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Title: WAVERLEY STEPS

Reference number: 0114

Date: 1948

Director: d. John Eldridge

Sponsor: COI for the Scottish Home Department

Production company: Greenpark Productions in assoc. with the Film Producers' Guild

Sound: sound

Original format: 35mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 29.44 mins

Description: Dramatised documentary about the inhabitants of Edinburgh during the course of a single day.

Shown at the Edinburgh Documentary Film Festival in 1948. Treatment based on a film by Arne Sucksdorff called RHYTHM OF A CITY about Stockholm.

Danish sailor was played by actor N. K. Stroyberg, b. 1926. Age 22 he was working in Edinburgh and took part in the film on a part-time basis. He recalls that he was paid even for days he couldn't work because it was raining. Bought a motor-bike on the proceeds and toured Europe. He came up with the name of the ship Logstor which is the name of a small town in Denmark and which he thought looked unmistakably Nordic. [Info. supplied by his daughter during visit to view film in 1994].

Credits: p. Paul Fletcher
ph. Martin Curtis
written by John Sommerfield
cam. op. Roland Stafford
unit p.m. John Elliot
ed. John Trumper
Danish sailor played by N K Stroyberg

[soundtrack features Herrick Bunney playing the organ in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh]

Shotlist: Credits (0.38) shots of steam locomotive "Union of South Africa" on tracks and approaching Edinburgh. Shots as the train approaches Waverley Station, shots cab and buildings along line. Shot of station. A4 locomotive no. 27 Merlin pulls in to platform (2.00) small boys on bridge as steam locomotive passes below. Driver and fireman "knock off". Locomotive shunted away (2.54) railwayman cycles home past cemetery. Shots of people walking along pathways. gvs inside church, possibly St. Cuthbert's King's Stables Road. Shots cemetery outside (4.37) railwayman arrives at tenement, possibly in Calton Road, and goes upstairs to girlfriend's flat - shots of milkman - street cleaning lorry going down the Mound - l/s along railway tracks outside Waverley Station. (6.21) railwayman and girl in flat - coalman on horse and cart arrives at Leith. gvs of harbour and vessels - seamen on deck of ship - coalman takes his horse into blacksmith's shop for shoeing (7.16) Norwegian seaman's ship docks - blacksmith finishes shoeing the horse, seaman goes ashore - seaman passes coalman in street (8.16) children run out of a close - shot of tram and inside as seaman travels up town - shot of tram as it turns the corner from Leith Street into Princes Street. Seaman alights. l/s along Princes Street (9.13) seaman asks passers-by directions. c/u group on pavement as woman directs him to the Castle - one of group enters HQ of the Royal Bank of Scotland, St. Andrews Square. Shots inside (10.18) coalman delivers coal to street bunker in Moray Place in the New Town as resident leaves for work by car - shots of car as it climbs the Mound and stops at the top of the hill - female student enters University of Edinburgh Medical Building - car driver now in advocate's robes walks through corridors of the Court of Session (11.34) student take seat in lecture room and shots of lecture - shots of advocate in courtroom during a trial. gvs of court - shots inside Royal Bank offices (13.27) shot of seaman on George IV Bridge and looking down to Canongate - students leave building (14.01) shot of ext. of St. Giles' Cathedral. Shots inside during organ recital. Seaman looks around the Cathedral. Shots organist (15.19) Edinburgh Castle as one o'clock gun fires. Shot of Princes Street from North British Hotel - tracking shot pedestrians in Princes Street - shots inside the New Club, Princes Street - coalman eats sandwiches and reads the racing section of the paper (16.56) coalman meets his neighbour at entrance to close, chats to her and then walks on. Meets bookie's runner and gives him a line (17.41) shots inside courtroom as judge gives sentence - female student leaves home, banker signs documents, student emerges from bookshop and stops to look in dress shop window - the seaman passes her and enters newsagent. Buys cigarettes (19.52) [Edinburgh Evening] News delivery van drops off papers to vendor in Market Street. Coalman buys a newspaper and reads the racing results - Seaman in Castle. Shot down to Princes Street (21.48) female student leaves flat with male friend - the advocate and his wife take their seats in theatre. Shot of conductor and shots of ballet chorus preparing to go on stage [Gateway Theatre] (22.49) shots of dance band [the Ernie Caldwell Band] and students dancing in the University of Edinburgh's Debating Hall of the Men's Union, Teviot Row (23.04) bank clerk at indoor curling rink - seaman wanders past pub, enters, is befriended by the coalman. Shot in through the window (23.35) shots of ballet (24.43) shots of student dance - couple move outside (25.15) shots of ballet - shots of the couple and the ballet (26.28) seaman and coalman roll out of the pub. Piper plays outside. The two part company (27.02) Doctor leaving a flat - railwayman leaves flat, seaman boards his ship (27.50) steam locomotive "Merlin" pulls out of station - student couple say goodnight - gvs of street. Railwayman's girlfriend leans out of the window - l/s Princes Street at night - ecs (29.44)