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Author Topic: Out Of The Blue (1931)
Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

- posted October 20, 2015 02:38 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I have just bought a DVD of the Jessie Matthews 1931 film "Out Of The Blue". It also includes the BBFC certificate. The hand-written title on the Censor card is somewhat surprising "Out Of The Blue (Synchronised)".

It gives the impression that the sound could have been on disk. The Internet Movie Database only says the sound is mono. If the sound was on disk originally it does seem rather late (1931) for such a sound track.

Do fellow members have any ideas on this?

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Maurice

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Neil Massey
Junior
Posts: 27
From: Peacehaven, UK
Registered: Oct 2015

- posted October 23, 2015 12:57 PM      Profile for Neil Massey   Email Neil Massey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hi everyone - I've been watching this forum for some time and decided to join given a mid life crisis and a desire to return to 16mm and collect as opposed to rent which I had to do before in my early 20s!

When Out of the Blue was made, I would lay money on it being sound on film: Warner Bros ditched Vitaphone for recording in 1930 although they continued to use the name and release sound on disk until 1936 for those theatres that had not gone to sound on film. In the UK, the first British talkie - Blackmail - used the RCA Photophone system. Gaumont British (who made most of the Jessie Mathews films used their own British Acoustic system which was not nearly as good as the American sound systems and disappeared by the end of the 1930s.This sound system is the reason that many British films of the 1930s sound "tinny."

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Terry Sills
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1423
From: Weymouth,Dorset,England
Registered: Oct 2012

- posted October 23, 2015 02:25 PM      Profile for Terry Sills     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Neil
Great to see that you are now registered and contributing to the forum. It is obvious from the start that you will be a valuable asset. Welcome.

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Andrew Woodcock
Film God

Posts: 7477
From: Manchester Uk
Registered: Aug 2012

- posted October 23, 2015 02:31 PM      Profile for Andrew Woodcock         Edit/Delete Post 
Here here, I hope your crisis lasts a very long time Neil. [Wink]

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"C'mon Baggy..Get with the beat"

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Neil Massey
Junior
Posts: 27
From: Peacehaven, UK
Registered: Oct 2015

- posted October 24, 2015 09:36 AM      Profile for Neil Massey   Email Neil Massey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
How kind of you both, thank you.

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Dominique De Bast
Film God

Posts: 4486
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jun 2013

- posted October 24, 2015 10:28 AM      Profile for Dominique De Bast   Email Dominique De Bast   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Welcome to this forum as a register member, Neil. I take the opportunity of your registration decision to say hello to all those who read us and from whom we all would be happy to hear :-)

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Dominique

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

- posted October 24, 2015 12:55 PM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Welcome to the forum!

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Paul Mason
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 540
From: Aldershot, Hampshire, UK
Registered: Nov 2013

- posted October 25, 2015 09:16 AM      Profile for Paul Mason     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Welcome to the forum Neil.

Regarding OUT OF THE BLUE I think the censor's certificate saying "synchronised" is a reference to the sound version only and does not imply either sound on film or sound on disc. If a silent version was available as with BLACKMAIL it would be censored separately.

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Paul.

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

- posted October 25, 2015 10:32 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Paul
It's a musical. Very unlikely to be also silent.

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Maurice

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Paul Mason
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 540
From: Aldershot, Hampshire, UK
Registered: Nov 2013

- posted October 25, 2015 02:17 PM      Profile for Paul Mason     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Maurice,
I agree there was unlikely to be a silent version especially by 1931 but the BBFC might well assume that a silent version would be submitted later as happened with previous films. Whatever the reason the term "synchronised" was obviously rapidly dropped in the early 30s.

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Paul.

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Dominique De Bast
Film God

Posts: 4486
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jun 2013

- posted October 25, 2015 05:56 PM      Profile for Dominique De Bast   Email Dominique De Bast   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The question I would ask is : "Were there other categories in 1931 like "sound" or were all the UK sound films labelled "synchronised" ?"

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Dominique

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

- posted October 26, 2015 03:27 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
As I said in my opening, the Internet Movie Database is not very helpful as regards sound for this Jessie Matthews musical. Under sound it just says "Mono".
The mystery continues.

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Maurice

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Brian Fretwell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1785
From: London, UK
Registered: Jun 2014

- posted October 26, 2015 06:42 AM      Profile for Brian Fretwell   Email Brian Fretwell   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I wonder if it means that it is not a music only track that doesn't need full synchronisation. Ie unsynchronised would be non dialogue and Synchronised, with dialogue.
Just a vague idea that came to me.

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Mitchell Dvoskin
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 128
From: West Milford, NJ
Registered: Jun 2008

- posted October 27, 2015 08:28 AM      Profile for Mitchell Dvoskin   Email Mitchell Dvoskin   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
While optical sound had clearly won over sound on disc by 1931, most of the major Hollywood Studios (and some European Studios) continued to release disc versions of their films up until 1935, as per their original contract with Vitaphone. In theory, the optical and disc sound should have been the same, but just as there are differences between the various different 35mm sound formats today, there was the possibility of differences in the sound mix between the optical and disc back then. The reason is the same, the sound was optimized for the format being used.

I have a few odd Pathé Vitaphone discs from films released in 1932.

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

- posted November 09, 2015 07:08 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I have, at last, got round to running this film and the credits reveal that the sound recording was on RCA Photophone. This was an optical system using a variable area sound track.

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Maurice

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Paul Mason
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 540
From: Aldershot, Hampshire, UK
Registered: Nov 2013

- posted November 09, 2015 10:04 AM      Profile for Paul Mason     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The BBFC in 1931 was widely regarded as a group of aged, respectable ladies and gentlemen (to put it politely) who would have known little about the technicalities of the new fangled "kinema talkies."

Perhaps they just meant by "synchronised" linked by technical means rather than sound effects and music provided by the cinema musicians as was provided in the bigger cinemas of the silent era.

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Paul.

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