Public safety/information films

[SharonLynette]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

I've been rumbled Inspector for it was Sharon who introduced me to the film in the first place.

tsk tsk, this will count against you. You should have known this would be one of the threads that I subscribe to.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by SharonLynette

tsk tsk, this will count against you. You should have known this would be one of the threads that I subscribe to.

Bugger, you are not going to jump out of the wardrobe disguised as a troll again to frighten me are you?!

[SharonLynette]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

Bugger, you are not going to jump out of the wardrobe disguised as a troll again to frighten me are you?!

I'm guessing part of you wishes that would happen right now. As I can't do that I might just add to my daubings next week.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by SharonLynette

I'm guessing part of you wishes that would happen right now. As I can't do that I might just add to my daubings next week.

Blimey!

[Inspector Abberline]

Look at Life: Having a Baby (1964)

[Illustrator_Nick]

I love these, particularly 'Dark and Lonely Water'! I remember being shown quite a few in school and they always stuck with me, makes me wonder why they don't make them as shocking these days, after all they are supposed serve a purpose!

[MuckyFunster]

I always liked this one. I'm 29, so have been using decimal currency my whole life, but after this 30 second video I was left totally bamboozled.

http://youtu.be/pIN6oJcc_B8

[Susan Foreman]

One Got Fat is a 1963 bicycle safety film. It is narrated by Edward Everett Horton.



Ten friends, who are children with monkey faces and tails (???), plan on going to the park for a picnic. They all ride there on their bikes, but each one meets a different fate on their way to the park as a result of their failure to follow specific bike safety rules. One by one, each of the friends makes a mistake and suffers a horrible fate:

1 - Rooty-Toot ("Rooty") Jasperson fails to make signals, and therefore he...turned left into ongoing traffic
2 - Tinkerbell ("Tink") McDillinfiddy fails to watch signs, and as a result forgets to watch out for a stop sign, resulting in being hit by a large truck
3 - Phillip ("Floog") Floogle doesn't keep right, so he rides on left side of street, and a car moves out, hitting him
4 - Mossby Pomegranate didn't license/register his bike, so when it was stolen, the police couldn't find it because it wasn't registered, and so, poor Mossby (as a result of running between one and nine blocks) had his feet arches collapse
5/6 - Slim Jim ("Slim") Maguffny and Trigby Phipps didn't ride alone, which means Trigby's couldn't see what was in front of him (because Slim was blocking his view) and so he steers right into an open manhole covering
7 - Nelbert ("Nel") Zwieback. Yield Nelbert, yield!. She begins to ride on the sidewalk without giving pedestrians the right of way, and of course she rides right into two people carrying groceries
8 - Filbert ("Fil") Bagel. Maintain your bike? Of course not, and because of the poor condition of his bicycle, the brakes no longer work, resulting in poor Filbert being run over by a steam roller
9 - Stanislaw ("Stan") Hickenbottom has no lights or reflectors on his bike, so when he rides into a tunnel he has no way of being seen, and...well, you can guess what happens
10 - Orville ("Orv") Slump. Good ol' Orville. He's no monkey, so he made it to the picnic site and he got fat

[Inspector Abberline]

Captured (1959)
Directed by John Krish,this docu drama,shows what it was like being held captive during the Korean war.Unfortunately for director John Krish,he made such a great job at showing the mental and physical torture at the the hands of the Koreans that his film was made unavailable to the public and used for army training purposes only. It certainly is a harrowing depiction,not because its graphically brutal more the fact the torture is a mundane repetitiousness of sleep depredation and guards being annoying.The other shock is a certain Wilfred Brambell as a captured soldier looking remarkably young.Filmed somewhere in some waste land in Chobham Surrey,the sets and landscape look remarkably barren and desolate,then again Kubrick made Full Metal Jacket on the wastelands of Battersea so anything possible.
Sewing Machine (John Krish, 1973, 1 min)
Public information films can some how manage to convey everything from horror to stupidity,and pretty much evey human emotion in between.A mother is at her sewing machine while her daughter is in the garden playing,there's a timer ticking down from one minute.The mother warns the child to stay away from the busy traffic,but the girl being unsupervised rushes out into the road to see her best mate,well no prizes here for the outcome.You wanna hear something shocking,they got complaints about this pif not because the child is killed,but because her friend was a little black girl,what a nice place 70's Britain was.
The Finishing Line,(1977)
How does director John Krish show vandalism on Britain's railway lines without actually showing vandalism,this was the remit he was given before making this wonderful public information film.This film time capsule fits in wonderfully with the era 1977,the year punk broke out and hell was let loose.And that's exactly what Krish does here.A little boy sitting on a railway bridge fantasises about having a School sports day set on a railway line,so we have kids in sport day kits climbing the fences and rushing across the lines,we have throw the rocks through the windows of passing train and see how many commuters you can brain,and that Olympic standard walking down a train tunnel in the dark,all over looked and officiated by teachers and parents alike.Smashing stuff.
Searching (John Krish, 1974, 1 min)
Just the POV camera roaming through the remains of the shell of a house that has been burnt down,with the soundtrack of the children screaming and crying trying to escape there deaths,nuff said.A remarkable collection of PIF's which also includes HMP about three rookie wardens learning the ropes at different prisons,If your a fan of the PIF I have no hesitation in recommending this.

[Inspector Abberline]

H.M.P. (John Krish, 1976, 55 mins)
Director John Krish films a recruiting film for the prison service Sponsored by the Central Office of Information and the Home Office.Three rookie prison warders are shown around several different prisons as part as there training,and are encouraged to ask the Prison officers and other prison workers any question about the job and the prisoners. AS the three rookie guards are taken around different prison locations,Maidstone Prison and Rochester Borstal,unfortunately visually these buildings all look alike so you we could of been taken through a disused warehouse and still be none the wiser,Good job then that its the mens reactions to certain questions and situations that make this a rather gripping public information film.The only downside is that with its grey drab 1970's feel,the clothing,porno moustaches and bus conductor style uniforms it resembles at times an On the Buses sequel,where are hapless heroes unable to function in the real world decide to join the prison service.There are several rather cringe worthy scenes,main one being the prison chaplain who's touchy feely methods are exactly appreciated by the trainee guards.The other one is when one of the trainees ask a guard what he does when he sees two prisoners having sex? I don't know if this film is relevant in today's prison service,but it sure is a fascinating film.