Documentary News Letter (1940)

18 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER JUNE 1940 " FILM LIBRARIES Borrowers of films are asked to apply as mucli in advance as possible, to give alternative booking dates, and to return the filins immediately after use. H. A hire charge is made. F. Free distribution. Sd. Sound. St. Silent. Association of Scientific Workers, 30 Bedford Row, W.C.I. Scientific Film Committee. Graded List of Films. A list of scientific films from many sources, classified and graded for various types of audience. On request, Committee will give advice on programme make-up, choice of films, to prospective users. Austin Film Library, Longbridge, Birmingham. 24 films of motoring interest, industrial, technical & travel. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. & St. F. British Commercial Gas Association, Gas Industry House, 1 Grosvenor Place, S.W.I. Films on social subjects, domestic science, manufacture of gas. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. & a few St. F. British Council Film Department, 25 Savile Row, W. 1. Films of Britain, 1940. Catalogue for overseas use only but provides useful synopses of 100 sound & silent documentary films. British Film Institute, 4 Great Russell Street, W.C. 1 . (a) National Film Library. An important collection of documentary & other films. Available only to full members of B.F.L 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd, & St. H. {b) Some British and Foreign Documentary and other Short Films. A general list of films and sources, (c) Early Films. Films 1896-1934 still available in Britain. Coal Utilisation Joint Council, General Buildings, Aldwych, London, W.C. 2. Films on production of British coal & miners' welfare. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. F. Crookes' Laboratories, Gorst Road, Park Royal, N.W.IO. Colloids in Medicine. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. F. Dartington Hall Film Unit, Totnes, South Devon. Classroom films on regional & economic geography. 16 mm. St. H. Educational General Services, Little Holt, Merton Lane, Highgate, N.6. A wide selection of films, particularly of overseas interest. Some prints for sale. 16 mm. Sd. & St. H. Electrical Development Association, 2 Savoy Hill, Strand, W.C. 2. Four films of electrical interest. Further films of direct advertising appeal are available only through members of the Association. 16 mm. Sd. & St. F. Empire Film Library, Imperial Institute, S.W.7. Films primarily of Empire interest. With a useful subject index. 1 6 mm. & a few 35 mm. Sd. & St. F. Ensign Film Library, 88-89 High Holborn, London, W.C.I. Wide selection of all types of films including fiction, comedies, documentaries, films of geography, animal life, industry. Some prints for outright sale. 16 mm. St. & a few Sd. H. Film Centre, 34 Soho Square, W. 1 . Mouvements Vibratoires. A film on simple harmonic motion. French captions. 35 mm. & 16 mm. St. H. Gaumont-British Equipments, Film House, Wardour Street, W.l. Many films on scientific subjects, geography, hygiene, history, language, natural history, sport. Also feature films. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. &St. H. G.P.O. Film Library, Imperial Institute, S.W.7. Over 100 films, mostly centred round communications. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. & St. F. Kodak, Ltd., Kingsway, W.C. 2. (a) Kodascope Library. Instructional, documentary, feature, western, comedy. Strong on early American comedies. 16 mm. & 8 mm. St. H. (A separate List of Educational Films, extracted from the above, is also published. A number of films have teaching notes.) (b) Medical Film Library. Circulation restricted to members of medical profession. Some colour films. Some prints for outright sale. 16 mm. St. H. CATALOGUE OF THE MONTH Wallace Heaton, Ltd., 127 New Bond Street, W.l. Silent 16 mm. Films. DO YOU remember Leatrice Joy, Reginald Denny, Laura La Plante, Lloyd Hamilton, Sue Carol, William Boyd? Do you remember when one used sometimes to go to the pictures, not for the star or for the picture itself, but because of the sub-title writer? George Marion and Herman Mankiwiez (if that is how his name was spelt) were box-ofiice draws in their own right. Do you remember the orchestral effects? Half coconuts for galloping horses, hand rattles for machine guns, and a special machine to