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Title:WAR OFFICE OFFICIAL TOPICAL BUDGET 335-2 (fragment 1) [Main Title]
Film Number:IWM 1061-09a
Other titles:
Summary: Newsreel item showing a coalmine in Alsace being worked by French soldiers, January 1918.
Description: The item starts with a notice saying that profits from the newsreel all go to service charities. Then the soldiers are shown bringing the full coaltrucks out onto the surface of the mine. The coal is dumped from the trucks and horse-wagons are loaded from the dump. A traction engine runs a coal-crusher. A few soldiers lead a heavy ox-wagon along the roads. The captions describe the scene, incorrectly, as road building by the troops.
Production Details: Department of Information (Production sponsor)
War Office Cinema Committee (Production sponsor)
Topical Film Company (Production company)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: French Army (regiment/service)
Keywords: industry, French - primary (object name)
society, British military - charity (object name)
31/3(44) (event)
Alsace, France (geography)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Silent
Soundtrack language: None
Title language: None
Subtitle language: English
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 61 ft; Running time: 1 min
Notes: Production: see IWM 651a and IWM 1061-01 for production details
Summary: note that other fragments of the same newsreel are held (with Spanish titles) as IWM 697a and shorter (English language) duplicate material as IWM 672b and IWM 1061-09c. This particular item comes from the French official newsreel ANNALES DE LA GUERRE 43 (IWM 508-43). The error in interpretation of what the men are doing made by the British version suggests strongly that, as so often in British official film production in the war, the people handling the captions were not the same as those preparing the actual film
Technical: this fragment is currently held on the same reel as IWM 1061-09b-o, the can is marked as IWM 1061-09