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Title: COTTAGE FOR SALE

Reference number: 7205

Date: 1957

Director: [filmed by W.S. Dobson (Primus)]

Sound: mute

Original format: 16mm

Colour: col

Fiction: fiction

Running time: 15.25 mins

Description: Comical story of old man trying to sell cottage to a variety of potential purchasers, who are mostly put off by unfortunate events.

One of a series of films made by William Dobson of Colinton (a former ECS Secretary and Vice Chairman of SAAC) The series ran as follows: ref. 1658 WEEKEND QUARTET, ref. 3078 TRIO IN TROUBLE, ref. 5874 PILLS FOR ALL ILLS, and ref. 7205 COTTAGE FOR SALE. The Archive preserves all these titles.

Dobson family owned cottage and farm at Macbiehill, near Lamancha. This film was shot there. Family home was at Barnshot Road, parish of Colinton, Edinburgh.

Entered in SAFF Festival in 1957 (fiction category).

Shotlist: title (0.05) establishing shot of cottage and river (0.14) man walks out of cottage door (0.23) 'for sale' sign and shots of man in suit and hat repairing roof (0.49) gets rake from house and works in garden (1.18) man, woman and twin? girls approach house and are shown inside (1.58) brief int shots of cottage, while outside girls throw a ball and break repaired roof (2.15) girls run away and make a mess in garden, owner gives them a row (2.45) their mother shouts at the owner, who steps back on to the rake (2.56) owner turns on husband, thinking he has been hit by him (3.06) misunderstanding resolved (3.09) family depart with recriminations (3.24) owner tears up letter (3.35) well-dressed older couple arrive in chauffeur-driven car (4.16) they talk with owner, who tries in vain to show them inside cottage (5.05) owner shows them grounds around cottage (5.33) couple depart uninterested (6.30) sheep enter garden and owner frantically chases them out (7.19) owner replaces broken drainpipe (7.35) another couple with boy and girl arrive (8.00) boy and girl run off to river and play in rowing boat (9.09) they return to cottage to angry parents, and family depart (9.32) owner checks next appointment letter - 'Dunedin Boys Club, 4.30' then walks to river (10.05) boys arrive on bicycles, look around grounds (10.43) they help owner to pull in rowing boat from river (11.53) all return to cottage and talk (12.27) boys depart (12.36) owner removes 'for sale' sign and sits down at riverbank (12.50) sequences of owner's dreams/memories? (13.49) ext shots of cottage and river (14.14) int shots of owner opening window and releasing butterfly (14.28) owner locks cottage (14.44) returns to lock window and departs again (15.25)