Summary: Film supposedly compiled by Bessie Love with the aid of Basil Radford showing how London is coping with the war, for her friends back home in America.
Description: The structure is that of a film within a film, with the opening and closing segments showing the three actors entering and leaving the building, with distancing shots in the main segment of Love and Radford. The film therefore shows: the wide open spaces around St Paul's, which are being cleaned up; Bessie's furrier's shop; a bombed basement that has been turned into a water pool; Big Ben from behind barbed wire; the paper shortage - newspapers with one double page on a weekday and two on a Sunday; the different uniforms that can be seen around London; girls with bare legs because they can't get any stockings; women taking over men's jobs; cars, noting that many people have put them to bed for the duration and showing how deserted the streets are; the taxi shortage; Hyde Park and Speaker's Corner; children being sent out of London; Kensington Gardens almost deserted; the shortage of cigarettes and matches; the food shortage; beer being put into any available bottles; people growing their own vegetables; clothes rationing; salvage - giving away scrap metal; reusing envelopes, and the blackout.
Production Details: Ministry of Information (Production sponsor)
Spectator (Production company)
Cekalski, Eugene (Production individual)
De Marney, Derrick1906-09-211978-02-18 (Production individual)
Wright, Basil19071987 (Production individual)
Luff, A H (Production individual)
Kemplen, Ralph (Production individual)
Bland, William S (Production individual)
Moody, Douglas (Production individual)
Love, Bessie1898-09-101986-04-26 (Production cast)
Radford, Basil (Production cast)
Mitchell, Leslie (Production cast)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Love, Bessie (person)
Radford, Basil (person)
Mitchell, Leslie (person)
Keywords: destruction, British military - area: bomb (object name)
journalism and record, British - press: newspapers (object name)
society, British - domestic (object name)
transport, British civilian - car (object name)
GB, England & London, EC <Saint Paul's Cathedral> (geography)
GB, England & London, SW <Houses of Parliament & Big Ben> (geography)
GB, England & London, SW <Kensington Gardens> (geography)
GB, England & London, W <Hyde Park & Speaker's Corner> (geography)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Sound
Soundtrack language: English
Title language: English
Subtitle language: None
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 1023 ft; Running time: 11 mins
