Portrait Of A People

012: Neville Shannon, Engineering Works Manager

Chasing the Blues

'Cotton Kings! Are the medieval conditions and dangerous working practices in your dark satanic mills affecting productivity and cutting into your profits? Well, why not spend a few quid you miserable bastards!'

'Chasing The Blues' is a short, frothy film from 1947 which extols the virtues of tidying up the workplace and installing brand new fangled facilities like running water, toilets and canteens. Change is personified by Mr. Will and Mr. Way, two lively dancers from Sadlers Wells who rampage around the mill wielding paint brushes and putting in showers, all the while pirouetting and kicking their legs up to a jolly swing soundtrack by Jack Parnell.

She's happy, she's just been able to join the 20th century by having a wash at work. Next stop: get those teeth sorted! 

The price of progress is neatly shown in terms of increased output and profits rather than cost - an appeal to the head rather than the heart via the wallet - guaranteed to make sense to even the most Dickensian mill owner.   

Energetically and innovatively done, 'Chasing The Blues' owes a lot to Len Lye's jazzy films for the GPO (co-director Jack Ellit had worked with Lye extensively). The most extraordinary thing, I suppose, is that this film was made in 1947, and was targeted at places which, despite having a workforce of thousands, still didn't have places for them to wash their hands or eat their sandwiches.

Thankyou Mr.Will and Mr. Way -but not for your bastard grandchildren, Mr. Health and Ms. Safety.

Off The Job

Finally, the sequence in 'Stone Into Steel' where it all goes weird and the music gets clattery and we see into the men's heads and get glimpses of their public and private passions, gaining an insight into what they do when they're not at work. In the case of the last picture, he seems to be doing Pat Butcher.

A Sense Of Proportion

More from the marvellous 'Stone Into Steel', with a selection of shots designed to put across the sheer scale of the operation in sunny Scunny, and the relatively few and infinitely tiny human beings needed to keep it all going. 

Life On Mars

The vast alien landscape of the Appleby-Frodingham steelworks in Scunthorpe, as seen in the super duper 'Stone Into Steel'. How do I know the name of the steelworks? Extensive research, instinct, and a small clue within the film itself..

Stone Into Steel

I watch an awful lot of documentaries, public information films and the like. I don't know why, I like them and they make me feel happy and contented and, strangely, full of hope for a long gone age, usually one that I didn't ever experience myself. Some of the films are deadly dull, of course, but most make for riveting viewing, especially the ones about ship building. That was a riveting joke, by the way. 

My favourite film of many favourites is 'Stone Into Steel', from 1960. It shows us the process by which iron ore is extracted from rock and, eventually, turned into battleships and radio telescopes. It does all this in just over half an hour and, apart from some opening captions, no other explanation other than what we see on the screen - no dialogue, no commentary, just the odd bit of ambient noise and an ever changing modernist classical score by Edward Williams. Every frame is beautiful, and although the pace is gentle, it's never boring even if, like me, you have no specific interest in the steel industry. It was directed by Paul Dickson, who later went on to make episodes of 'Department S' and 'Jason King' - clearly, a very talented man.  

Frustratingly, I've been unable to illegally reproduce my nice, bright version of the film, so, if you're interested, for now you'll have to watch a scabby, faded copy on You Tube. Start here.

Wish You Were Here

'One Way Trip' is another macabre midget gem from those morbid geniuses at the National Coal Board. I love its strange combination of bizarre fantasy sci fi imagery and tourism cliches, and the sting at the end is nicely done. A fair point well made.

Man Failure

The National Coal Board knew the power of film, using it to communicate key messages like ‘you’ve never had it so good’ and ‘try not to die’ to the thousands of miners it employed. The format they used is not dissimilar to a Public information Film, but differs in two respects: these films were not for public broadcast, they were for miners only; as a result, they are far more explicit in terms of content, including graphic deaths, pram accidents, sexual situations and equal opportunities nudity.

A PIF might show a man at work on a circular saw, for example, racking up the tension before juxtaposing images and music or sound effects to imply that he has just cut his fingers off – an NCB film shows you the severed fingers, and the bloodied hand they’ve just been parted from.

Case in point: ‘Man Failure’ from 1971. In it, the NCB basically say ‘we’ve made it safe for you – try not to mess it up’, giving two stark examples of what happens if you don’t pay attention. In this first part, our victim is brooding on an unpleasant and violent argument he had with his wife that morning. The argument is her fault, of course, but it’s his job to forget about it while he’s work. He can’t, so ends up dead, extravagantly spitting blood as he falls. As for his wife, well, she should have known not to put such a burden on a working man, so now she’s a widow, mouthy cow.

In this second part, an older man is paired to work alongside a much younger man – a mistake initially made by the foreman, but fatally compounded by the old man who tries to keep pace with his more energetic colleague, and by the younger man, who is constantly distracting him with tall tales about picking up hippy chicks on his chopper, skinny dipping (cue nudity) and sex. When sudden, violent death comes to the old geezer, as it surely must, it’s actually a relief for us all, although not immediately for the poor man, who has to undergo some painful looking crushing first.

'Man Failure' is a well thought out and highly imaginative short film, professionally made and with a simple and uncompromising message: don't get married, don't get old and, for fuck's sake, don't get killed.