34 - Night Mail: Art in Documentary

1 Night Mail: Art in Documentary Rev. Merle K. Peirce November 5, 2004 2 Following the passage of the Quota Act in 1927, British film studios produced, as well as "quota quickies" several strong lines of cinematic development. The radical social commentary as represented by Maurice Elvey's Hindle Wakes (1927); the thriller, perfected by Hitchcock in a string of successes beginning with TheLodger (1927) and culminating in Jamaica Inn (1939); and the British documentary beginning with Grierson's Drifters (1929). In the present instance, two films from the same year are discussed Hitchcock's Sabotage, and Night Mail, possibly the best known and most enduring of the 1930's documentary films. Night Mail, produced in 1936, stands as one of finest British films of all time. It represents one of the greatest collaborative efforts of the period, which transformed a proposal for a simple industrial film about the travelling post office services into a true work of art. John Grierson, father of the British Documentary movement, acted as producer, and assisted with the script and commentary. Benjamin Britten, noted composer, scored the film. W. H. Auden, the poet, wrote the greater part of the Night Mail narration, and was an assistant cameraman. Although not used, Hugh McDiarmid, another well known British poet of the 1930's, prepared an 3 alternative script for the film. Night Mail became the progenitor of an entire genre, the British transport film, which flourished under Edgar Anstey. Harry Watt (North Sea, 1938; Squadron 992, 1939) and Basil Wright (Liner Cruising South, 1933; Song of Ceylon, 1934), both trained by Grierson, directed the film. Alberto de Almeida Calvacanti, (Coalface, 1935; Went the Day Well?, 1942), another trainee who directed a series of successful documentaries before moving to Michael Balcon's Ealing Studios, and returning home to Brazil in 1950, worked on the film's sound track together with Britten and Auden. Wright was a friend of Auden's who was able to gain him entrance to Grierson's Film Unit. The film breaks down into three distinct sections: EustonCrewe, Crewe - Carnforth, and Scottish border-Glasgow. The first is both artistic and factual; the second, largely factual, and the final third almost entirely lyrical, providing a visual accompaniment to Auden's poetic text, which provides a social and artistic context for the film. 4 Night Mail opens with some initial, fussy establishing shots of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway's despatch offices preparing for the Down Postal Special. Then the camera moves to London's Euston Station for the Special's departure, and an extended sequence of overhead tracking shots of the train. During the course of this film segment, there is the inclusion of many statistics on the amount of mailed hauled by the Special. One scene is shot at Tring, where a permanent way crew is working on the track and water pans, and must clear the tracks for the Down Postal Special. At Crewe, emphasis is given to engine changing and mail interchange with other trains. The initial sequence is photographed almost entirely within the Crewe Station complex. Although there are some very nicely formatted shots, this is probably the most prosaic part of Night Mail. Further enumeration of statistical material takes place during this section. An element of suspense is added by the late running of the Holyhead connexion, and shots of the empty platform, the despatchers' office and the train schedule board. There is another sequence at Carnforth of the track side and car side mail handling apparatus. 5 Crossing the border into Scotland, we begin Auden's text linked with a cinematic poem or paean to the train and its locomotive. Of particular interest is the use of alternating voices, and the rhythmic chanting form adopted for delivery of the verse, which mimics the panting exhaust of the locomotive. Here Britten's musical score appears, replacing the locomotive's exhaust and track noises which had been used in the earlier parts of the film. Watt and Wright use a mixture of canted close-ups of the engine and its parts coupled with distant tracking shots to show the train and the territory it traverses. The narrative in this sequence is very closely matched to the cinematography, and it is difficult to judge which may have preceeded the other. Camera footage was shot by Jonah Jones and Chick Fowle who travelled to Scotland specifically to secure the rail footage. Both became well-known camera men who worked on a number of significant films. Fowle later worked in Brazil. Night Mail is contrasted here with the studio feature film Sabotage, made in the same year by Alfred Hitchcock for Gaumont British Picture Corporation. At 81 minutes, it is approximately a 6 third longer than Night Mail, which runs for 58 minutes. During the 1930's, a great number of documentaries were produced in Britain, but only a handful are remembered or watched today. Most of these were produced by Grierson's film unit, which he compared to the Soviet VGIK. Grierson's original Drifters is available, as well as Basil Wright's Song of Ceylon, and perhaps best regarded, of all, Night Mail. One possible reason for Night Mail's continuing vitality is that it is an industrial film, a documentary and an art film. Yet, at the same time, it is none of these. The film unit produced something quite unique and different. Other documentary films from the period seem dated and uninteresting, but Night Mail, although dated, has a freshness and sophistication that Pett and Pott, for instance, lack. In this respect, Sabotage is far less complex it its relationship with the viewer, although it is much more involved structurally. Hitchcock's film relies on a rather simple discussion of the dangers the saboteur presents to his society, himself and his