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Title: WEALTH OF A NATION

Reference number: 1062

Date: 1938

Director: d. Donald Alexander

Sponsor: Films of Scotland

Production company: Scottish Film Productions

Sound: sound

Original format: 35mm

Certificate: U

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 17.00 mins

Description: A comparison of old and new industries of Scotland.

One of a group of seven documentaries made for the 1938 Empire Exhibition, under the supervision of John Grierson.
See also SCOTLAND FOR FITNESS ref. 0231, FACE OF SCOTLAND ref. 0034, SEA FOOD ref. 1060, SPORT IN SCOTLAND ref. 0314, THE CHILDREN’S STORY ref. 1059, THEY MADE THE LAND ref. 1063.

Credits: p. Stuart Legg
ass. d. Bladon Peake
commentator Harry Watt
ph. Harry Rignold, Jo Jago

Shotlist: REEL 1
Credits (.46) Shipyard workers enter yards. Gvs gantries, stocks, etc (1.03) Long shot across to Clyde shipyards from hilly vantage point (1.11) Interior foundry and steel mill. Man throws white hot rivets to riveter. Gvs shipyards (2.12) Long shot up machine shop floor (2.20) Construction of steam locomotive engines and shots of one puffing out of factory [San Paulo Railways No 91] (2.36) Men collect wages from office (2.43) Long shot across to gantries on the Clyde (2.50) Gvs vessels in fitting out basins and on the river (3.02) Gvs tenements beside shipyards (3.07) Train emerges from tunnel (3.12) Exterior pit head in coal mine (3.17) Gvs office workers (3.29) Exteriors of factories (3.48) Sir Henry (?) and others at meeting concerning the economy (4.41) Offices of the Scottish Development Council. Gvs typists (4.54) Plan for site of Hillington Industrial Estate in Renfrewshire (5.04) Gvs construction of factories on site (5.38) Aerial view of Hillington industrial estate (5.45) Gvs machine tools craftsmen (6.06) Exterior Compact Chemicals Company Ltd (6.14) Derelict iron works at Wishaw and of neighbouring cement factory (6.20) Hiram Walker's distillery under construction at Dumbarton [almost completed]. Shots of moorland (6.42) Contemporary class of steam locomotive on line (6.51) Construction of road through Glencoe (7.11) Long shot across sea to Western Isles (7.15) Scottish Airways plane G-ACSM takes off past plane G-AGZM on tarmac (7.37) Shots from aircraft to sea below (7.42) Highland scenery. Shots of dam, possibly Galloway? Shots of hydro-electric power station (8.09) Exterior British Aluminium Company works and pan round neighbouring hydro-electric station (8.20) Community working on peat cutting (8.25) Car on country road (8.31).

REEL 2
No credits. Street scenes. Exterior factory and pan round to views of tenements, back courts and washing lines. Women wash clothes in metal tubs in back courts (.34) Unidentified man (.50) Gvs bricklayers and workers on construction site (1.22) More shots of unidentified man with models and plans of housing estates (1.50) Standburn mining village in Stirlingshire (1.54) New housing at Westquarter, Stirling (2.11) Shale bings (2.20) Park and putting green (2.29) Coal pits, miners coming up to surface. Pit buildings, miners getting washed and changed (2.55) Gvs housing and man gardening. A bowling green (3.39) Cycling club passes India Tyres of Inchinnan's factory. Shots of haystack, hills and lochside (3.58) Climbers in Argyll National Park. Shots of yachting (4.19) Shipyards from river (4.30) Machine operator inside steel mill. Workmen discuss effect of introduction of new machinery. Gvs same (5.13) Members inside working men's club as they play cards and discuss how to raise money for football pitch (5.41) Residents public meeting to demand local playing fields (6.30) Dramatised sequence of town councillors' reaction (6.53) Group of youth hostellers and hikers hold meeting on top of hill to demand more laid-out walks (7.17) Factory chimneys and long shot across to shipyard (7.30) Shots of Westquarter houses (7.48) The End (7.50).