New & Recent Releases

. . . innovative training and social issue films by Kay Mander.

Kay Mander kept training and social issues to the fore in the 1940s with her innovative documentaries.

This collection includes Dr. Adele Carroll's 2001 film One Continuous Take featuring Kay Mander, now living in Kirkcudbrightshire, recalling her life and work, with clips from many of her films. Many of Kay's films are also included complete in this 2-disc retrospective.

Disc 1: Kay Mander at War. One Continuous Take (2001); Transfer of Skill (1940); How to File (1941); Mobilising Procedure (1942); Model Procedure for Water-Relaying (1943); Debris Tunnelling (1943)

Disc 2: Kay Mander on Social Issues. Highland Doctor (1943); New Builders (1944); Penicillin (1944); Homes for the People (1945); A Plan to Work on (1948)

Total DVD running time: 4 hrs 11 mins.

. . . Shipbuilding on the Clyde by Hilary Harris.

The 50th Anniversary Edition of the classic 1960 technicolor film, Seawards The Great Ships, directed by Hilary Harris from a treatment by John Grierson about the shipyards of the Clyde and the men who worked there. Scotland's first Oscar winner.

Also featuring:

Glasgow's Docklands (1956). Produced by Enrico Cocozza. The Govan Ferry, tugs and puffers, merge with ocean going cargo ships in this atmospheric view of life around the docks.

The River Clyde - A Survey of Scotland's Greatest River (1939). Made for Clyde Navigation Trust. The River from source to sea.

. . . a rarely seen Scottish comedy classic.

Laxdale Hall, a rarely seen British comedy receiving its first release to home entertainment, is a 1952 film directed by John Eldridge and starring Ronald Squire, Kathleen Ryan, Raymond Huntley, Prunella Scales, Fulton Mackay, Roddy McMillan, Jameson Clark and Jean Colin, with Rikki Fulton as a poacher in his first film role.

Also features The Glen Is Ours (1946), a timeless parable of politicians at odds with the will of their electorate. Recently de-mobbed Hector Andrews takes to the hustings to stop Cadisburn Glen being sold and converted from a beauty spot into an amusement park.

. . . comedy, adventure, drama, and horror.

A selection of classic films - comedy, adventure, intrigue and horror.

Featuring: Fulton Mackay, Raymond Huntley, Roddy McMillan & Prunella Scales
Trevor Howard, Kenneth More & Jeans Simmons
Gary Cooper & George Raft
James Cagney, Jane Greer & Dorothy Malone
Frank Sinatra & Shelley Winters

. . . a silent Irish 1926 film, for decades believed lost.

Irish Destiny is a love story set against the War of Independence produced by Dr Isaac Eppel in 1926 - a scant 10 years after the 1916 Rising. The film interweaves a romantic narrative with real events - dramatised and told through original newsreel footage of British occupation and IRA resistance.

Accompanied by a magnificent score, written for the film by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra under conductor Proinnsías Ó Duinn.

. . . From the early days of the GPO Film Unit.

A 3-disc release of GPO Film Unit documentaries, 30s Britain Collection, includes films about the many and varied services offered by the Post Office, and those who depended on them.

Disc 1: Granton Trawler (1934); Coal Face (1935); A Job in a Million (1937); Spare Time (1939); The City (1939).

Disc 2: The Saving of Bill Blewitt (1937); North Sea (1938); The Islanders (1939); A Midusummer Day's Work (1939).

Disc 3: The King's Stamp (1935); The Fairy of the Phone (1936); News for the Navy 1937); N or NW (1937); Roadways (1937); The Horsey Mail (1938); Mony a Pickle (1938); Nine for Six (1939).

. . . Scottish Industry in Action.

A collection of industrial films celebrating the achievements of Scottish engineering companies.

Rivers At Work (1958) The development of Hydro-Electric Schemes.

Central Scotland (1962) The industries of Central Scotland.

Young in Heart (1963) Hillman Imp production at Linwood.

The Invergordon Smelter (1972) British Aluminium's plant in construction.

The Clyde Estuary (1975) Shipping and shipbuilding on the Clyde.

. . . Steel in the West of Scotland.

For those interested in the Scottish steel industry The Big Mill - Steel in the West of Scotland, a collection of archive steel-making films.

Make Way For Steel (1966)

Lanarkshire Steelworks (1975)

The Big Mill (1963)

Fullwood Foundries Mossend (c. 1970)

. . . The Early Days of World War II.

A 2-disc release of GPO Film Unit documentaries from the early days of World War II, Britain At War - Christmas Under Fire, is about life on the home front from the beginning of the war up to the blitz.

Disc 1: The First Days
The First Days (1939); The Front Line (1939); Squadron 992 (1940)

Disc 2: Under Fire
Britain Can Take It (1940); Britain At Bay (1940); Story of an Air Communique (1940); Christmas Under Fire (1941); Men of the Lightship (1940)

. . . Industrial Films of Stanley Russell.

A selection of promotional films made by Stanley Russell, industrial film maker, for Scottish engineering companies.

Men of Iron (1966)

A Romance of Engineering (1938)

James Watt (1959)

Story of a Steel Wire Rope (1946)

. . . The Hollow Mountain.

Two films about Scottish Hydro-Electric schemes, made for the North of Scotland Hydo-Electric Board.

The Moriston Project (1956)

Cruachan (1966)