Blasts from the Past: The Film Society and Film Unit

In 1948, a young chemistry teacher started at King’s: Jack Smith. That autumn he established a film society at the school, open to pupils from both the junior and senior schools. Two or three times a term, a projector and screen were set up in the Great Hall and, for a few hours, the space became a cinema. The aim of the film society was clear: to screen ‘good films from British, American and foreign studios, with a selection of old films chosen to illustrate the history and development of the cinema, as well as for their entertainment value to-day.’

Over the years, fictional films, documentaries and cartoons were all shown. Comedies were always popular, among those screened were Ask a Policeman, A Night at the Opera and Laughter in Paradise. A contrast was provided by dramas such as Great Expectations, The Third Man and The Thirty-Nine Steps. Also included in the programme were several foreign-language films: Jour de Fête, Battleship Potemkin and The Great Adventure among them. At a time when not everyone had a television at home, the society was a big hit. By 1952, it considered itself to be the largest film society in the country with a membership of 400. 

‘On a warm, fall afternoon in 1949, three of us sat under a tree in Hyde Park and drafted a letter to the press. "With increasing numbers of 16mm projectors coming into the schools," it said, in effect, "there must be some teachers interested in using films not only for audio-visual purposes but to encourage appreciation of the art of film itself. Why don't we all get together with a view to forming a society?".’

Jack Smith loved films. As a boy he had spent many hours in the projection room at his uncle’s cinema in Kendal. He recognised that cinema was an art form and believed that it should be studied as such. Around the same time that he was starting the film society at King’s, he was speaking to other teachers about encouraging film appreciation in schools more widely. A conversation he had under a tree in Hyde Park led to the formation of the Society of Film Teachers (later known as the Society for Education in Film and Television) which continued to operate until the late 1980s. The group offered practical advice for teachers, such as appropriate film titles to show and books to study. It was supported by the British Film Institute which provided one-reel and two-reel extracts from feature films to be used in classroom teaching. 

Film appreciation soon led to film-making. In 1950, Jack Smith started the film unit at King’s. Pupils could now put what they had learnt into practice. As well as filming documentary footage of school life, most years the group made a film based on an original story (they were usually around 10 to 25 minutes long). Members of the unit were responsible for every aspect of production – writing, casting, acting, filming, recording sounds effects and editing. Those with technical know-how worked in collaboration with storytellers and cinematographers. The unit worked at weekends, filming at the school and locations nearby: Cannizaro and Wimbledon Common were frequently used.

At Commemoration Day in 1950, the unit screened their first film, Vanishing Trick, in the Great Hall. It is a story of a boy who concocts a vanishing potion, causing mischief around the school culminating with him vanishing permanently. It proved so popular that it was shown five times that day. With, as yet, no way to record sound, head of music, John Carol Case, nobly endured the stifling heat inside the hall to play the accompanying score at each performance. Vanishing Trick was followed by The Wimbledon Hill Mob, in which a group of rebellious pupils mutiny at ‘Wimbledon Academy’, and Time on the Run in which thieves are caught after they leave a trail of watches behind. They are reminiscent of Ealing comedies, and it is remarkable that they were made, essentially, by school children in their spare time.

It wasn't always plain sailing. A 1951 project called The Owner, based on a Tolstoy story, was never finished due to a post-war shortage of film. As funds and technology allowed, however, the film unit was able to purchase more camera equipment and to add recorded soundtracks to the films. It also grew in numbers.

‘The film unit is now larger than ever before, it is now quite normal to have forty actors, two cameramen and five technicians on the set at one time. The cameramen by the way have a new toy – a wide angle lens which is being employed so much that the rushes are little short of a study in Cinemascope!’ (School magazine, June 1955)

The film unit’s most critically successful film was Down to Earth (made in 1954 and first shown in 1955). A new boy arrives mysteriously at the fictional – and dysfunctional – Sherwood School. He goes to various locations around the school, improving the lot of those there – stopping gambling in the cloisters, preventing an explosion in the science labs, and securing the school’s first cricket win in years. It was awarded an ‘Oscar’ by the well-known magazine for film enthusiasts, Amateur Cine World, having been shortlisted as one of their ‘Ten of the Best’ films of the year (over one thousand amateur productions had entered the competition). The award was received by King’s pupil Nicholas Hampson, star of the film, at a ceremony at the National Film Theatre.

Respect for the work of the unit continued to grow. In 1960, their film The Non-conformist was shown in the BBC programme Personal Cinema. The following year, the BBC commissioned the unit to make a short film. Called The New Teacher, its premise was, ‘how a new master turns the tables on a boy who plays a trick on him.’

‘The film for the BBC is something of an exercise. We were told its title and the theme and were left to write a script and shoot it. By special request of the BBC, Mr Jack Smith was asked to leave the unit to cope entirely on its own. Some other film units have been set the same task and we expect that comparison of the finished products will be most interesting.’ (School magazine, Autumn 1961)

In 1961, the film unit made Gunfight at Sapienter, a spoof Western in which the cowboys ride bicycles and the tuck shop becomes a saloon. The premiere, as always, was so oversubscribed that two screenings were held (this still did not satisfy all requests for tickets). It was the last film made with Jack Smith before he left King’s to work at Granada Television, where he oversaw its scientific programmes for schools. 

The task of running the film society was taken over by Bryan Stokes. Physics teacher Mike Smith, assisted by Mathew Rowson, later supervised the work of the film unit making films such as Six Days in Sussex and The Ghost of St Briavels.

Reels of film footage were digitised before I started working as the archivist at King’s. The ones I have seen, even without any soundtrack, are very entertaining. They also provide a wonderful glimpse into the school and Wimbledon as it was in the 1950s and 60s: the tuck shop before it was demolished, junior school ‘tarmac’, residential streets and shops on the Ridgway and Crooked Billet. It is my hope to show some of the films as part of a joint exhibition about the film unit and the Art Society Press at the Old King’s Reunion on 28th June. I hope to see lots of you there!

As ever, if you have memories to share, or questions to ask, please contact me at archive@kcs.org.uk.

Dr Lucy Inglis | School Archivist