8mm Forum: Blitz on Britain Walton 4 x400ft b/w Sound

This is topic Blitz on Britain Walton 4 x400ft b/w Sound in forum 8mm Print Reviews at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on May 28, 2017, 04:00 AM:

This was a title from Walton films many many years ago, it often pops up for sale, and this copy we have was on a list some years back and was advertised with a great price tag of £25 due to black lines.
Well, i needed a present for my Brother so i gave it a shot. It arrived in its original boxes, (all a little worn), the image is A1 considering the material some of this film must have come from, the sound is also first class, Walton films rarely gave us any problems in these two fields.
This film pretty much covers Britain joining the War and how we got prepared for it, it also shows some superb items i never saw before and includes the fact the we invented the radar to see incoming attacks but explains it couldn't see individual aircraft or how high, but could show formations of aircraft arriving. And the movie covers all aspects of Hitlers first attacks and how this country withstood all the odds.
A great documentary and well in line with the world at war TV series. The black lines are mostly there on reels one and 2 but are very thin black lines, reduced greatly with a clean of filmguard and will give a second clean at a later date, but given the subject it really doesn't bother us, in fact it can ,(oddly) add to film. The end of each reel also has an ending title of Blitz on Britain, end of part 1 etc & each reel can stand alone hence why we will leave it on 4 reels which is very unusual for me to do.
If you only had one WW2 documentary of any kind in your collection this one should be it.

[ June 07, 2019, 03:15 PM: Message edited by: Tom Photiou ]

Posted by Trevor Collett (Member # 5465) on May 29, 2017, 01:28 AM:

I totally agree Tom - this is one of the best WWII documentaries, also important to note this is a theatrical doco, not a TV doco. Includes the BBFC title card (think it's U - equivalent to G rating). Originally released 1962 I think. I acquired this relatively recently (late last year) and I was surprised that it was (a) a theatrical film since was expecting a TV show and (b) just how good it was. Concentrates on the Battle of Britain, runs some 70 minutes.

Highly recommended to anyone else who comes across a print. As Tom says really doesn't matter if there are a few print lines - adds atmosphere to what is real war-time footage.

Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on May 29, 2017, 03:17 AM:

Nice one again Tom. Good screenshots.

I prefer these documentary films more than the commercial
feature films of this topic.

I was going to buy this years ago and now I wish I had.

[Wink]

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