Documentary News Letter (1942-1943)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER MARCH 1942 No. 3 THE DOG AND THE SPARROW ho look no care of him. 1ml often lei him suffer the greatest longer: so lie look In his heels. On the mail he met a sparrow* sad, m> friend?" "Because." saiil the dog. "I am very, very A Shepherd's dog had a mi hunger. At last lie could beal that said to him, "W by are hungry, and have nothing to eat." So on they went together into Ihe town: and as this pa— ed by a butcher's shop, the sparrow perched upon the shelf, and pecked and scratched at a steak that lay upon the edge of the shell, till at last down it fell. Then the dog snapped it up and scrambled a\va\ with it into a comer, where he soon ate it all up. So then they both went out upon the high road, but as the weather was warm, they had not gone far before the dog said. "I am scry much tired. 1 should like In take a nap." ""Very well." answered Ihe sparrow, ""do so. and in the meantime I will perch upon that bush." So the dog stretched himself out on I he road and fell fast asleep. Whilst he si, -pi there came by a carter with a carl drawn h\ three horses, and loaded with two casks of wine. The sparrow seeing that the carter did not turn out of the way, mi as to drive o\cr the dog. called out. "Slop! slop! Mr. Carter, or it shall be the worse for you." But the carter cracked his whip, and drove his cart over the poor dog. so that the wheels crushed him to death. "There." cried the sparrow, "thou cruel villain, thou hasl killed my friend the dog. This deed of thine shall cost thee all thou art worth." "Do your worst and welcome." said the brute: ""what harm can you do me?"' and passed on. But the sparrow crept under the till of the carl and pecked at the bungs of the casks till she loosened them, and then all the wine ran out. At last Ihe carter looked round and s;,u that the cart was dripping and the casks quite empty. "What an unlucky wretch I am! ' cried he. "JNot wretch enough yet!" said the sparrow, as she alighted upon the head of one of the horses, and pecked at him (ill he reared up and kickedWhen the carter saw this, he drew out his hatchet and aimed a blow at the sparrow; but she Hew away, and ihe blow fell upon the poor horse's head with such force that he fell down dead. "I nlucky wretch that I am!" cried he. ""Not wretch enough yet!" said the sparrow, and she had soon perched on the second and third horses, so that in his fury he had killed them too. "Mas! miserable wretch thai I am!" cried he. "'Not wretch enough yet!" answered the sparrow as she flew away: "".Now I will plague and punish thee at thy own house." The carter was forced at last to lca\ e his earl behind him. and to go home o\ crllow ing with rage and vexation. "Mas! husband." cried bis wife. "\ wicked bird has conic into the house and brought with her all the birds in the world, I am sure, and they have fallen upon our ccrn in the loft, and arc eating it up at such a rate!" "Unlucky wretch that I am!" cried the earti r. for he saw thai the corn was almost all gone. "Not wretch enough \ el!" said I he sparrow |..i . [ie,l on the window-scat: "lliy i\erti shall cost thee thy life yet!" Then he became mad and blind with rage and si ruck the window -scat with such force that be cleft it in two and as I he sparrow Hew from place In place, Ihe caller and his wife were so furious, thai they broke all their furniture, glasses, chairs, benches, the table and at last Ihe walls, without lunching ihe bird at all. In Ihe end. however, they caught her; but the sparrow began In flutter about and cried. "Carter! it shall cost thee th\ hie vel! Willi that be could wait no longer: so be gave his wife the hatchet, and cried. "Wile, strike at ihe bird and kill her in mv hand." Then the wile struck: but as women will, she missed her aim. and hit her husband on the head so that he fell down dead, and the sparrow Hew ipiiellv home In her ne-t. REALIST FILM UNIT 17 OXFORD ST R I. ET, W. 1 Telephone: GERRARD l').r,8-9 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 43) sir: Is this a private argument? Or can anyone join in? If the latter then I should like to give Mr. Montague a note of the reaction of a cinema audience of slightly over 700 to Three in a Shell Hole. (a) There was a general titter immediately the "dubbed" nurse spoke. Some members even laughed outright; (/>) The film gripped; (c) There was applause when the film ended. That reaction seems to agree both with the Documentary News Letter reviewer and with Mr. Montague. But does it? I believe that this film gripped its audiences for two reasons — the concentration of its pictorial setting and the intensity of its dramatic content. Three in a Shell-Hole succeeded despite the dubbing. As for the applause when the film ended, I think this was a tribute to the cameraman coupled with a sense of relief that justice is not always wrapped up in kid. For a short film like Three in a Shell-Hole the producers should have followed Mr. Doan's advice and let the picture tell the story. If, however, it was felt that lip-movement must be reproduced, surely it should have followed that this would be in the language of the people concerned. When the audience tittered it showed its disapproval of the producers' conception of the "eckcint" which would be used by Russian women in the heat of battle. Yours faithfully, ARTHUR J. NELSON 6 Hilary Crescent, dear sir, — As an engineer and shop steward. 1 was particularly interested in the M.O.I, article in the February issue of D.N.L. on "Film Shows in Factories"; all the more so because at the large factory where I am employed, we recently had our first M.O.I, film display. At the performance in question, the films presented were Paramount News Review, which was very well received, and From the Four Corners, which received general adverse criticism, and was withdrawn from subsequent shows to other groups of employees, being replaced with Sinews of War, which deals with armament manufacture. One realises the limited suitable material available for shows o\' this kind during ifs pioneering stages the successful development of which will he in some sense retarded, if insufficient consideration of factory psychology is undertaken. Archaic propaganda of ihe "Old School Tie" brand cuts no ice in the workshop, and it is a waste of tunc and material to try and put it over. Films of engineering processes arc a valuable contribution in their proper lime and place, but are not ideal dinner-time subjects to the o\erworked engineer, whose morale requires encouragement and enthusiasm in other directions. It would he more in keeping with the workers point of view lo couple a British "action documentary" with one of the many new Soviet shorts which arc now available, but so difficult to have an opportunity to see. Perhaps the recent Government changes will hear fruit in a revised policy at the M.O.I, and give our outstanding documentary technicians a broader and more progressive choice in the subject matter. Yours, etc., Manchester 19. R. CORDWELL.