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Things That Happen No 1

First in a series of monthly film reviews of Scotland

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Description

A cinemagazine with short entertaining items of local and national interest. Credits. "Calling All Cars!" A reconstruction of a bank robbery in Glasgow; a man runs from the bank to a fast car, wielding a gun. From Police headquarters, a man calls out the flying squad and we see the cars chase down the road. There are shots of police boxes, of a map, and we see the fingerprinting process. The police and robbers chase faster and faster down the road, with shots from inside the car quickly intercut with external shots. Finally, the robbers are caught. "The Beauty of the Beast" - we see borzoi dogs, and model dogs wagging their tails. The lady owner carries puppies in a bag and watches them as they play on the lawn. We see the grown dogs as they exercise outside the kennels. "Sole Mates" - a montage of the shoe manufacturing process at the Saxone shoe factory in Kilmarnock. There are close ups of shoe making, of the production line with men cutting the patterns out and women stitching them together at machines. We see details of the various processes, both by hand and machine then have shots of pedestrians' shoes as they walk in the street. "Ahead of Hair" - we see razors, scissors and chemicals ready for styling, and cut to a woman's head as the hairdresser works. We watch the procedure as the woman's hair is styled, treated and pinned. Electrical drying then takes place, and the pins are removed from the coiffure. The hairdresser works on the hair to get it just right. We see the final result. "The Loch Ness Monster" - a map of Scotland, and a shot of Loch Ness, then a map of the loch itself while a man indicates where the most frequent sightings have occurred. We see a skeleton and models of dinosaurs, then more shots of the loch. The monster appears! We see cameramen filming the monster. Zoologist Eric Foxon interviews a local resident who has seen the monster.

Questions & Activities

Questions

  • Have local news reports changed much since 1928?
  • What is a cinemagazine?
  • How have crime investigation techniques improved since 1928?
  • What was the Flying Squad?
  • Where would this cinemagazine have been shown and what would be its modern counterpart?
  • Does this film persuade you that the Loch Ness Monster is real?

Activities

English / Media Studies: Produce your own 'Things That Happen' news report/cinemagazine for your school or town. This might be in the same style as the 1930s film or in the cozy style of a modern early evening magazine show.

English / ICT: Create your own intranet website about the Loch Ness Monster using clips from this and other Nessie films in this collection, maps and other photographs you can find of the mythical beast.

Drama: Script, act and film your own dramatic sequence for inclusion in a cinemagazine.

Clip Details

Record Id 007-000-002-057-C
Resource Rights Holder National Library of Scotland
Project Ref 0373
Date 1936
Genre Cinemagazine
School Subject Social Studies, Drama, Expressive Arts, English, Media Studies
Who Malcolm Irvine (director), Scottish Film Productions (1928), Ltd (production company), Stanley Russell (producer)
Where Bridge of Weir, Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Loch Ness
Attributes Black and White, Sound
Clip Length 11:31
Film Length 11:31