Whilst Ealing Classics need no introduction, I was surprised to hear of a documentary offering from the stalwart studio. Painted Boats is part documentary, part fiction, about life on 'the cut' - Britain's canals. It's a swansong to the old ways, to the horse drawn heritage of the canals, but at the same time it champions the new, the engine, the industrial revolution, and women at war.
Rose-tinted realism mixes with classic wistful love story, and it's the documentary bits that are really intriguing. There's the quiet English countryside, which suddenly becomes the industrial war effort as the boats arrive to be loaded with cargo; and little snippets of everyday working life: the mundane and the officious, the idyllic and the drudgery.
The voice-over takes the viewer through the film with that wonderful 40s received pronunciation. Some sections echo
Night Mail as the commentary ramps up to a chant like the engine of the boat. Indeed the commentary, like Night Mail, was written by a poet, Louis MacNiece.
Bake some cake, put your dungarees on, tie your shoelaces together with some string, pour a pot of tea and settle in to a lovely Sunday afternoon stepping back, gently, to a world that we recognise, but which no longer exists.
Moving into holiday mode next, when I'll be telling you about
And Then There Were None and
The Lost Continent.
Painted Boats, Dir. Charles Crichton, 1945, 61minsAvailable to buy now from Optimum