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Title: DUNDEE

Reference number: 1061

Date: 1939

Director: d. Donald Alexander

Sponsor: Films of Scotland Committee

Production company: Scottish Film Productions

Sound: sound

Original format: 35mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 19.15 mins

Description: The city of Dundee and its industries; jute, jam manufacturing and journalism.

Premiered at a meeting of the British Association in Dundee, September 1939, the screening was abandoned midway owing to the declaration of war. Film immediately rendered obsolete. Recorded on Albion Truphonic Sound System.

See paper archives ref. 4/11/405, 8/75 and 4/12/37.

Please note this is a BW sound film, not to be confused with the colour silent film of the same name, at ref. 0480.

Credits: p. Stanley Russell
ph. Graham Thompson
sd. Malcolm M. Irvine
[comm. w. Donald Alexander
comm. s. Alastair Borthwick, Tom Smith]

Shotlist: BBFC certificate – credits (0.58) car is driven onto deck of Tay ferry at Newport-on-Tay. gvs as ferry pulls away from pier and passengers begin to talk to each other on deck. [Narrative continues throughout film and is based on conversation between two or three Dundonians and a visitor to the city as the ferry crosses the Firth of Tay] (1.55) Cargo boats carrying jute at dockside - Passengers talking on deck - c/u of wheel and stern of ferry "Sir William High" - shots across to Dundee from ferry (3.02) Map of Dundee - Landscapes up river - Salmon fishermen at work - Maps (4.05) pan across 17th century Slezer print of Dundee - weaving loom - Old prints of city - Cargo of bales of flax being off-loaded at docks. Weaving machines - Old prints of Dundee - Weaver at loom - Shots of sheep shearers at work, weavers, and back to shearers (5.13) Shots from tunnel and from top of hoist as coal skip is hauled up - coal trucks [Wemyss" on side] on rails - shots of Dundee as passengers talk, intercut with scenes of unloading of bales of jute and mill processes (6.51) shots down to roof of mill and houses - pan across rooftops to the south side of the Firth and round to railway bridge - Shots of passengers on deck (8.02) LMS coal train crossing railway bridge - Night shots of Tay Bridge South railway station as steam locomotive goes through - Dramatised re-construction of the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879 - Photo of the damaged bridge the following morning and page from a document recording articles recovered from the water (9.29) Steam locomotive and carriages cross the railway bridge - Shots of the support pillars of the Forth rail bridge and steam vessel passing in between - shots of a steam locomotive crossing the Forth rail bridge (9.59) Map of UK showing main communication routes - Mill lassies. Montage various magazines, theatricals, etc. gvs of people on streets reading papers, a newsvendor - int. Valentines of Dundee as printing machinery is in operation. Postcard - Artists draw orig. comic postcards (11.11) Shots Keiller’s factory, jam bottling process intercut with scenes on Perthshire fruit farm - Passengers on ferry and shot across to Dundee - sailing ship - Whale is pulled alongside whaling vessel. gvs Arctic snow and ice formations - RRS Discovery (12.01) Ship model maker William Gateshill at work on Glen Line motor ship - Launch of cargo steamer ‘Barwon’ at Caledon yard - gvs dockside - shopping street in Dundee – American steam locomotive - gv street traffic, trams, in central Dundee - int. jute mill - men cross railway bridge on way home from mill. Workforce pours out of Lochee jute mill, Camperdown jute mill chimney in background (13.08) passengers on ferry - gvs back courts of tenements as children play (three McTaggart brothers, one of whom is Dick McTaggart) - Women enter Polepark Day Nursery. gvs nursery children - ext. tenements at Urquhart Street - shots town planners at work (14.11) children and doctors in school clinic wearing protective black glasses - Suburban houses - gvs crowds as local sports event is held at Dens Park - people on beach - shots of paddle steamer at quayside with city of Dundee in the background - c/u of wheelhouse of ferry and gvs passengers as ferry pulls into pier (15.22) shots of spinning and weaving mill, int. of electrical transformer factory and a lorry on the road with transformers on trailer bound for hydro station - Raspberry pickers in field - Canning factory - Ferry ties up at pier and cars drive off. Shots from car as it drives off. Shots along water-front and under the Royal Arch - shots at docks and gvs of quayside as jute is unloaded (18.05) shots from Law Hill across rooftops to railway bridge - Montage of previous shots to provide summary of film - Shots of composite seaplane / flying boat [G-ADHK Maia, G-ADHJ Mercury – Short Mayo Composite] as it flies up the Firth of Tay, city of Dundee in the background - The End (19.15)