Title:A TRIP FROM AUSTRALIA TO ENGLAND - 1939 [Main Title]
Film Number:MGH 6882/1-2
Other titles:AMATEUR FILM BY UNKNOWN AUSTRALIAN [Alternative Title]
Summary: Amateur film with titles shot by an Australian family records pre-war scenes in France, Austria and Hungary, as well as extensive coverage from 1941and 1942 of historic churches in the City of London severely damaged by the German Blitz of 1940-1941.
Description: Reel 1: (Can marked - Trip Europe 1937 Orford) Black and white reel. Three generations of prosperous Australian family, with own chauffeur-driven car, in garden of suburban house; boy and man fly-fish in lake edged by eucalypts. "SS Orford" Scenes on board the Orient Line ship, as young generation frolic on deck and in pool. "War Memorial Cannes" View of modernist friezes on this Great War (First World War) modernist monument commemorating "Aviation, Cavallerie, Infanterie". Pan over Mediterranean harbour; firing competition; boat tour of sights of Venice. "Vienna" Spectator view of large military parade by Austrian Army (Bundesheer) around the Ringstrasse, with Pzkpfw I and Pzkpfw II tanks, Sd.Kfz. 231 six-wheeled armoured cars and truck-drawn large artillery, passing opposite the offices of the Cunard White Star Line [4 Kärntnerring]. Austrian village scene and Gasthof Anton Preisinger, draped with Nazi swastika flags. Terraced gardens (Salzburg?). Beach basket chairs by lakeside, with swastikas visible. "Budapest" View from Buda across the Danube to Pest. Hungarian Army cavalry ride up street. Drinking spa water; woman and man on pebbly beach. Rural scene, shepherd with lambs.
Reel 2: (Colour reel) A TRIP FROM AUSTRALIA TO ENGLAND - 1939
Part 1: [Kodak date stock 1939] Middle-aged man in tweed suit holds up two large rainbow trout in Australia. On board ship (presumably SS Oronsay) through the Suez Canal; ships at Port Said. Two men on deck don gas masks (presumably for practice). View of Admiralty Floating Dock 8 at Valletta, Malta [sunk by Italian bombers in late June 1940]. Gibraltar. White Cliffs of Dover viewed in evening light, with steamer Vanya passing through English Channel. Cheerful nursing sister on deck. Red Ensign raised as ship sails through tropics, officers dressed in whites. View of SS Oronsay lifesaving ring. Officers now in dark blue uniforms.
Part 2: [Kodak date stock 1941, then 1942 - so this must have been added to the original reel dated 1939] "St Paul's Aldersgate, Jermyn Street, Temple Church, St Paul's [Cathedral] and surroundings" Views in summer of these ancient ruined buildings, already shored-up and all rubble cleared away. Street signs indicate Bruton Street (Mayfair) and Cleveland Yard, and after views of St Paul's surroundings, sign "Australia Avenue leading to Lewin Street" attracts the cameraman's patriotic interest. "St Giles Church Cripplegate, Dock Area, Thames (Embankment) Street, St Clement Dane's Church. Waterloo Bridge, RAC. [ Royal Automobile Club]" Locations indicated by signs to Brackley Street and Fore Street Warehouse Company Ltd. Camera at the south-eastern side of Westminster Bridge pans across the Thames. Brief view of national flags, including Brazil and Thailand (Siam) [presumably before Thailand's declaration of war against the UK and USA on 25/1/1942].
Alternative Title:AMATEUR FILM BY UNKNOWN AUSTRALIAN [Alternative Title]
