Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

64 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS Killing Rats. Production: Crown Film Unit. Direction: Graham Wallace. 14 mins. NonTheatrical. Subject: How and why farmers must clear their farms of rats. Treatment: One can almost imagine Pinewood rolling up its sleeves determined to prove that when it comes to. making a simple technical film, explaining a process and punching home a propaganda point, Crown Film Unit has lost none of the cunning of the G.P.O. days. You are even given the chance for direct comparison between shooting done in 1940 for Spring Offensive and shooting done for this production. As a tribute to the consistent high quality of the camera work of this unit I defy you to tell the difference. Excellent is the manner in which the dramatic tone, set by the title, is developed with a care unusual in a technical subject. The first two-thirds of the film fs excellent and 1 am sure will be most effective. Of the last third I am not so sure — it relies on social disapproval and I don't know that castigation converts the heathen. Because the film will be principally road-shown the commentary is admirable for its high intelligibility though at times the commentator seems to lose interest in the process. One small criticism: the pollution of foodstuff would seem to me better shown if the droppings were in the grain and not on the outside of the sack. Propaganda Value: Excellent for its specialised purpose, this film is unusual in being equally good for arousing general interest in the problem. Further, it can be included in any agricultural programme as a first rate school film for all ages. Crofters. Direction: Ralph Keene, Camera: Peter Hennessy. Music: Dennis Blood. Assoc. Producer: Edgar Anstey. M.O.I. 22 mins. Subject: Life in a remote village in Sutherlandshire. Treatment: Artful simplicity allied to a brilliant visual sense carry us into the heart of this Highland village. The shooting is magnificent and when the film is over we really do know something about the lives of the people. Fortunately the commentator carries most of the story and the voices of the villagers are not very much used, although when they are they seem to be amazed at their own lives. The camera work is lovely and the film has a neat musical score. Propaganda Value: The crofters are for once shown as sensible human beings and not either epic characters battling against the forces of nature or as quaint old folk over-preoccupied with sheep and their problems. Future for Fighters. Production: The National Film Board of Canada. Canada Carries On Series. 9 mins. Subject: Canada's plans for demobilised servicemen. Treatment: The style of this series Canada Carries On is well known. For the ordinary slow-witted Englishman the commentary requires either a translator or dialogue titles; it reflects the Marx Brothers' principle — "What you don't hear you don't miss". Leaving the commentary then for each to absorb what he can, the visuals tell a moving story of men and women reunited after years of War. They show demobilised men being retrained and placed in lasting occupations, dwelling chiefly on farming and fisheries. As with some other films of demobilisation the rather unfortunate impression is given that most men will have to change their occupations after their period of national service — almost as if army life makes them too big for the pre-war jobs, in the same way that, according to Future for Fighters, it makes them too big for their pre-war clothes. The members of the investigation boards which make financial grants towards the cost of farm or boat give the impression of men of integrity and fairness. There seems to be little niggling or cheese paring; but when the returned fighter has bought his farm and drives out, followed respectfully by "Hills, the Mover", to his new homestead, a sad ghost seems to lurk round the trim farmhouse. Perhaps it is a ghost from Grapes of Wrath recalling to mind all the bitterness of human migration — the breaking with old friends and forming new — the fading illusion of a new start. Perhaps, a murky ghost from Europe calling up a grim picture to be rebuilt in one reel ; let's hope the venture of this returning fighter will succeed better than many an ex-soldier's farm between the wars. To all appearances this film has been shot in the manner usual to the series — by several different directors and cameramen. The result is that the quality is patchy. Perhaps unintentionally there marches through the film a beauty parade of Canadian womanhood; all these shots are well photographed; for which small mercy many thanks. Propaganda Value: Over here this film is bound to appear shallow as we are unable to fit it into the background of Canadian existence. In Britain, Farms for Fighters inevitably sounds like Three Acres And a Cow, but in one of the world's grain countries it must bear a different meaning. So in Canada it's a big promise and a promise that presumably can be kept. Student Nurse. Production: G.B. Screen Services for the British Council. Direction: Francis Searle. Photography: Brendan Stafford. 15 minutes. Subject: A nurse's training from the time she goes into a hospital as a probationer until she qualifies. Treatment: Here is a good looking, glossy, film. The hospital is magnificent, the nurses are pretty, there are flowers in the vases and the patients look as though they had never had a day's illness in their lives. The music sweeps along lushly, the camera work is rich and. .it every moment, we expect to see Laraine Day and Lew Ayres in hurried consultation, as Lionel Barrymore appears at the end of the glistening corridor in his wheel chair. It's very definitely that sort of film and really nothing to do with nursing and sickness at all. No polishing, no scrubbing, no bed pans; just an impeccably starched and becoming cap and those cool, quiet hands we know so well. But, if you accept the Hollywood convention it is very well made in spite of the fact that it badly needs a pair of scissors. Propaganda Value: Extremely good for the unthinking If there is a vacant bed in that hospital this reviewer could do with a nice two months' stay, fresh flowers, sparkling eyes and all. Worker and VVarfront No. 14. Paul Rotha Productions. M.O.I. 10 mins. Non-Theatrical. Subjects: (1) Typhoons firing rockets. (2) Rehabilitation of miners. (3) Itma. Those who follow this series of bright magazine films distributed non-theatrically by M.O.I. will find this the best yet. It continues their steady progress. The first item is a quick reportage of the assembly of the type of rockets used in our aircraft, followed by Service material from the camera gun of a Typhoon in action. The excellent cutting makes this a most exciting story which ends somewhat abruptly just as you are' anxious to see the results of the rockcteering. The track would have been improved by omitting the repeated and finally irritating swishing noise which accompanies each individual rocket. The second is the main item in the reel and displays very great care in direction and some first-class camera work. From the coal face an injured miner is taken in a shot or two — to the casualty hospital, where plaster encasement is used, and thence to the rehabilitation centre. Here the friendliness and reassurance which the staff has managed to suffuse through the ornate marble palace of a local bourgeois comes over well. The fun of the recuperative exercises almost carries you to the point of joining in. Then for a bewildering moment you are swept into a scene between a union official and a group of miner-patients. With every passing frame you expect the dirt to be spilt, as the union "Boss" (complete with car) persuades the miners it's a good thing to collaborate with the employers (continued on p. 72) SIGHT and SOUND A cultural Quarterly LV FILM BULLETIN appraising educational and entertainment values Published b> : The British Film Institute, 4 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I.