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Pit and the Pendulum, The

Date produced: 1961

Filmmaker(s):

Murray Cowel

Description:

"We have the creation of an audiovisual of Edgar Allen Poe's classic. Mr. Cowel's picture interpretation gives the dimension of life to Mr. Poe's terrifying drama. A prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition at Toledo, in a dark dungeon, describes his horrible tortures" PSA Journal, Oct. 1961, 48.


Plane Doings

Date produced: 1960

Filmmaker(s):

Leonard Bauer

Description:

"One must enjoy a great deal of fun in building and flying the midget airplanes. Not the rubber-band motors, but the real one-cylinder petrol engine with radio control. We witness the construction and flying of the miniature craft" PSA Journal, Nov. 1960, 42.


Plato in Amerika

Date produced: 1965

Filmmaker(s):

John Maurogiannopoulos

Description:

"Plato in Amerika deals with the new life a young fellow from the Old Country finds in America. From working as a waiter in a restaurant to shooting dice with his friends, we see him dancing, brawling, wenching, and embarrassing his parents. When at last he is forced to marry one of his girl friends and later is seen romping with his children, he smiles at the camera and decides "this is life" PSA Journal, Sept. 1965, 51.


Platonic Sojourn

Date produced: 1938

Filmmaker(s):

Henry Bulleid

Description:

"Amateur filmmaker, cinema historian and railway engineer H.A.V. Bulleid employs his flair for amateur production to spice up his home movies of a romantic trip to France. Acting in a moment of impulse, a man proposes to take his female friend to Paris. Leaving behind Dover's white cliffs, they arrive in Calais 'in less time than it takes to read the Bible'. Once their car - named 'Tilly' - has been unloaded, they set out to Paris via Le Tréport, Belleville, Rouen and Louviers. Arriving in the French capital they head straight to 'the film director's joy', the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and L'Arc de Triomphe, visit the Paris Bourse and tour the city's streets and boulevards. Pausing for a drink, they continue on to Place Saint-Augustin and Montmartre, dining at Moulin de la Galette - 'a tourist's paradise...pay double and eat half' - before catching a film at Studio 28. Tearing themselves away from the city of light with one last drink at Cafe George V, they drive through a gathering storm to Étaples and on to Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, 'haunt of motion picture stars', before a flurry of editing retraces their trip, marked out on a map" (EAFA Database).


Poema homeopàtic = [Homeopathic Poem]

Date produced: 1935

Filmmaker(s):

Manuel Amat Rosés

Description:

Paradoy of the avantgarde film culture of the era, including references to Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel, Joan Miró and dancer Àurea de Sarrà. It is interesting because it shows the crossed dialogue between these different film cultures that functioned beyond the realm of commercial cinema.


Poet and Peasant

Date produced: 1952

Filmmaker(s):

Robert G. Williams

Description:

"At the outset of amateur movies' newest medium, magnetic sound on film, Robert G. Williams has accomplished a tour de force with his uncannily perfect synchrony of music to pictures in Poet and Peasant. As Kathryn Williams plays the familiar overture on the Hammond organ, the sound accompaniment matches the hand movements on screen without faltering and without once resorting to tricks or short cuts. Countless closeups of the organist's hands as they play give evidence of Mr. Williams's confidence and ability in the new field. But Mr. Williams also has made a lively and interesting picture from a subject usually so dull and static that, more often than not, it has stumped most professionals. Pacing his film with precision, he has used an amazing variety of camera angles, even shooting from above and behind the organ. Mrs. Williams's playing is competent and assured; but it is Mr. Williams's unusually good filming and recording techniques which bring her abilities vividly to life on screen." Movie Makers, Dec. 1952, 339.


Poetry of Nature

Date produced: 1931

Filmmaker(s):

William H. Barlow


Pointless Foray

Date produced: 1943

Filmmaker(s):

George Mesaros

Description:

"George Mesaros, who has demonstrated his competence as a maker of good movies in other fields, turns to humor in this film comment on wartime conditions. The point of the story — for it is the foray and not the tale that is pointless — turns on providing for a picnic in the yard of the home. While the master of the house is shopping with ration points, the skeptical family gets, from the Victory garden, cooks and eats the alfresco feast, at the end of which Father — who really did find something in the shops — returns with loaded arms. First class Kodachrome pictures and a well knit continuity are used by Mr. Mesaros to bring to American audiences something of the spirit of easy and natural outdoor fun with food that for so long characterized the Europe of happy memory. Some of the scenes of cooking are so realistic that one almost reaches for what is shown on the screen." Movie Makers, Dec. 1943, 478.


Poison

Date produced: 1961

Filmmaker(s):

Derek A. Davy

Maurice Stevens

Description:

"The dutiful husband gets his own breakfast while his wife enjoys the luxury of sleeping late in the morning. He leaves her breakfast near the bed and we leave him for business. He becomes disturbed over the thought of a possible error in her food serving and feels the need to communicate her immediately. A nice gentle suspense builder" PSA Journal, Oct. 1961, 47.


Polite Burglar, The

Date produced: 1929

Filmmaker(s):

Sadie Andrews

Description:

"A man entertains a married woman in her own home. He has previously stolen money from her husband’s wallet and hides the money in a book. The woman in turn removes the money from the book and keeps it for herself. The husband discovers their dalliance and orders the man to go. The man returns and accuses the couple of stealing his money. A burglar interrupts the proceedings. The burglar searches the pockets of the husband and removes (what looks like) another woman’s handkerchief. The burglar then searches the pockets of the man and the wife, discovering the money. The burglar offers the money to the husband in order to recompense him for embarrassing him in front of his wife and proceeds to steal other items from the room, leaving his revolver on the floor. The burglar says farewell. The husband and the man square up to each other" (EAFA Database).

"This film was specifically produced for a meeting of the London Amateur Cinematographers’ Association on 27 March 1929. The film was the basis of a competition for the club members. The club’s members in this case were invited to record the mistakes incorporated into the film. The report in Amateur Films notes that the competition was won by Mrs Nora Pfeil, who recorded approximately 30 mistakes" (EAFA Database).


Total Pages: 293