The Partridge Tureen

Entertaining novelty promo film - swinging with 60s trappings.

This novelty promo, for Royal Worcester porcelain of all things, positively swings with 60s trappings. Boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy and girl set up house - falling in a big way for the sponsor's tableware and household decorations. The story is told via images and music, without dialogue or commentary, intercut with documentary footage of Royal Worcester's high-quality materials and production processes, plus pleasing Worcestershire landscapes.

Greenpark Productions were, at the time, Britain's primary purveyor of polished sponsored films for deeper-pocketed clients. What's fascinating here is to see their normally tasteful style pushed in a modish direction. The film has high production values - the cinematography positively glows at times - but an assortment of 'with-it' devices are piled on top, from whip-pans and fast zooms to tilted angles, jump-cuts, and the odd suggestive close-up. No doubt this determinedly contemporary approach was intended to orient a heritage brand towards a youthful demographic. You have to admire the attempt, even if the result can safely be filed in the same drawer as trendy vicars and dad dancing. An entertaining curio.