8mm Forum: Out Of The Blue (1931)

This is topic Out Of The Blue (1931) in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on October 20, 2015, 02:38 AM:

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?

Posted by Neil Massey (Member # 5081) on October 23, 2015, 12:57 PM:

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."

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on October 23, 2015, 02:25 PM:

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.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on October 23, 2015, 02:31 PM:

Here here, I hope your crisis lasts a very long time Neil. [Wink]

Posted by Neil Massey (Member # 5081) on October 24, 2015, 09:36 AM:

How kind of you both, thank you.

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on October 24, 2015, 10:28 AM:

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 :-)

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 24, 2015, 12:55 PM:

Welcome to the forum!

Posted by Paul Mason (Member # 4015) on October 25, 2015, 09:16 AM:

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.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on October 25, 2015, 10:32 AM:

Paul
It's a musical. Very unlikely to be also silent.

Posted by Paul Mason (Member # 4015) on October 25, 2015, 02:17 PM:

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.

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on October 25, 2015, 05:56 PM:

The question I would ask is : "Were there other categories in 1931 like "sound" or were all the UK sound films labelled "synchronised" ?"

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on October 26, 2015, 03:27 AM:

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.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on October 26, 2015, 06:42 AM:

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.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 1183) on October 27, 2015, 08:28 AM:

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.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on November 09, 2015, 07:08 AM:

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.

Posted by Paul Mason (Member # 4015) on November 09, 2015, 10:04 AM:

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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