The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

Jan. -Feb., 1953 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN 19 I compensated them all by buying drinks all round at the end of the day. The drinks consisted of pombe (African beer made from the fermented juice of the banana and tasting strongly like gnats' something or other) for which I payed the enormous sum of £5. When we packed up they continued singing and dancing and it was only too obvious that £5 had gone a lot further than a similar sum would have in a West End bar or even a local pub these days. One of the scenes in our last production concerned a river steamer on Lake Victoria, which travelled back and forth from Bukoba to Mwanza twice weekly, and is used considerably by Government officials and commercial people in that area. Before the boat departs it gives the town fair warning by blowing three long hoots on its horn which gives everyone plenty of time to sink the last pink gin before embarkation. Five minutes immediately prior to its actual departure it blows too long and two short blasts. After we had completed our scenes on the quay side and the boat itself, I required to do an insert of the ship's horn blowing. Having made our way to the top of the ship and manoeuvred the camera into position I held the cord, which had been specially disengaged so that I could hold it in my hand, and promptly pulled the half-hour signal and. after adjusting lens for an even closer shot, I sounded the five-minute warning. In five or ten minutes we witnessed the most amazing spectacle of crowds of Africans stampeding into the docks area and perspiring Europeans jumping nut of cars. In short, we had pulled the signal without first warning the local population. This cost me quite a few rounds of drinks that evening in the local club, for I fear that I had committed a crime similar to a misdemeanour in the officers' or sergeants' mess. During our stay in this area of Lake Victoria we took some time off to visit Uganda and the Belgian Congo. For anyone who wishes to film beautiful scenery I would have no hesitation in recommending them to choose the Ruanda Urundi district of Congo Beige. It is in the rain belt and the mountains are high and volcanic (extinct) and the vegetation green beyond belief for this part of the country, and the small rivers nestling in the valleys remind one of lochs in Scotland. Africa is a very interesting place and it is useful to know its political and economic problems, both of which are extremely complex. I recommend anyone who would wish to go there to do so but not to stay any longer than six months, for after that period it becomes boring and uncomfortable, what with prickly heat and the extremely frustrating situations one meets when working with African artists, plus the distance from yourselves and your base. It was very often some months before I was able to see any results of our shooting and once I had returned to my cutting room in Dar Es Salaam it was virtually impossible to shoot any re-takes or additional shots. In short, I had had it, and if I had not cut as far as possible in camera all was lost, and as I was my own editor I had only myself to blame. Anyway, I am an adopted Londoner and I like to be near other people who think the same way as I. Ruanda Urundi is a jolly nice place but it's a darn long way from " The Windsor Castle," " The Freemasons," Hove, or the Sadlers Wells Theatre, with all their attendant culture and provided recreation. STRONG PRAISE for BRITISH FILM Bosley Crowther, distinguished film critic of the New York Times recently singled out British film, " The Sound Barrier," for special praise. Here are a few extracts from Mr. Crowther's review of the film: It may be a little early to start casting around to decide which of this year's new movies is in line for the " year's best " prize. There are six weeks left for further entries and, in that space of time, any number of red-hot contestants may still come barrelling along. But this can be said without commitment: one of the foremost they'll have to surpass is " Breaking Through the Sound Barrier." This striking new drama from Britain which primarily has to do with the bold aeronautical achievement that its top-heavy title describes is a nigh perfect job of film-making in every essential way — in conception, in writing, in performance and in straight cinematic display. On the level of pure illustration, it clearly and poetically reveals the mechanical magnitude and magnificence of experimentation with jet planes — an area of scientific research that is thronged with mystery, beauty and peril. And on the level of the human emotions and relations of the people involved, it opens up overwhelming vistas of spiritual fortitude and daring in this new age. . . . David Lean, who produced and directed from a Terence Rattigan script, is a man whose imagination is entirely up to this theme and whose skill with a motion picture camera can make it articulate. With a cast headed by Ralph Richardson, Nigel Patrick and Ann Todd — and which includes a truly awesome assortment of swift, powerful, needlenosed jets — he has developed both eloquence and insight on the two levels mentioned above and has brilliantly inter-related the two in a strong dramatic bond. . . . There are pictorial poetry and excitement in the wonderful footage in this film displaying the power and the performance of jets on the ground and in the air — scenes of planes magically soaring under the dome of the limitless sky or swooping down over wheatfields and housetops to woosh past in a flash and a roar. And there is one major sequence which visions an England-to-Cairo flight that captures in brilliant visual symbols the contrast of old and new. . . . THE CRISIS OF BRITISH FILMS with a foreword by SIR LAURENCE OLIVIER Price Threepence FILM INDUSTRY EMPLOYEES' COUNCIL 2 Soho Square, London, W.l