family. Unlike Murder (1930), it does not deal with difficult issues such as mixed race, or exhibit 7 the rich and threatening atmosphere of Jamaica Inn (1939). It is a transitional film between the very early Hitchcock and the masterly Hitchcock of the late 1930's, who bursts into bloom as he abandons Shepherd's Bush for Hollywood. Both films employed very talented people. In addition to director Alfred Hitchcock, Sabotage's director of photography was Bernard Knowles (1900-1975) who worked with Hitchcock on The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935), Secret Agent (1936), Young and Innocent (1937) and Jamaica Inn (1939). He later became a director himself and did much television work. For his final project, he directed the Beatles’ film Magical Mystery Tour (1967). Each film was ably conceived, directed, assembled and edited. Each is an excellent piece of work from the era. Both films deal with the effect of a service or incident upon the general population, made vivid by illustrating a specific instance. With this said, however, the films are in many ways opposites. Night Mail was shot primarily on location, at various points between London and Glasgow, with a few scenes - those of the travelling post office interiors - being shot in studio. Even here, it seems as if the shots were taken on actual sorting vans which were not in use, rather than mock-ups. 8 Sabotage was shot at Shepherd's Bush Studios, with only a few scenes filmed on location, primarily of traffic near Piccadilly Circus in London. Hitchcock had a reputation as director who very tightly controlled his work and ruled with an iron hand. He usually set up the script and shooting schedule around a story board which listed all his planned shots, and, when completed, was seldom deviated from. Grierson's Film Unit, on the other hand, was very organic and even a bit disorganised. Yet things would come together, usually at the last minute in a final flurry of frantic activity. This would have given Hitchcock dyspepsia, but seemed to work well enough for Grierson, although this lack of discipline was later cited as one reason Auden chose to leave. Both films use strong stage lighting for unusual or interesting shadow effects, or scenes of great contrast. Yet, both films often seem rather dark, as they are shot in actual or simulated night. Hitchcock's shot of the London streets brightly lit, then falling suddenly dark has a great deal of similarity to Night Mail's shots of the Special travelling in the night, only its illuminated carriage windows breaking through the dark. Night Mail's camera work was probably much more difficult, in that it 9 required working on location, with large objects often moving at high speed, and working in often constricted and/or dangerous places to secure the desired effect shots. As a case in point, the shots of line side mail pickups at speed offered potential death to anyone hanging too far out of the carriage doors. The engine shunting activities at Crewe also presented difficulties in providing sufficient illumination for photography. Sabotage presents a very upper middle-class perspective of London in the mid-1930's. Its protagonists are theatre owners, or small business men. Hitchcock plays on middle-class fears and the prejudice against foreigners and the unknown. As Superintendent Talbot says, "Ah, those are the men you and I will never catch." Documentary and feature films are usually presumed to be different; the feature to concentrate on the pleasure of amusement, and the documentary to delve into fact. But these films, although they take on a difference of form, and although they are different genres, are, at their core, very similar. This is because 10 Hitchcock specialises in the psychological thriller, which explores mankind's fears and reactions. Night Mail does the same, although its approach is different. Grierson was very particular in stressing the educational basis for the documentary, and its potential for social change. Hitchcock, although he explores changes in perceptions from the acquisition of knowledge, does not concern himself with change. Grierson's concern to is to provide support for the social hegemony, and he does this poetically and artistically. Night Mail stresses the benefits of the social order. Night Mail, too maybe be tapping into a collective memory, although this is less certain and quantifiable. The years 1887-1895 were a period of immense technological change and development on British railways. Two peak periods marked the apexes of that change, the summers of 1888 and 1895, called the Races to the North. During these two periods, the running time from London to Scotland was cut from ten hours to less than eight. During 1888, experimental schedules were carded between London and Edinburgh; in 1895, between London and Aberdeen. During this period, travelling time was slashed by over 25%, 11 even as train lengths and weights doubled, on both the East Coast and West Coast Routes. This is very much analogous to the moon races of the 1960's, for they both embodied a goal which captured the popular attention, and which forced rapid technological advancement and change. In each age, the newspapers were filled with the details of these projects which captured the imagination of their readers and fired the British spirit. The creators of Night Mail were born between 1906 and 1910, and were heirs to the excitement that stirred their fathers and grandfathers. Grierson himself was born in Deanston, Scotland, about 25 miles from Glasgow. The brilliant cinematography of Jones and Fowle especially seem to emphasise the masculine and erotic attributes of power and speed of the Special, concentrating as they do on intimate bits of mechanism thrashing and thrusting in provocative and copulatory motion, and its intrinsic excitement and mystery. Tapping into this folkloric