8mm Forum: As Time goes by

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Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 22, 2008, 05:15 PM:

"You don't just buy a car, you INVEST in an Austin!"

As Time goes by (1x200’, B&W, Derann Film Services)

Modernity, just like youth, is an illusion. Everything that we consider modern today will someday soon be obsolete. This is what’s wonderful about watching “As Time goes by”, because while the 1940s folks on screen are congratulating themselves about their state of the art “Aeroplanes” and “Motor Cars”, we digital age folks are looking into a transportation museum of the long past, yet this smug satisfaction comes at a price: people of our children’s generation will say things like “Remember the Internet?”, and look just the same at our modern wonders. (Truthfully, which is more obsolete: a thirty year old car or a ten year old computer?)

At the beginning, all progress is yet to come, and we meet a poor medieval Oaf (looking very much like Michael Palin dressed up for a Monty Python skit.) trudging pointy-shoed down a dirt path, but as the narrator says “but soon time moves on, and today becomes tomorrow” and now we are witnessing an 18th century horse drawn coach braving bad roads and foppishly dressed highwaymen before we see “modern” buses on the same routes. This is generally how the film progresses: from primitive beginnings come progress until the wonders of modern times arrive, whether buses, ships, aircraft, trains or finally automobiles. From the standpoint of our times, even the modern stuff is delightfully archaic, so we are treated to a parade of horse drawn omnibuses, sailing ships, biplanes, flying boats, boneshaker bicycles, steam locomotives and antique cars. Either the producers of this film were real artists at skillfully assembling stock footage, or a great deal of effort was put into shooting original footage for all of the historical scenes. They are nicely done.

The fun part of the film is that is in the end it turns out to be the most overdone car commercial in the history of motoring. Through generations of progress starting from our poor Oaf out on the road, through the stage coaches and flying boats, sailing ships, ocean liners and bicycles, the end of progress is the coming of the Motor Car, and the very pinnacle is apparently the Austin (“You just don’t buy a car, you INVEST in an Austin!”)

-made me want to run out and buy one, except they aren’t made anymore…

It seems all that Microchip/Moon Landing/Supersonic Travel stuff in the decades that followed was kind of an afterthought, after all: we HAD the Austin!

At one time this film was part of the Derann Catalog, but hasn’t been for a few years. I found it on the used list. Mine is black and white on black and white stock, and looks fantastic. The image is nice and sharp with acceptable grain and contrast. The sound is good with that certain vintage muddiness that seems just right in a film from so long ago.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on May 03, 2008, 03:15 AM:

If anyone is intersted in pre-war Austin cars then a recent DVD may be of interest.

It's "Best Of Vintage Austin" from Heritage Motoring Films.

There are "This Progress" (1933) a feature length production at 59 minutes, "The Mighty Atom" (1933), "Here's to Beauty" (1933) and "Sam's Investment" (1937).

The latter is most interesting with the monologue commentary by Stanley Holloway. Sam inherits £100. How will he invest this windfall? I give you one guess!

One unfortunate item on this DVD is the inclusion of a large irratating logo in the picture corner. I emailed the distributor who replied that it was at the instigation of the copyright owner.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 30, 2012, 10:32 PM:

Years after I got "As Time goes By" I just got another film in this series: "Men Who Work" about Austin's Longbridge car factory.

The film was obviously made around the same time, the cars look the same and the narrator sounds the same as well.

I also enjoyed this one. It's a day in the life of a big, busy factory: everything from production to payroll to the lines of trams lining up to take several thousand workers home at the end of their shift: all in about 10 minutes!

At the time it was meant to impress audiences with a sense of modernity and progress, but today it's nostalgic and almost a little sad, given how jobs like these have become fewer and fewer in places as far apart as Longbridge and Detroit.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 01, 2012, 12:20 PM:

This film reminds me of a Blackhawk films documentary on the Model T, which was basically a lot of "stock" footage of Model T's in assorted predicaments, and title cards suppiled by Blackhawk. It was, actually, a good bit O fun.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on December 02, 2012, 11:09 AM:

There's also the social history there Steve,where our countries
were making things that lasted and were to be proud of.Unlike
today where not a lot of heavy industry employs the masses, and
the best part of our industries are foreign owned.Little films with
some very important history.

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 03, 2012, 08:28 PM:

Back in the 90s I bought The Austin Film Library "1" on VHS tape, with a running time of 90 minutes. Its very good, included are

1 "80 Years Of Austin" 16 minutes.
2 "The Mighty Atom" 10 minutes.
3 "Here's To Comfort" 10 minutes, this is a good one, watch the upholsterer put tacks in his mouth [Eek!]

so he can keep his other hand free to hold the seat while spitting tacks out of his mouth onto a magnetic hammer. [Eek!]

4 "Here's To Beauty" 10 minutes.
5 "Silent and Certain" 10 minutes The Austin gearboxes.
6 "Here's To Power" 18 minutes.
7 "The Pace That Thrills" 12 minutes.
8 "Sam's Investment" Stanley Holloway 6 minutes

It was taken from original 35mm film and transferred onto 1 inch broadcast quality video tape....The tape does looks good and is well worth looking out for, I wonder if it made it to dvd. [Roll Eyes]

Graham.

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