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Author
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Topic: First Feature Film?
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Martin Jones
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1269
From: Thetford , Norfolk,England
Registered: May 2008
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posted December 07, 2008 05:23 AM
Now here's a new? topic. What was the first Feature Film you can ever remember seeing? Yes, it's a memory thing... go right the way back as far as you can and come up with the VERY FIRST FILM YOU EVER SAW!
Mine takes me back to Lightwater and the Second World War; a mobile film unit came to our primary school (the school is still there in Catena Rise) and showed "SANDERS OF THE RIVER". This sticks in my mind because who could ever forget the amazing voice of Paul Robeson (the film contained the memorable "The Canoe Song"); it has stayed with me ever since. I recently picked up a copy of the Video at a car boot sale and am waiting for the correct moment to watch it again for the first time in ??? years!
I wouldn't be able to recall the technical details after all these years, even if I'd understood the difference at the time, but the Film Unit presumably was 16 mm, or maybe even using 35 mm (GBN's ?).
The second film was "THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP" which I saw at the local cinema as a reward for collecting a certain weight of paper and cardboard for salvage. This post was prompted by the fact that I have also found this recently in Video at a Book Fair.
If I'd been older, the third would have been "THE OUTLAW" with Jane Russell; us oldies wil never forget the poster at least!!!
And does anyone remember the mobile cinema vans with a rear projection screen under a hood at the back which came round showing patriotic and propaganda films in the street? Does anyone know where there might be a preserved version of one of these? I made my own version of one to show Girl Guide promotional films at a local village Revel (fete, to those outside of the West Country) some 30 years ago.
Martin
[ December 07, 2008, 01:50 PM: Message edited by: Martin Jones ]
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Retired TV Service Engineer
Ongoing interest in Telecine....
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted December 08, 2008 10:57 PM
No wonder my older brother is such a fan of the Duke!
I never did like the earlier Duke pictures, though I look forward to seeing this new release on DVD of "The Big Trail". Have you heard about it me older bro?
From what I hear, this is going to be the first time, (since it's original release in 1930) that it has been seen in it's original widescreen presentation, which was called "FOX Granduer", which wasn't quite as wide as cinemascope, but was at least twice as wide and the standard "square" presentation that was the norm until cinemascope. As stated, this will be released in it's original widescreen, and from what people who have seen of it have said, it really is worth seeing in this format, all nicely restored!
Many said the Dukes performance was somewhat "wooden" in this film, and because of this film, the Duke was stuck in low budget groaners, (until "Stagecoach" 1939), but his performance was actually quite good.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Keith Ashfield
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 997
From: U.K.
Registered: Dec 2006
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posted December 09, 2008 02:03 AM
I have that particular Special edition DVD, Osi. It is impressive to see in it's "original" release format, especially if you have only seen the "academy" release version. The production values for 1930 are very good, although you do get the impression, due to the caption boards,it was a "silent" film with sound added later (which it wasn't, of course). When you consider that most of it was filmed on location, in 1930, it was one hell of an achievement.
Duke certainly looks young and as with all "new" actors his performance is a little "wooden", but you can see the Duke we all know and love "bubbling under the surface". I also think his performance is made to look a little "stilted" by his fellow actors, who were all "Theatre Actors, darling!".
quote:
We can't turn back! We're blazing a trail that started in England. Not even the storms of the sea could turn back the first settlers. And they carried it on further. They blazed it on through the wilderness of Kentucky. Famine, hunger, not even massacres could stop 'em. And now we picked up the trail agin. And nothing can stop us! Not even the snows of winter, nor the peaks of the highest mountain. We're building a nation and we gotta suffer! No great trail was ever built without hardship. And you gotta fight! That's right. And when you stop fightin', that's death. What are yer gonna to do, lay down and die? Not in a thousand years! You're going on with me!"
- Breck Coleman - Waynes character, in "The Big Trail"
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"We'll find 'em in the end, I promise you. We'll find 'em. Just as sure as a turnin' of the earth".
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it was "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" Gary Cooper at a "Picture House" thats what we called it back then. I was about 7 years old and I think it was called the Rosevale on Dunbarton road, Partick in Glasgow. In those days everyone smoked and just to watch the projecting light getting through the thick haze to the screen was fasinating in itself it was a real grubby place which I think must have added to the atmosphere of the film as well 
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