vein of British memory and emotion is one of the strengths of the film. In Spender's words, Ah, like a comet through flame, she moves entranced, Wrapt in her music no bird song, no, nor 12 bough Breaking with honey buds, shall ever equal. Night Mail is a remarkable cinematic document, for in the last analysis, it does indeed fulfill its original purpose, to impart knowledge of the travelling post office services, but it goes far beyond that, glorying in the romance of travel, steam and the railways themselves, and contextualising the meaning and import of the postal services to everyone in Britain. It presents an extended truth about the mails, the rails and Britain itself. Sadly, the travelling post offices, which began running on January 20,1838, made their last run the night of January 8-9, 2004. Yet, even as Britons were expressing their sense of loss, they often referred to this 68 year old film which stuck in their memory, a tribute the continuing power and glory of Night Mail. 13 Works Consulted Anthony, Scott. Night Mail. London: Brithish Film Institute, 2007. Barnouw, Erik. Documentary – A History of the Non-Fiction Film. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983. Hardy, Forsyth. Grierson on Documentary. New York: Praeger, 1971. Nock, O. S. The Railway Race to the North. London: Ian Allan, 1958. _________. British Steam Railways. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1961. Rotha, Paul, Sinclair Road and Richard Griffith. Documentary Film. London: Hastings House, 1970. 14 Filmography The Lodger, Alfred Hitchcock dir., Gainsborough Pictures, 1926. Hindle Wakes, Maurice Elvey dir., Gaumont British, 1927. Drifters, John Grierson dir., Empire Maketing Board Film Unit, 1929. Murder, Alfred Hitchcock dir., British International Pictures, 1930. Liner Cruising South, Basil Wright dir., GPO Film Unit, 1933. Pett and Pott, Alberto Cavalcanti dir., GPO Film Unit, 1934. Song of Ceylon, Basil Wright dir., Empire Marketing Board Film Unit, 1934. Coalface, Alberto Cavalcanti dir., GPO Film Unit, 1935. Night Mail, Harry Watt and Basil Wright dir., GPO Film Unit, 1936. Sabotage, Alfred Hitchcock dir., Gaumont British, 1936. North Sea, Harry Watt dir., GPO Film Unit, 1938 Jamaica Inn, Alfred Hitchcock dir., Mayflower Pictures, 1939. 992 Squadron, Harry Watt dir., GPO Film Unit, 1940. Went the Day Well? Alberto Cavalcanti dir., Ealing Studios, 1942. 15 Appendix A The Express After the first powerful, plain manifesto The black statement of pistons, without more fuss But gliding like a queen, she leaves the station Without bowing and with restrained unconcern She passes the houses which humbly crowd outside The gasworks, and at last the heavy page Of death, printed by gravestones in the cemetery Beyond the town, there lies the open country Where, gathering speed, she acquires mystery The luminous self-possession of ships on ocean It is now she begins to sing -- at first quite low Then loud, and at last with a jazzy madness The song of her whistle screaming at curves Of deafening tunnels, brakes, innumerable bolts And always light, aerial, underneath Retreats the elate metre of her wheels Steaming through metal landscape on her lines She plunges new eras of white happiness, Where speed throws up strange shapes, broad curves And parallels clean like trajectories from guns. At last, further than Edinburgh or Rome, Beyond the crest of the world, she reaches night Where only a low stream-line brightness Of phosphorus on the tossing hills is light. Ah, like a comet through flame, she moves entranced, Wrapt in her music no bird song, no, nor bough Breaking with honey buds, shall ever equal. (Stephen Spender, 1933) Appendix B Night Mail This is the Night Mail crossing the border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner and the girl next door. Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb: The gradient's against her, but she's on time. Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder Shovelling white steam over her shoulder, Snorting noisily as she passes Silent miles of wind-bent grasses. Birds turn their heads as she approaches, Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches. Sheep-dogs cannot turn her course; They slumber on with paws across. In the farm she passes no one wakes, But a jug in the bedroom gently shakes. Dawn freshens, the climb is done. Down towards Glasgow she descends Towards the steam tugs yelping down the glade of cranes, Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen. All Scotland waits for her: In the dark glens, beside the pale-green sea lochs Men long for news. Letters of thanks, letters from banks, Letters of joy from the girl and the boy, Receipted bills and invitations To inspect new stock or visit relations, And applications for situations And timid lovers' declarations And gossip, gossip from all the nations, News circumstantial, news financial, Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in, Letters with faces scrawled in the margin, Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts, Letters to Scotland from the South of France, Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands Notes from overseas to Hebrides Written on paper of every hue, The pink, the violet, the white and the blue, The chatty, the catty, the boring, adoring, The cold and official and the heart's outpouring, Clever, stupid, short and long, The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong. Thousands are still asleep Dreaming of terrifying monsters, Or of friendly tea beside the band at Cranston's or Crawford's: Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set Edinburgh, Asleep in granite Aberdeen, They continue their dreams, And shall wake soon and long for letters, And none will hear the postman's knock Without a quickening of the heart, For who can bear to feel himself forgotten? (W H Auden, 1936)