This film is part of Free
Old Dixie New Boom
Neighbourhood vigilantes tell an unscrupulous trader to ‘hop it’, as MP Ellen Wilkinson’s bill to protect working class buyers from Hire Purchase swindlers becomes reality.
Overview
A spirit of progress drives the stories in this March of Time newsreel issue. Charles Herty was a US chemist whose innovative work is conveyed in dynamic images of mills producing gleaming white paper from the brown pulp of Southern pines. In Britain, Ellen Wilkinson MP beams with delight as she delivers the news that her Hire Purchase Bill has been passed, and finally, Russian exile Igor Sikorsky is seen with one of his visionary designs: a four-engined plane that would revolutionise air travel.
The second episode in this issue was made for the British edition only and features Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson, whose campaigning work to curb common abuses among HP lenders led to the 1938 Hire Purchase act. This piece of legislation imposed restrictions on many of the malpractices re-enacted in this episode, including the prevention of lenders entering a purchaser’s property without a court order. The practice of ‘linked on contracts’ is also nicely dramatised, in a sequence which shows an oily salesman persuading a worried looking woman and her husband to add a piano to a furniture order, only to repossess everything when the couple cannot keep up with the payments.
Related
Inside Nazi Germany Inside Nazi Germany
Documentary 1938 16 mins
A genuinely historic film, which caused much controversy at the time: the first commercially -released American motion picture to explicitly attack Hitler and Nazism.
Presidential Year Presidential Year
Documentary 1948 15 mins
‘Crisp and sincere’,‘carefully trained’ or ’resonant and vibrant’? Which voice would appeal to you if you had to pick the Republican candidate for the 1948 Presidential Election?
Great Britain Coronation Great Britain Coronation
Anthology 1937 24 mins
Weatherproof bunting, fog, clockwork dolls and a Hollywood exodus to London: this sideways look at preparations for the Coronation of George VI provides a wry American take on a very British ceremony.
Metropolis Metropolis
Documentary 1939 18 mins
This ode to New York from March of Time shows us how seven and half million people from every race and nationality in the world, live, work and play together in ‘the greatest metropolis of the New World’.
Irish Free State Irish Free State
Anthology 1936 23 mins
How Ireland turned herself into a self-sufficient powerhouse - plus a study of the "lunatic fringe" in US politics.
America Thinks It Over America Thinks It Over
Documentary 1939 17 mins
In a world on the verge of war, will America support the democracies of Europe, or turn inwards and embrace isolationism?
If I Make It To The Morning If I Make It To The Morning
Drama 2024 9 mins
A Chinese teenager dreams of living with her cool aunt in New York, until tensions boil over during a crab dinner.
We’ll Go Down in History We’ll Go Down in History
Documentary 2025 25 mins
Two years in the life of TRUK United FC, a beacon for positive change and trans inclusivity in football.
Wrong Bathroom Wrong Bathroom
Drama 2024 9 mins
A trans high-schooler is tempted by toxic masculinity in the boys’ bathroom.
Dragfox Dragfox
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2024 8 mins
A child struggling with their identity and a charismatic fox (voiced by Sir Ian McKellen) learn to embrace their differences in this heart warming stop-motion animation.
Wait, Wait, Now! Wait, Wait, Now!
Drama 2024 13 mins
A Maori and a Kiwi teen buddy up to raid their mum’s wardrobe and pucker their lips with red.
NGGAK!!! NGGAK!!!
Drama 2024 8 mins
‘I pronounce you wife and wife.’ A young couple design their perfect wedding online, but then mum dials in.