Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

54 DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS Cartoon of the Month here is a project, a series of cartoons intended to introduce problems of the day to the public in a popular way, which deserves full approval.. It needed imagination to sponsor such a series and it needed an acute sense of proportion to entrust these films to the expert hands of John Halas and Joy Batchelor. In both respects, the COI are to be congratulated. To have succeeded in producing two films (it is yet Jhe start of the series), which will not only be an asset to any cinema programme because of their entertainment value, but which will at the same time encourage constructive and informed discussion, is something of an achievement — and it will certainly be its own reward. The first of these cartoons, New Town; which gives an excellent idea of the outlines of townplanning in a most human and delightful manner, has already been reviewed in these pages: that it is, if anything, the better of the two viewed purely as a cartoon does not reduce the second qualitatively to second place, because the latter, Your Very Good Health, a discussion of the proposed National Health scheme, on the other hand, gives rather more information about its subject. Altogether, therefore, there is very little to choose between them. Both combine good humour and liveliness, qualities lacking so often % as to give them almost a scarcity value. In each film, the central figure is an engaging character called Charlie, whose shock-headed independence is sturdy and buoyant without being obstructive. He is cleverly chosen and created, because he avoids the insipidity of a Mr Average Man yet retains certain desirable characteristics which, if they do not incline members of the audience to identify themselves with him, will at least endear him to them. We are glad to see that in the interval between the showing of the two films Charlie has not been idle, for he is now able to introduce to his public a wife and child. The infant, although reminiscent of the typical cartoon baby, now and then shows enough flashes of his unique parental origin to offset this earlier impression. Your Very Good Health answers some of the main questions which the ordinary man and woman ask about the forthcoming scheme. It is an introduction to the discussion of what is still regarded in some quarters as a controversial issue. It is, in fact, such a brilliant introduction to this subject that it may well have the effect of lulling its sponsors into thinking that no further effort in film is needed. Here lurks the danger, because the more successful this series proves to be in fostering public interest, the more urgent it becomes. to follow up these kingfisher flights of fancy with detailed foreground and background films. And such films can, with some imagination, be made about subjects which are, like those of the first two films, still in the blue-print stage. Down to the Sea. Made by Greenpark. Producer: Paul Fletcher. Director: Humphrey Swingler. Camera: George Still and Peter Hennessey. Editor: Alex Camp. Assistant Directors: John Elliot and Peter Plaskitt. Music: Guy Warrack. Apparently an inquiry for shipping space in a Rio office will set every shipyard working from Birkenhead to Belfast. This film, which is informative and factual, ably demonstrates the part that ships play in our existence. The first essential for an economic recovery is a lively export trade and, as a corollary, ships to carry our goods. The object of the film is to show the shipbuilding industry at work, from the time when the designer is experimenting with wax models in a pond, until a new ship sets out on its maiden voyage to meet that need in Rio. As a purely objective record of why and how ships are built the film is successful, but one feels that more information regarding the lives of those who build and sail them, even to the exclusion of the handshaking of people who launch them, would add to the value of this otherwise interesting film. Crisis in Italy. March of Time. Vol. 13. No. 8. This film illustrates the present political and economic situation in Italy, with emphasis on the potential power of the Communist Party. The Communists are represented as being active and influential in Trade Unions and Local Government. In the agricultural south they have, by agitating for the break-up of large estates, secured a large measure of support from Italy's farming population, to account for one-third of the party's membership. It is also made clear that the Americans are in Trieste. Aid is available from the United States to offset the economic plight in which the country finds itself. Can this aid be administered to ensure a strengthening of resistance to Communist political action? During the palmy days of isolation, when Europe was nobody's business, and America had only herself to take care of, March of Time could usually be relied upon to perform an accurate and unbiased job of pictorial journalism. Pictorial accuracy may still be found, but isolation cannot be had in this, the American century. Time Marches On. From 'Moving Millions', a new Crown Film