make the noise of aeroplane engines. If so, the Wallace Heaton catalogue is for you, for it is the only catalogue which lists a really wide selection of American, Russian and British silent feature films of the twenties. Here you will find (and revel in, 1 hope) The Rose of Paris (Mary Philbin), Skinner's Dress Suit and California Straight Ahead (Reginald Denny and Laura La Plante), The Goose Woman (Louise Dresser), The Texas Streak (Hoot Gibson), Square Deal Sanderson (Bill Hart), and The Marriage Cheat (Leatrice Joy and Adolphe Menjou). For these we can forgive the inclusion of The Vortex, The Light Woman, and a few other films better forgotten. And why is Larry Semon's name and a description omitted from The Wizard of Oz, Larry Semon's greatest comedy, and his only feature film? Besides the Americans, the catalogue lists The General Line, Mother, Battleship Potemkin, Waxworks, Warning Shadows and The White Hell ofPitz Palu. Nor are comedies forgotten. Do you remember Dorothy de Vor, woman slap-stick cum acrobatic star? Her Navy Blues is listed along with Chaplins, Lloyd Hamiltons, Larry Semons, Hardys (with Bobby Vernon and not Laurel), Harold Lloyds (particularly Safety Last), and Buster Keatons. Finally, the cartoons should not be overlooked, Felixs, early Mickcys and Mutt and Jeff. This catalogue is as necessary to the film historian as to the seeker after memories. Now that old films are nearly as rare as Egyptian papyri, the Heaton collection must be the only source of many of them, for it covers different ground from that covered by the Film Institute. March of Time, Dean House, 4 Dean Street W.l. Selected March of Time items, including Inside Nazi Germany, New Schools for Old. America Thinks it Over. 16 mm. Sd. H. Mathematical Films. Available from B. G. D Salt, 5 Carlingford Road, Hampstead, N.W.3 Five mathematical films suitable for senioi classes. 16 mm. & 9.5 mm. St. H. MetropolitanVickers Electrical Co., Ltd., Traf ford Park, Manchester 17. Planned Electrification, a film on the electrification of the winding & surface gear in a coal mine. Available foi showing to technical & educational groups 16 mm. Sd. F. Pathescope, North Circular Road, Cricklewood. N.W.2. Wide selection of silent films, including cartoons, comedies, drama, documentary, travel sport. Also good selection of early American & German films. 9.5 mm. Sd. & St. H. Petroleum Films Bureau, 15 Hay Hill, Berkelej Square, W.l. Twenty technical & documentarj films. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. & St. F. Religious Film Library, 104 High Holborn, W.C.I. Films of religious & temperance appeal ' also list of supporting films from other sources | 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. & St. H. I I Scottish Central Film Library, 2 Newton Place Charing Cross, Glasgow, C.3. A wide selectior of teaching films from many sources. Contain.' ' some silent Scots films not listed elsewhere Library available to groups in Scotland only , 16 mm. Sd. & St. H. Sound-Film Services, 10 Park Place, Cardiff Library of selected films including Massingham'j And So to Work & Pollard's Dragon of Hales Rome and Sahara have French commentaries 16 mm. Sd. H. Southern Railway, General Manager's Office Waterloo Station, S.E.I. Seven films (one ir colour) including Building an Electric Coach South African Fruit (Southampton Docks tc Covent Garden), & films on seaside towns 16 mm. St. F. Strand Film Company, 5a Upper St. Martin'; Lane, W.C. 2. Eleven films available for nontheatrical distribution including Aerial Milestones, Chapter and Verse, Give the Kids a Break. \ & a number of others of Empire & genera jj interest, including 3 silent Airways films. MostljjB 35 mm. Sd. A few 16 mm. St. F. Wallace Heaton, Ltd., 127 New Bond Street W.l. Three catalogues. Sound 16 mm., sileni 16 mm., silent 9.5 mm. Sound catalogue containS| number of American feature films, includin Thunder Over Mexico, & some shorts. Silent Itl mm. catalogue contains first-class list of early! American, German & Russian features & shorts 9.5 catalogue has number of early German film^ & wide selection of early American & Englisl slapstick comedies. 1 6 mm. & 9.5 mm. Sd. & St . H Workers' Film Association, 145 Wardour Street! W.l. Films of democratic & co-operative in-j terest. Notes & suggestions for complete prM grammes. Some prints for sale. 35 mm. & 16 mm.| Sd. & St. H.