The Thirties: An
Intimate History by Juliet Gardiner
Published by
Harper Press 2010
Hardcover 944
pages
Review by Adrian
Smith
On 31st
December 1929 over 1000 children, unaccompanied by adults, packed into The Glen
Cinema in Paisley, Scotland to watch a short Tom Mix western, some cartoons and
The Crowd, an epic silent movie
directed by King Vidor. Shortly after the programme started, and the natural
rowdiness and noise began to die down, some of the children noticed smoke
coming from the projection booth. The scream of “Fire!†caused major panic, and
as the auditorium filled with both smoke and carbon monoxide there was a rush
to the exits. Unfortunately the main exit had been firmly locked by the owners
to prevent children from letting their friends in without paying. When the
rescue operation was finally over 71 children were dead and many more ill or
injured. This was the worst kind of tragedy to befall a small community, and it
happened in a cinema.
This incredible
story is used by Gardiner to open her fascinating new book on the social
history of Britain as it went from prosperity to recession and into an
inescapable World War. Although this book falls somewhat outside the main focus
of Cinema Retro, it contains an insightful chapter on the development of film
exhibition throughout the decade, and the growth of the “Picture Palaces†or
“Dreamlands†across the country. She quotes some unbelievable statistics that
would make any studio executive today weep with envy: in 1934 903 million cinema tickets were sold in Britain, and this had risen to over
990 million by 1939. This was an average of almost 20
million every single week. Compare that to the UK box office figures for 2009 -
a mere 173.5 million. By 1938 there were nearly 5000 cinemas with some towns
having over 100 each. There are some wonderful descriptions which put our
modern multiplexes to shame. She notes the Astoria in Brixton which was built
like an indoor fantasy of trailing vines, antique statues and a ceiling which
changed like the sky from dawn to dusk, to starry night. As if that wasn’t
enough they scented the auditorium with Yardley’s Lavender perfume. Others were
designed to look like Egyptian pyramids, Baronial halls or mermaid’s palaces.
To top it off, when the audience took their seats they were first entertained
by a man in a white suit rising from the well of the cinema playing popular
tunes on a translucent, flashing, multi-coloured electric organ.
(Photo copyright Adrian Smith. All rights reserved)
Ray
Harryhausen: Myths and Legends
By
Adrian Smith
On
the 29th June one of the world’s most legendary filmmakers
celebrated his 90th birthday. To coincide with this, the London Film
Museum is hosting a brand new exhibition devoted to the great man himself.
Cinema Retro was fortunate enough to attend the event and join in the birthday
celebrations, alongside such notable guests as John Landis, Terry Gilliam,
Peter Jackson and special effects guru Rick Baker.
Rick Baker and John Landis get uncomfortably close to a sword-wielding skeleton. (Photo copyright Adrian Smith. All rights reserved.)
Gilliam
was very clear at to why he was in attendance. “I’ve been a fan, like most
people, especially my generation I think, because we grew up with his monsters,
his creatures, his Greek mythology even. What I love about him is his handiwork.
It’s not digital, with teams of people doing it. It’s Ray giving life to these
things. That’s why I think this stuff works. It’s a performance. There’s
something about that kind of handiwork that I just find extraordinary. It’s not
real, and it seems to trigger off all sorts of childhood fantasies. You see
something that’s clearly not real, but totally believable at the same time. We
know that stuff is clay and rubber and stuff, and suddenly it’s given life.
It’s magic!†So with all that said, will Gilliam be using stop motion in his
next project, the much-anticipated The
Man Who Killed Don Quixote? “No, I’m using computers! I need things done
quickly and cheaply!â€
After
Ray had cut the ribbon in front of a wall of cameras we went into the
exhibition itself. The first thing you see is a recreation of King Kong atop
the Empire State Building. Although Ray Harryhausen is the main focus of this
exhibition, he was keen to ensure that it presented a history of the animation
art form as well. After all he has recently co-written a hugely informative
book on the subject, A Century of Model
Animation. Ray happily posed for photos, alongside his wife Diana and
daughter Vanessa. At one point a spontaneous singalong of Happy Birthday broke
out.
Aldo Sanbrell photographed in 2007 by John Exshaw. (Photo copyright John Exshaw. All rights reserved.)
BY JOHN EXSHAW
With the death of Aldo Sanbrell, who passed
away in Alicante last Saturday (10 July), aged 79, another link to the great
days of Italian film-making – and the Italian Western, in particular – has been
lost. The only actor to appear in all of Sergio Leone’s Westerns, Aldo was the
most prominent and recognisable of all those mean-looking hombres who rode the badlands and bit the dust of AlmerÃa in those
far-off days when southern Spain was the Wild West – Italian style. Asked once
by a British director if he “knew how to die,†Aldo replied, “Oh yes, señor, I
have been killed in many film fights here in AlmerÃa. I have died for Clint
Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson, George Scott . . . I have made 185
films and I have been killed in all of them. Yes, I know how to die.â€
Aldo, photographed at home in Alicante, 2008 - and always ready for action. (Photo copyright John Exshaw. All rights reserved.)