as possible is the job the Service Units set out to do. Minefield is a good example of this technique. An attack in North Africa is about to be launched and the Sappers have got to clear the mines for the tanks and infantry to go through. The men go out into the darkness to map the position of the minefields, their almost animal-sensitive hands groping over the surface of the sand, searching for trip wire, booby-trap and mine. Slowly through the night, working in an atmosphere of perpetual suspense, flattening on the ground when the star shells go up, they complete their survey of the area. From the information they gain the men in charge of the operation choose the best points in the minefields through which to launch the attacks. Just before the attack is begun, the Sappers move forward, again in the dark, to clear the mines from the pathway which has been selected through the wire. Here is danger and suspense in full measure. The whispers through the night and the slow, Hooverlike, creep of the detectors over the sand. As they move forward about their several jobs of detecting and removing the mines, their nerveracking calm is clearly shown. They clear the path and the tanks and infantry move forward — another routine job is done — but for a few minutes we too have walked with danger in the dark. If there is any criticism of this film it is that the obvious dangers are underplayed. Particular mention must be made of the way in which the sequences of the officers planning the attack have been handled. The officers, non-actors, have the usual difficulties with sync, dialogue but, for some reason or another, the scenes look real. Perhaps it is the lighting and the set combining, or maybe it was shot in a tent in North Africa. Propaganda Value: This film will bring alive the day's news to the cinema audience. Behind those dry words, "The sappers cleared the way," is the story of Minefield — a story of heroism, the more heroic for being constant and routine. Rescue Reconnaissance Shell Film Unit. Direction: Grahame Tharp. Camera: Sidney Beadle. Recording: Leo Wilkins. Assist. Director: Lionel Cole. Produced by Edgar Anstey. M.O.I, for Ministry of Home Security. 35 mins. Non-T. Subject: How to locate people who may be buried under the debris of a bombed building in the most efficient way. Instructional film for Civil Defence Rescue Parties. Treatment: The place is any street in any city. The time is about twenty minutes after a high explosive bomb has fallen. The bomb has demolished three houses. There they are in front of us, the familiar yet fantastic piles of brick and beams, rubble and dust, that only twenty minutes before were three homes, places of rooms and warmth and suppers cooking. It is significant that the film, although a straight instructional in the best sense, never loses sight of the human and