Information
- BFI identifier322138
- Date1950-06 (Release)
- Production countryUnited Kingdom
- Production company
- SynopsisINTEREST. The economic and social situation in Britain in the post war years. Rl.1 Credits (50ft). Brumas, the polar bear cub born at London Zoo, makes its first public appearance (70ft), February 24th 1950. Results of the General Election are flashed on a screen at Piccadilly Circus, cheering crowds (100ft). King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on their way to the opening of Parliament (115ft). Newsreel shots of George V and Edward VII going to the opening of Parliament, showing how little the tradition has changed (131ft). Examples of the British way of life - the Grand National (144ft), the Boat race (154ft), yachts (164ft), couple walking in a garden, people looking at flowers, man watering flowers in a window box (182ft), the Order of the Garter Ceremony (220ft), judges walking in procession (238ft), the City, the Bank of England (249ft). Examples of recent social changes - country houses no longer privately owned but in the hands of the National Trust (280ft), golfers (289ft), husbands shopping and pushing prams (309ft), increased use of public libraries - people looking at books, the changing counter (319ft), people in informal dress entering a theatre (354ft), students attending a lecture at university (387ft), new schools being built, children playing in the school playground (378ft). The National Health Service - doctor examining children, dental school, woman trying on spectacle frames (404ft). Rebuilding of Coventry (426ft), new houses built using prefabrication (439ft), new blocks of flats(458ft), building sites(472ft). Government buildings, commentary points out that Britain is the most heavily taxed nation in the world (490ft), crowds at Downing Street (502ft). Scenes of unloading at docks, commentary explains that an increase in exports was needed to save Britain after the war (539ft), more home food production - shots of fields of corn, harvesting, milking, ploughing marginal land (604ft). Manufacture of lens and watches for export (648ft), newly built oil refineries and plants for synthetic petrol (663ft), open cast coal mining (692ft), caption - Britain sends overseas a quarter of the total exports of all Western Europe (703ft), railway engines and dredgers for export (757ft), raw materials which Britain imports - cocoa beans, cotton blaes, sheets of rubber (771ft), tin (784ft), manufacture of pins for export (787ft), launching of ships which are for export (858ft), manufacture of records (880ft), manufacture of light bulbs (900ft). Rl.2 Other goods for export shown - textiles (17ft), electronics (25ft), cloth (51ft), metal sheets (56ft), sweets (75ft), biscuits (87ft), safety pins (101ft), china clay (113ft), motor cycles (130ft), aeroplanes, taking off and in flight (205ft), the `Brabazon' airliner taking off and in flight (227ft), horses (236ft), livestock (265ft), toys (273ft), pianos (287ft), perfume (300ft), orchids (322ft), land machinery (346ft). Shots of New York skyscrapers and street scenes, commentary explains that Britain sells less to the United States than what she buys from them (412ft). Tourists aboard a liner en route for Britain (460ft), exhibition of Queen Mary's carpets in the States (443ft), building construction for the Festival of Britain (460ft), pottery and china for export (483ft), materials (514ft), knitted goods (516ft), barrels of whisky (525ft), motor cars for export being tested over rough ground, motor cars in production (573ft), shots of Broadway lights where British plays and films are being produced (587ft), members of the Vic Wells ballet return from a successful tour abroad (598ft). Caption `In normal times what Britain has achived would have been good enough. It is not good enough today' (612ft). Shots of miners, textile machines, steel production, commentary suggests that more up to date equipment would increase efficiency (687ft), shots of dock strike meeting of the London Port workers in Trafalgar square, meeting of the Trade Union Congress, commentary states that there should be fewer strikes (727ft). Research achievements shown - interior of a research laboratory (748ft), cattle saved by the discovery of anthrycide from tsetse fly (755ft), television studio (773ft), radar (791ft), atomic physics laboratory (808ft), development of the jet engine (817ft), experimental jet motor car (824ft), the first jet airliner, the Comet in flight (849ft), new towns and factories being built (874ft), coal mine (891ft), new sources of power - shots of pipelines and a dam (937ft) (1,837ft). (Shotlist) Impression of Britain's economic progress since the war and what still remains to be done. This Modern Age Series no. 36 (Synopsis)
- Work historyDocumentary short.
- Genre
- SubjectHusbands
Sexual stereotypes
National Health Service
Advertising using light
General elections (Great Britain - 23/02/1950)
Building
Festival of Britain
Aintree
Agriculture
Dockers
Education
Cambridge
Coventry
Great Britain
General elections
Grand National
Horse racing
Oxford
Public libraries
Regent's Park
Piccadilly Circus
Polar bears
Westminster
Opening of Parliament
London Zoo
Order of the Garter
National Trust
Theatre
Audiences
Schools
Playgrounds
Opencast mining
Exports
Comet Jets
Research
University Boat Race - Credits
Title
Where Britain Stands (Original)
Category
Non Fiction (Short film)- Collections
- Film / Video
35mm Dupe Negative - Nitrate - Mute - Master
35mm Negative - Nitrate - Sound - Master
35mm Positive - Nitrate - Sound - Master
35mm Dupe Negative - Nitrate - Mute - Master
35mm Duplicating Positive - Nitrate - Mixed - Master
35mm Master Positive - Nitrate - Sound - Master
Nitrate - Master
35mm BW Positive - Nitrate - Combined - Master
Negative - Nitrate - Sound - Master
view all - Scripts / Documents
- Articles
- This Modern Age
Series Work - 768453
United Kingdom - Film - Non Fiction
- +Where Britain Stands
Work - 322138 - 1950-06 (Release)
United Kingdom - Film - Non Fiction
- +Where Britain Stands
Hierarchy Display