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Great Western Approaches

All aboard for a coastal trip - by glorious rail - from Dorset to all points west.

Promotional 1936 14 mins

Overview

"Believe it or not this holiday-maker is in England!" Step aboard and luxuriate in a cinematic tour of the South West, from Dorset… to Devon… to Cornwall… back up to Somerset… then across to South Wales. The film is both a promo for our resort-studded westerly coast and for the Great Western Railway services headed there (notably the legendary Cornish Riviera Express). Aptly, it feels brisk and leisurely at the same time. Fine sunlit cinematography is enjoyably overlaid by a newsreel-y voiceover brimful with mildly facetious-but-fun remarks.

Note the commentary's reference to recent war damage in Plymouth. The version shown here is in fact a 1947 re-voicing and re-release of a film originally produced in 1936: stylistically, it feels much more of the 1930s than the 40s. It was made by the 1930s' leading mainstream non-fiction film producer, Gaumont-British Instructional, sponsored by the GWR, and takes its place in a long and rich tradition: a link in the chain between earlier silent travelogues funded by railway companies and the later, lusher post-war classics turned out by the nationalised British Transport Films.

Genres

Promotional and Travelogue

Country

United Kingdom

Language

English

Subjects

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