"The Fall of the House of Usher" not only represents a new cinema technique but it is also unique in that it does not attempt to tell Poe's story in detail, rather to invoke in its audiences the esthetic impressions and moods which the tale creates in its readers. This revolutionary approach to the cinema opens a fascinating field for further pioneering. Fortified with the new scientific instruments which have recently been devised for the detection and recording of emotional reactions, the amateur producer may now truly be said to face a new world for cinematic experimentation in translating such reactions into film. Properly motivated by medical authority films of this nature may even prove to have a tremendous psychological significance. From any viewpoint "The Fall of the House of Usher" represents a forecast of possibilities which are amazing." Movie Makers, January 1929, 847.
"Drama based on H. G. Wells' story 'The Red Room' recounting how a guest mentions he has heard one of the house's rooms is haunted and that the last person to sleep in there was found dead with no explanation. The guest asks to spends a night in the haunted room seeing it as a challenge. He is provided with a large number of candles but will they be enough. When he is visited by a ghostly apparition determined to blow his candles out he tries to escape." (EAFA Database)
"Zero is an aspiring artist, but he is a wraithlike being, and his ornate appearance makes him even more of a caricature. Just as sound had been approximated in A Hollywood Extra through close ups of a bugle, so zero's playing of the same instrument leads to his meeting with his true love, Beatrix. However, when she is recalled by the Grand Vizier of Afghanistan, their brief union presages the fatal failure of Zero's mingling with the outside world. Reading his future in a mammoth book of destiny filled with grotesque and discouraging words, an organ-grinder brings to play the inexhorable tune of fate to which zero must dance. Zero's life becomes a perpetual nightmare, surrounded by monstrous ghouls, whose giant, deformed faces leer, laugh, mutter, and point as they surround and overwhelm him. In the end, as Zero's name implies , his music, life, and love, count for a sum of nothing" Taves, 104.
"A fun time is in store for the smartly dressed women disembarking from the bus, in this lovely film from 1929. Joshua Preston, Mayor of Stockport, entertains a group of nurses at Glengarry, his family home, with a garden tour, and games and races, followed by tea on the lawn. With music as well, this makes for a grand afternoon out. The reel ends with the Preston family in the Glengarry garden." (BFI Player)
"Cheering crowds greet the Prince of Wales - later to be the uncrowned Edward VIII - as his car passes by. The crowds also turn out for the third World Scout Jamboree at Arrowe Park on the Wirral. With tens of thousands of scouts attending, the event commemorated the 21st birthday of the Scouting Movement and the publication of 'Scouting for Boys', so it became known as the Coming of Age Jamboree." (BFI Player)
"It was made in 1928-29 and, when shown to the public, attracted so many people, that Thanet were able to give a large sum to charity. Incidentally, the film cost over £100 to produce. The mere thought of this will give the average club treasurer a pain in his wallet" (Anon 1935, 35).
"Amateur narrative about a young farmer visiting the big city of Portland, Oregon." Center for Home Movies.
"Family scenes in a garden in Stretford. Includes footage of a woman doing a forward roll in front of the camera; interior shots of a baby being bathed and a woman sitting in the living room with a dog" (NWFA Online Database).
"Groups of people assemble in town, meeting and chatting on the street. At the beach, women feed the seagulls, go on a fairground boat ride, and they feed chips to the gulls both on the beach and from a wooden pier, A family assemble in the garden - the girls are wearing school uniform - and sit together. There is a shot of horned cattle in a field, and there is a garden where an old man mows his lawn, while a very old man receives a buttonhole. The location shifts to a clifftop walk. In what seems like an earlier period, very formally dressed people play with a small child, and sit in deckchairs" (NWFA Online Database).
"Members of the Morley family are seen walking through the countryside and a forest area. They are seen relaxing on a beach. Includes shots of the children paddling in the sea; making sand castles and watching a Punch and Judy Show. Continues with various activities talking place around a harbour. A group of fishermen are seen standing on the quayside - smoking, talking and securing their boats. Also features scenes of the countryside around Whitby and the lakes. Concludes with footage of a little girl playing on a homemade swing hanging from a tree; stroking a donkey in a field; playing pitch and putt golf and dancing around in circles with a woman; as they walk along a country lane" (NWFA Online Database).
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema