MICROSCOPE ON PATHÉSCOPE 9.5MM PRINTED FILMS

(Part Two)

By Gerald McKee

The following excellent article describing the background to 9.5mm printed films issued by the Pathé-Baby company in France and the Pathéscope company in the UK is taken, with grateful permission, from Gerald's book: "A Half Century of Film Collecting" - now sadly out of print.

4. 1933-1940: SUPER REELS FROM CRICKLEWOOD

All the 9.5mm film releases until 1932 were printed in France at Pathe's Joinville factory. Then, the Pathéscope Cricklewood works and laboratory gradually took over the printing of films for Great Britain. Some of the first films printed at Cricklewood were with notched titles, but with the changeover to 'SB' running titles, the output was soon switched exclusively to these. On the whole, printing at Cricklewood was of a high standard, even if not quite matching the outstanding quality of the (post-1927) films from Joinville. Though they were very good photographically, the positive Pathé stock being imported from France, there was a tendency to unsteadiness in some prints. This lack of steadiness could be observed as lateral float as much as vertical movement of the image. Perhaps this slight fall-of in standards was due to the vast call on the facilities at Cricklewood; not only was there the big demand for copies by the expanding number of 9.5mm libraries, but also numerous short Mickey Mouse and Popeye subjects required for the various toy projectors that were appearing.

The films prepared for English release by the Pathéscope Cricklewood laboratories (identifiable by their five figure numbers all prefixed by 30 (e.g. SB/30054 THE WHITE HELL OF PITZ PALU), were often titled in the Cheltenham Bold type. Occasionally - as the masters had titles in English - they retained their original main title cards; for example, the notched versions of THE WRECKER and MOULIN ROUGE, and Hitchcock's THE MANXMAN. In some films, like S/30024 WEEKEND WIVES, certain original inter-titles were retained, giving an odd mixture of these plus the Pathéscope Cheltenham Bold versions. Generally, in the mid-30s, with an increasing number of new British silent releases being mute versions of talkies in English, original main-title cards were retained. In films like SB/30320 NO LIMIT, a mute version of a talkie, specially written inter-titles and superimposed dialogue sub-titles were in a more modern type-style than films prepared at Joinville, usually mute adaptations of French talkie releases, still with the familiar Cheltenham Bold typeface.

From Cricklewood came the excellent new 'Pathescope Presents' with its neat lettering, fading up and superimposed on a background of a super reel and the safety triangle logo, with the whole title sequence fading in and out. The new 'The End' was in plain, bold lettering. Identification was still being printed photographically on the leaders and trailers. British 300ft.(100m) reels were now supplied in another type of blue card container: with a lower section reinforced at its circumference. The label bearing the film's title was printed in blue, with the statement 'Film printed in England', beneath it. The lid had the familiar Pathéscope 'Safety' label, and was sealed with the usual "Guarantee". They are the most familiar of the Pathéscope film packaging of the pre-war years. The actual reels were made in England, still under pat. no. 360307, and had black enamelled steel cheeks with three double spokes as previous designs. The main difference was that the aluminium centre only had a simple slot to hold the film and was fitted to the cheeks by the folded metal tongues often used in toy manufacture. They were remarkably well made spools, light but strong, many surviving over 50 years with no signs of rust. 30ft. and 60ft. films were printed at Cricklewood. These were still supplied in traditional cassettes (projectors like the ACE were designed for them), usually imported from France, though sometimes made in England. For unexplained reasons, these cassettes had different descriptions embossed on their cheeks; 'Baby Film', 'Pathé Baby', 'Pathex' and 'Pathéscope' . These had the title-bands printed in red lettering on a white ground, they were sold in thin-card boxes printed with the familiar Pathéscope triangle logo and the film's title.

At this time, in addition to these longer subjects there also appeared little l5ft. films, printed at Cricklewood and cut from familiar Pathéscope movies, for the various 9.5mm toy projectors that were beginning to appear as the result of the press campaign against the fire risk of toy 35mm projectors. The little cartons for these, printed in red and black for normal subjects, green and black for Disney cartoons, made heavy use of the 'safety triangle' logo in the fight against flammable nitrate film in the home.

Home movie film from 9.5mm chargers processed at Cricklewood was supplied for projection mounted in 30ft cassettes with a plain band indicating they had been processed by Pathéscope Ltd., with space for the film-maker's reference title. In November 1934, the 200ft 'M' reel appeared. This was intended for a new series of silent releases with SB running titles (projection time: 8 minutes) taking over from what had been a popular format: films issued on 3 x 60f t. notched reels. The 'M' reel was also ideal for the full Walt Disney - and later - the Max Fleischer cartoons that were beginning to appear. The first 'M' reels consisted of two cheeks of soft aluminium, rivetted back-to-back, each with a single hole to facilitate the connection of the film. Later, an improved design made completely of black enamelled steel was provided. The 200ft. films on 'M' reels were supplied in simple card boxes. in the same manner as the shorter reels.

In April 1939, the 'O' reel arrived, an open spool of 60ft capacity designed to replace the 30ft. and 60ft. cassettes. It was well made of black enamelled steel, in effect, a miniature 'Super' reel, putting an end to cassettes. With the arrival of 9.5mm sound on film in June 1938, the 300ft reel (with a running time of a mere eight minutes at 24fps ) was retained as the standard unit, underlining what a pity it was that 400ft did not become the standard length after the introduction of 9.5mm running titles.

There was a different method of pricing these sound films. Instead of a fixed price per reel, as there was with the silent releases, the cost of sound films varied according to the total footage. So, for example, amongst the first 23 reels of sound film issued with the basic rate of £2 per 300ft., the two reel short THE SHOW'S THE THING [length 750f t.] was £5 (and must have been a tight squeeze on 2 x 300ft. reels), while the one reel Popeyc cartoon SOCK A'BYE BABY [length 255ft.] was only £1 14s (£1.70) It was the general policy to condense sound features to short versions of four (32 mins) and six (48 mins) reels. For some of these, new main titles were made by Pathéscope; not a popular idea with collectors.

The picture negatives for sound printing were initially made in France, at Joinville. But for the sound tracks, Cricklewood printed by direct reduction from 35m negatives, and prints from these were certainly superior to those from France where sound films were printed from their positive master print to give negative soundtracks, with appalling background noise. Especially designed for the Pathé VOX home talkie outfit was the 900ft spool; actually the French made Pathé '250' spool (250 metres = 820ft.) This was like an enlarged version of the later 300ft. designs, but with a steel centre. It was possible to squeeze 3 x 300ft. reels on it, and films of three reels or over were mounted on these spools. They were sold in larger versions of the blue card 'Cricklewood' containers.

The "Pathéscope Monthly" flourished with its monthly news of releases. It now had an attractive pictorial cover, featuring the release of the month, and bore the information 'Price Twopence', even though in practice, it was posted free of charge to 9.5mm customers, or given away free by cine dealers. It provided essential information for owners of the new VOX sound projector on all the new sound releases.

There were two other innovations promoted by the successful public relations exercise of "Pathéscope Monthly". First was the monthly release of highlights from the bi-weekly Pathé Gazette newsreels, entitled PATHESCOPE SUPER GAZETTE. These started in April/May 1934 and carried on for 64 issues of single mute 300ft. reels until August 1939. Obviously, readership of the PM was essential, if you wanted to know the newsreels' contents. The other development, publicised in the pages of "Pathéscope Monthly" was the free loan of publicity films. In March 1932, the first sponsored 9.5rnm movie. A DAY AT BOURNVILLE was announced, soon this look at Cadbury's chocolate factory was joined by IVORY CASTLES (Gibbs Toothpaste) and PORT SUNLIGHT (Levers Soap). Other leading firms joined the scheme and it remained in operation until the Pathéscope Film Library closed soon after the start of the war. The films available were well produced, often better than the documentaries sold by Pathéscope; much appreciated by young enthusiasts with limited pocket money. I know, I was one of them! From 1933, the bulky green film catalogue appeared in several editions per year.

5. THE CRICKLEWOOD ERA 1940-1960

Not long after the declaration of war, Pathéscope, in 1940, did two things to clear their shelves. They sold off their obsolete 17.5mm film library, as well as other 17.5mm films they had at Cricklewood. Then they disposed of all their remaining stocks of 9.5mm notched titled films, some of them incomplete. After the closure of their Great Marlborough Street showroom, they disbanded their 9.5mm film library.

The buyer of all this Pathéscope stock was Illustra Enterprises, the Wardour Street firm, long established in selling surplus home movie films and equipment. Although in some ways this was a sad move, for the impecunious young nine-fiver it was a heaven sent opportunity to own some of the titles that had appeared so alluring in Pathéscope's bulky, green-covered catalogue.

Along with other aspects of Pathéscope's products, the quality of spools and packaging deteriorated during the war. For a while 300ft subjects were supplied on an extremely nasty spool with cheeks stamped out in the kind of fibre used to make cheap attache cases, and steel centres with too small a diameter (40mm) to be used safely on projectors with super attachments. If used on the most common 9.5mm projector then in use. the ACE with its super attachment, these spools would cause the very kind of damage (ripped sprocket holes) that gave the gauge and the ACE their bad name with library operators! The inept way these incorrectly designed spools were put on the market suggests that the Pathéscope management at that time. did not understand the limitations of the equipment they sold!

30ft and 60f t. subjects were on "open" spools with solid Paxolin cheeks and steel centres, replacing the superior 'O' spool. Later on, 300ft spools having Paxolin cheeks with three stamped out apertures and a steel centre of correct diameter attached by the "toy technique" of bent tabs appeared. These were not too bad; at least the cheeks remained true. A similar - and satisfactory - 900ft. version was also made with this design. Films issued during this period were packaged in flimsy card cartons, with the title gummed to one edge.

Some wartime prints were made on lavender based positive stock from Kodak's Wealdstone works, as supplies from Pathé of France were no longer available. Kodak continued to supply Pathéscope with filmstock until after the war, and the normalisation of trade with Pathé in France. Wartime paper rationing caused the closure of the "Pathéscope Monthly" in March 1941. The green film catalogue was another casualty. The last edition for many years, in 1941, was almost a survey of the great days of Pathéscope; along with the latest talkie releases, one finds remnants of the notched reels still available (which must have been printed many years earlier).

6. THE POST WAR YEARS 1945-1960.

Three years after the war, the editor of "Amateur Cine World", Gordon Malthouse, wrote a hard hitting editorial, - 'The 9.5mm User Asks Some Questions". Tbe essence of this was that 16mm film libraries were outstripping 9.5mm with sound films, which were "star-studded"... "spectacular in range and up-to-dateness". Attention was also drawn to old silent releases. "The lustre of the classics is but little tarnished, but the level of entertainment of which they were the peaks scarcely corresponds with the demands of today". An indignant response from the Managing Director of Pathéscope claimed that they had supplied "more than eleven thousand projectors of various types and over two thousand Motocameras during the past two years. We have printed more film than ever before." Regarding the lack of attractive titles for hire, he explained, "We pride ourselves with the fact that we supply good quality, good entertainment films at the lowest rate for cinematographers... but if full length features are wanted they must pay considerably more for them." In the austerity of these post-war years, Pathéscope's best new releases were mostly sound film releases. The print quality of these was satisfactory where there was good origination, though in the case of some titles (e.g. Charley Chase comedies) where origination was a projection print, the picture quality was inferior and the sound tracks especially noisy. In the case of some features, these were re-recorded for 9.5mm printing using Brent Laboratories' 'glow-lamp' recorder to give variable density sound tracks. Such tracks generally worked better with the haphazard standards of the 9.5mm sound system.

Towards the end of the days of the Cricklewood film laboratory, there was an (unheralded) change in the geometry of the printing. Instead of silent releases made for projection with the emulsion facing the screen (Pathe's original standard), the films were printed for projection with the emulsion facing the lamp, (the way in which 9.5mm sound films had always been supplied). Why this sudden change? The answer surely has to be that the existing silent film printing machinery had become worn out, and - with the diminished number of films now required - all printing was switched to the remaining sound film printer. [ed: The more likely reason was that master material was now mostly sourced from 16mm not 35mm as Pathéscope had modified a printer to produce the triple negatives from 16mm material]. This was not a serious move, but another instance of the way Pathescope were prepared to alter standards without notifying the customer.

Picture steadiness on both 9.5mm silent and sound films was not up to pre-war standards. Cricklewood now printed a number of classic pre-war silent releases (like THE SPY etc.) as well as the '30000' series, but with diminished photographic quality. There was an even more serious fall~off in the case of what were then the most popular silent subjects: the Chaplin comedies and some other shorts. Although new main and inter-titles were made to replace the old Cheltenham Bold versions, the actual movie material was duped from worn masters, with noticeable splices used in their repair, printing through to the actual release prints. There was also a serious drop in the standard of processing, due to poor control of the equipment; a problem that was never properly rectified in the latter days of Pathéscope. Customers used to the quality of the pre-war products were disappointed at the fall in the standards from a firm whose output was always highly regarded by amateur cine enthusiasts.

Even though Pathéscope concentrated on sound films, they were not money-makers. Each release was said to lose the company £500; it was only the sale of Disney cartoons to the juvenile owners of ACE projectors that earned profits. At the very end, as few as three sound prints were struck from a master, such was the drop in saleabilty of Pathéscope releases.

As wartime restrictions disappeared, there was a return to the pre-war 300ft. spool design. But these were not made with the finesse of the earlier version. The gauge of steel sheet used for stamping out the cheeks was heavier, and the centres were of steel rather than aluminium. The 'O' reel was eventually replaced by a neat polystyrene one-piece spool with a maximum capacity of 60ft. used both for the shorter releases for the ACE as well as for the return of amateur films processed at Cricklewood. For a while the penny-pinching practice of returning processed films without a spool in a flimsy envelope was adopted, soon changed after complaints from customers. Later there was a neat one-piece polystyrene super reel, followed by two new, strong steel reels (made by Posso in France) in both 400ft.(120m.) and 990ft.(300m.) sizes.

The dramatic fall in popularity of 9.5mm film releases was reflected in the film catalogues, several editions of which were published in the 50s. In 1952 there was a total of 148,065ft. of silent films, 36% of which were dramas (mostly titles originally released in the 30s). By 1958, there was only 52,885ft. with a mere 8% of drama. On the sound releases there were totals of 170,600ft. in 1952, falling in 1958 to 90,900ft; of these the proportion of dramas were 38% and 47%, respectively. There were no longer any sound cartoons, the license for the rights in Popeyc and Betty Boop titles having expired. The fall in interest was matched by the rise in popularity of TV thanks to the introduction of I.T.V. Worse still, films being negotiated for transmission on TV were the very subjects that in earlier days would have reached 9.5mm. Clearly no one was going to pay for 9.5mm films when similar subjects could be seen on the 'box' for no more than the license fee.

"Pathéscope Monthly" made a faltering re-appearance as a simple news sheet, then in November 1949, it returned in its pre-war format, still a free issue. After April/May 1952 it became a bi-monthly. replaced in 1955 by the small format - "Pathéscope Gazette" (now 3 shillings a year!) with a change in policy, "It will cater for the 9.5mm enthusiast, but information embracing all three substandard gauges will be included", stated the editor. Few new films were announced, but it had something for the collector with two series: "The History of the Film Through 9.5mm" by Kevin Brownlow, and "Classics on 9.5mm" by David Gunston. In April 1957, this reverted to the original PM size, but the old style had gone. In some issues the last 9.5mm vintage releases, Chaplin's SHOULDER ARMS, PAY DAY and THE PILGRIM were announced . [It should be mentioned that by now, in 1958, Pathéscope having been bought by an English businessman, the film releases also appeared in 8mm versions - editor]. The final edition of "Pathéscope Gazette" appeared in April 1959. Pathéscope went into liquidation in 1960, and the Cricklewood laboratory/factory was sold. There was no more film printing.

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