"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).
"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)
"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)
"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.
"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)
"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.
"A horror drama film. A missing broker makes headline news, while a work colleague searches his coat left at work and finds a scrap of paper with an address written on it (the no.49 of the title) and decides to investigate for himself. Arriving at No. 49 the second broker breaks in through a sliding sash window and finds himself in an altar room at the Cult of Raven. Hiding behind a curtain he waits while the rooms fills with cult members preparing for a sacrifice which turns out to be of the original missing broker. The second broker watches as the executioner prepares by smoking a cigarette and polishing his sword, but one of the group of dancing maidens in the cult spots the second broker and screams drawing attention to him, thus marking him for sacrifice instead. However the maiden intervenes and suggests that he shouldn't be killed here, the priestess agrees and passes the execution duties to the maiden and gives her one hour to present the head of the second broker at the altar. The maiden later interrupts the executioner and asks for his help, he points at a metal presentation dish and suggests a ruse. Next the maiden sneaks into the room where the two brokers are now locked. With pen and paper she allows them to write a notice asking for help. She then smuggles this to the outside world and gets a stranger to take the note to the brokers’ employers. With time running out the maiden presents the head of the stock broker on a plate at the altar. The plate has a hole cut in it and under the altar table is the very much alive rest of the broker. The incense burning as part of the ritual however creates a fly in the ointment as it blows across the supposedly disembodied head, after a little bit of false jeopardy where the broker nearly sneezes. The broker is not so lucky the next time and is unable to stifle his sneeze therefore causing the ruse to be rumbled. Fortunately at this exact moment the police arrive to save the day, having been contacted by the broker's office upon receipt of the note asking for help the maiden smuggled out of the cult headquarters. Finally the broker and the maiden kiss (after removing the metal dish with a hole in it from his head) and then the executioner releases the original captured broker. After the credits there is a final scene where a policeman comically tries to remove the altar from the cult whilst trying to keep his wooden top police hat on." (EAFA Database)
"Detailed coverage of the massive structure and complex mechanism of a railway lifting bridge." (EAFA Database)
"Third prize of $150, in the dramatic division went to the Undergraduate Motion Pictures of Princeton University for 'Incident,' which was marked by some extraordinary cinematography. This was in 16 millimeters." Photoplay, Nov. 1929, 67-86.
"This drama, something of a satire upon life as reflected by the tabloids, was written, acted and filmed by a group of youngsters." Photoplay, Nov. 1929, 86
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema