Under the auspices of the Ministry of Information, a sizeable programme of "shorts"—something like 35 in all—is now planned or under way in various British studios. Some of these films, with professional actors and a dramatic story, are being made in the regular commercial studios, others, of a more documentary type, have been handed over to the "realist" groups. All, it is emphasized, will be made with an eye to entertainment value as well as propaganda.
The Ealing studios, for example, have just finished a group of three anti-gossip films, These films run for about ten minutes each, have a fictional story, and gently point the moral that it is not the people with expert knowledge who are likely to give information to the enemy, but the men and women in the street, with their apparently harmless chatter. The first, "All Hands," has a naval application, and stars John Mills, borrowed from the Army for the occasion, Lueen McGrath, Gertrude Musgrove and Elliot Makeham, The second, "Dangerous Comment," deals with the R.A.F., and is played by Frank Lawton, Margaret Vyner, Penelope Dudley Ward, Milton Rosemer and Roland Culver. The third, "Now You're Talking," deals with industry and the home front, and introduces Sebastian Shaw, Edward Chapman, Dorothy Hyson, and a new young actress, Judy Campbell, in whom the studio hope they may have discovered a British Hepburn.
On the more documentary side, an interesting little group of films is being made by the G.P.O. Film Unit under their chief, Alberto Cavalcanti, One, nearly finished, "Balloon Barrage," is directed by Harry Watt who made the excellent "North Sea" and "Night Mail." Another deals with agricultural life in East Anglia. A third, which will be made in convoy, shows the training of the ship's stewards who are currently learning to qualify as able seamen,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.