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DetailsOriginal Format: 16mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Silent Duration: 3 mins 53 secs Credits: Doug and Nora Brear
Summary This is a comedic film made by Doug and Nora Brear of the Wakefield Cine Club about a thief who targets the tourists at a stately home. The film was taken during a trip with the North East Film Club to Grantley Hall, North Yorkshire.
Description
This is a comedic film made by Doug and Nora Brear of the Wakefield Cine Club about a thief who targets the tourists at a stately home. The film was taken during a trip with the North East Film Club to Grantley Hall, North Yorkshire.
People are wandering around in the grounds of Grantley Hall. An elderly man acts as a pick pocket, targeting the visitors. His equally elderly wife stashes the takings into a bag marked “Swag.”
Title – Something Fishy Here . . .
A comic policeman appears,...
This is a comedic film made by Doug and Nora Brear of the Wakefield Cine Club about a thief who targets the tourists at a stately home. The film was taken during a trip with the North East Film Club to Grantley Hall, North Yorkshire.
People are wandering around in the grounds of Grantley Hall. An elderly man acts as a pick pocket, targeting the visitors. His equally elderly wife stashes the takings into a bag marked “Swag.”
Title – Something Fishy Here . . .
A comic policeman appears, pantomime fashion, and grabs the man.
Title – “I only did it for the kids . . .”
Next, the man is locked up in a room. He puts a puzzle together which is made from different shaped wooden blocks.
Title – Meanwhile
Two shifty looking women and a man are playing cards in a garage. They are surrounded by empty wine bottles and beer cans. The woman rushes in and tells the others that her partner has been captured. They rush out and, tip-toeing, follow a sign for “Jail.” They stop to take photos of the “Jail.”
Title – Hang on old chap . . . help is near!
They clamber through the window to the room where the man is being held captive. The jailor lounges with his feet up. Inside they help the man with his puzzle. Once discovered the jailor appears and chases them around in circles, acted out in in a comedic vaudeville style. They are then chased around the grounds of the house and get into various comic escapades as they run including running into a bush where a couple are canoodling.
Title – The end is in sight
The group is eventually chased back into the building and appear behind bars. They hold a sign that states, “Wish you were here... instead of us!”
[Note: The film was made one afternoon, processed overnight and edited and shown next morning.]
Context The gags of Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd are paid homage to in this delightful black and white silent comedy, which follows a group of thieves and their flight from the law. The film was made by Doug and Nora Brear of Wakefield Cine Club, during a trip to Grantley Hall, an 18th century country house near Ripon, in North Yorkshire.