| The Saving of Bill Blewitt | |
|---|---|
 Still from the film | |
| Directed by | Harry Watt |
| Produced by | Alberto Cavalcanti John Grierson |
| Starring | Bill Blewitt |
| Music by | Benjamin Britten |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 26 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Saving of Bill Blewitt is a 1936 documentary film produced by Alberto Cavalcanti of the GPO Film Unit [1] and directed by Harry Watt. [2]
Intended as a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Post Office Savings Bank, Watt's film eschewed conventional narration in favour of improvising a story around the villagers of Mousehole and the Cornish landscape they inhabit. The film's power of conviction owed much to the real-life Bill Blewitt, the village postmaster. [3] Others recall him as having "a mesmeric gift of the gab, a glorious Cornish accent, twinkling blue eyes, a grin as broad as 'Popeye' and the charismatic charm of the Celt." [4]
Set during the economic slump of the 1930s, the film follows two fishermen who have lost their boat but manage to save enough to buy another with the help of the Post Office Savings Bank. The inter-village squabbles and references to unemployment reflected the actual hardships of the Cornish fishing villages, whose pilchard industry had been suffered from Britain's refusal to trade with Mussolini's Italy.
The film was shown around the whole of Britain, often at church halls and other meeting rooms and was generally well received. [5] On its showing in the village of Mousehole itself, the Post Office Magazine reported that the film caused such excitement amongst villagers that much of the dialogue could not be heard above the chatter. [6] At the end of a showing in nearby Penzance Bill Blewitt and his wife, who also appeared, stepped onto the stage to be greeted by deafening cheers and hand clapping. [7]
Against this hardship, the film's promotion of saving with the Post Office occupies a rather ambiguous place. The administrators of the post office savings account are unreal and over-earnest comic figures. Their intrusions into what is an otherwise realistic story have a dream-like quality at odds with the film's otherwise gently comic flow.
Acclaimed by film maker Paul Rotha as the first 'story' documentary, The Saving of Bill Blewitt influenced populist Ealing comedies such as Whisky Galore! and the films of Mike Leigh. The real-life Bill Blewitt went on to appear in several other story-documentaries and wartime propaganda films as The Foreman Went to France and Harry's Watt's Nine Men .
John Grierson was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Flaherty's Moana.
Penzance is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about 64 miles (103 km) west-southwest of Plymouth and 255 miles (410 km) west-southwest of London. Situated in the shelter of Mount's Bay, the town faces south-east onto the English Channel, is bordered to the west by the fishing port of Newlyn, to the north by the civil parish of Madron and to the east by the civil parish of Ludgvan. The civil parish includes the town of Newlyn and the villages of Mousehole, Paul, Gulval, and Heamoor. Granted various royal charters from 1512 onwards and incorporated on 9 May 1614, it has a population of 21,200.
Newlyn is a seaside town and fishing port in south-west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the largest fishing port in England.
Stargazy pie is a Cornish dish made of baked pilchards (sardines), along with eggs and potatoes, covered with a pastry crust. Although there are a few variations using other types of fish, the unique feature of stargazy pie is fish heads protruding through the crust, so that they appear to be gazing to the stars.
Frank Humphrey Sinkler Jennings was an English documentary filmmaker and one of the founders of the Mass Observation organisation. Jennings was described by film critic and director Lindsay Anderson in 1954 as "the only real poet that British cinema has yet produced".
Mousehole is a village and fishing port in Cornwall, England, UK. It is approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) south of Penzance on the shore of Mount's Bay. The village is in the civil parish of Penzance. An islet called St Clement's Isle lies about 350 metres (380 yd) offshore from the harbour entrance.
Went the Day Well? is a 1942 British war film adapted from a story by Graham Greene and directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. It was produced by Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios and served as unofficial propaganda for the war effort. The film shows a Southern English village taken over by German paratroopers, reflecting the greatest potential nightmare for the British public of the time, although the threat of German invasion had largely receded by that point. The film is notable for its unusually frank, for the time, depiction of ruthless violence.
The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office. The unit was established in 1933, taking on responsibilities of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit. Headed by John Grierson, it was set up to produce sponsored documentary films mainly related to the activities of the GPO.
The Overlanders is a 1946 British-Australian Western film about drovers driving a large herd of cattle 1,600 miles overland from Wyndham, Western Australia through the Northern Territory outback of Australia to pastures north of Brisbane, Queensland during World War II.
Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. He was often credited under the single name "Cavalcanti".
Charles Herbert Frend was an English film director and editor, best known for his films produced at Ealing Studios. He began directing in the early 1940s and is known for such films as Scott of the Antarctic (1948) and The Cruel Sea (1953).
Night Mail is a 1936 British documentary film directed and produced by Harry Watt and Basil Wright, and produced by the General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit. The 24-minute film documents the nightly postal train operated by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) from London to Scotland and the staff who operate it. Narrated by John Grierson and Stuart Legg, the film ends with a "verse commentary" written by W. H. Auden to a score composed by Benjamin Britten. The locomotive featured in the film is LMS Royal Scot Class 6115 Scots Guardsman.
Raymond Egerton Harry Watt was a Scottish documentary and feature film director, who began his career working for John Grierson and Robert Flaherty.
Christmas Under Fire is a 1941 British short documentary film directed by Harry Watt for the Crown Film Unit of the Ministry of Information. It was conceived as propaganda primarily for an American audience, to raise support for the Allied cause during the Second World War. Produced in the context of German bombings of British cities, it depicts the resilience of British civilians despite the hardships they suffered during the 1940 Christmas, by showing the continuation of Christmas traditions in the face of the disruptions caused by war. The film is a sequel to London Can Take It!, with the same narrator, Quentin Reynolds. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short, which was won by Churchill's Island.
The Documentary Film Movement is the group of British filmmakers, led by John Grierson, who were influential in British film culture in the 1930s and 1940s.
Stuart Legg was a pioneering documentary filmmaker. At the 14th Academy Awards in 1941, Legg's National Film Board of Canada film Churchill's Island became the first-ever documentary to win an Oscar.
Nine Men is a 1943 British war film, set in the Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War.
Men of the Lightship is a short propaganda film produced by the Crown Film Unit for the British Ministry of Information in 1940, the year after the beginning of the Second World War. It dramatises the bombing of the East Dudgeon lightship by the Luftwaffe on 29 January 1940 and was designed to portray Germany as a barbaric enemy. An opening narration explains the traditional understanding of lightships as neutral vessels during war.
Bill Blewitt was a Cornish postman 'discovered' by film-maker Harry Watt and cast in his 1936 film The Saving of Bill Blewitt. The documentary was about the Post Office Savings Bank and featured Blewitt and the villagers of Mousehole in Cornwall. Assistant director Pat Jackson remembered Blewitt's "mesmeric gift of the gab, a glorious Cornish accent, twinkling blue eyes, a grin as broad as 'Popeye' and the charismatic charm of the Celt." Charles Crichton remembered Blewitt as a natural actor and storyteller.
North Sea is a 1938 documentary film produced by Alberto Cavalcanti under the auspices of the GPO Film Unit and directed by Harry Watt. The film makers challenged the conventions of documentary, casting non-professionals, as they had in their previous film The Saving of Bill Blewitt. In the same style, North Sea employed minimal narration and relies on action, dialogue and characterisation to tell its story.
