"This comedy-drama is a skit on “Robinson Crusoe"(HMHT 1932: 181).
"The film begins at a women's hairdressers. The manager asks one of the hairdressers to dinner that evening but she refuses as she has a customer, Mrs Blowers, who requires longer visits. At this the manager appoints Jane, a fellow hairdresser to take the appointment. Jane looks at the portrait of her fiance. We follow as the portrait dissolves into the real man. He works with cars and is informed that he has lost his job. Back at the hairdressers and Mrs Blowers arrives for her appointment. What starts as 'just a trim' becomes a longer matter. The clock shows 7.15 PM, closing time at the hairdressers. Jane loses her temper with her customer and insults her. The woman responds, stating that she will be making a complaint. On her way out Jane is informed that her customer was a stakeholder in the business. Jane meets with her boyfriend and they agree to share their bad news at a café. Later Jane discusses her situation with her friend but still despairs at her predicament. We see her writing a letter to her fiance, returning his ring and ending their engagement. She posts the letter. The next day at work Jane is informed of her week's notice. She begins cutting a young girl's hair. Outside one of the employees has alerted all about a fire. Jane notices smoke at her door. She covers the child and carries her out of the building but collapses from the smoke. The next sequence shows her in hospital. She is visited by her boyfriend and we see that she is wearing her engagement ring. At home recovering, she is visited by Mrs Blowers. This is where the film ends abruptly" (MACE Online Archive).
"The film opens at the Atheneum Club where members are playing cards. They talk about a man named Pierpont who has an interest in the supernatural and has invited them to a séance the following day. At the séance Pierpont welcomes the visitors and introduces a man called Horace who will be the séance medium. Having set the scene by playing music and dimming the lights, Pierpont hypnotizes Horace and puts him into a wooden box. The séance continues with questions being asked to Horace in the box. When there is no answer, Pierpont opens the box and announces that Horace is dead. The horrified guests leave and find the police. On their return to the room, they find that the body is missing and Pierpont is questioned. Horace returns to the room alive and one of the guests remarks that this should be a lesson to them all" (MACE Online Archive).
"a war film… deals principally with submarines… an almost full-sized submarine was built out of sheet-iron and wood; the very convincing interior of the aforesaid submarine was built in a garage; and merchant ships (models) were ruthlessly blown up by a torpedo (ditto, bought at Woolworths), which zipped through the water (by a string wound on a Kodak rewind) and left a wicked-looking wash (milk)" (R.S. 1932: 9).
[Also known as The Tourist Trophy Races]
[Also known as Foiled or The White Slaver]
"the story deals with the activities of a notorious blackmailer who gets a financier and his sister into his clutches" (HMHT 1932: 222).
"a crime story which has a background of blackmail and intrigue" (Lovell Burgess 1932: 17).
"only our second film – but good enough to be picked from among the whole of the entry in The Era Contest of 1932 to represent Great Britain in the International Contest, in which it took second prize… The film, which was but 180 feet in length, was an attempt to portray pictorially the workings of an unhinged mind; a subject, you will agree, that no professional could possibly exploit. The production was, maybe, a trifle crude – I would be the last to deny it – but at least the theme was original" (Mellor 1933: 102).
[Also known as Conway]
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema