1958-08-30 — Page 6

Paze 8.

Stroma takes

it calmly

by BRIAN GARDNER

STROMA.

INSIDE the derelict cottage pictures still hang on the peeling walls. There are dusty tables and chairs A couple of flowerpots stand on the windowsill.

Outside in the overgrown grass lie a cracked bowl, a rusty spade, and a book by P. G. Wade- house.

These aze Ae: nluliti uf Stroma a smult hump of red Landstone that has over th become famous the inland on the edge of Britain that an America TV compony is Pro- posing to give away as a prize to the

of i winner

simple puzzle.

I had come to see what suȚi

of a prize they are offering.

Clearly seen

Stroma es two mitles from

John o' Grouts, IL con be clear-

STROMA

John

́s' Groats:

Thurso

CAITHNESS

Wick

Stroma might not be the sort

Jy teen from the desolate of island paradise Unt Mesura plateau of Caithness, K

Stivens and Humilbers, the TVR

FROM

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1958.

30 YEARS OF TALKING PICTURES

rudimentary beginnings with such

small green handiterchief foạt. producers, had in mind at all, ing on the blue sea. You get there in cold motor launch family has lived on Stroma for basic utterances as

through

I met Mr Munson, whose

which ploughs

the many generations, as he was "Stick 'em up" and Pentland FEW, une of the digging up some polaloes for strongest currents in the world. lunch.

in his tiny "Gertcha," the cinema, Ho Nut Patches of shunter, ully-look- cottage, before an open grale, after 20 ing fat suddenly give way

need on this "What We

ta

years

of

seething, bubbling cauldrons. Island is a man with ale talking, has progressed Here the North Sea battles with capital and who is prepared to

To the Atlantic. In ancient Morac, work really hard," he said. "A to loftier things. Stroma meuna Stream."

n werk.'

"Island in the man prepared to work six days words of more than two and even Outside we could see straight syllables

poetry.

The sun was shining on tx 85

we pulled up at the new ples down to the Fires, glistening in on Strom, I had cost £39,000 the fun. when it was built last year to make life easier for the van- Ishing landers,

Healthy people

People-sald-we-wanted-the-Beyond, looking just-a-band's

from

pler only lo escape

not true," said one

Islander.

way, we

could

the reach

see island more easily. but that's 20 miles of const from John of Groats to the huge cliffs of Once there were 100 people punnet Head. on Strom scraping # living 1

about asked him from crofting and fishing. But Imitations of life on Stroma. ns the years" went by" people "No purse?" he said, "I am left for a better livelihood Un

Now there are not worried In the least.

the mainland.

only

18 peuple left, five of are all healthy people here. whom work in the lighthouse,

rock station?

the

We

there

|

When It first discovered that It could talk, the cinema talked too much and the aftciona30; old, which was killed by sound; sighed for the "pure" cineron of

but the talkie-the best of them fenyway-are no langer Talking

their heads off.

FABULOUS

The silent Bim, with a few exceptions, was not much more than & peep-rhow, a magie key hole through which we could fabulous jokocrve strange and

Jerily coping with cuttures life, death and, even worse.

DRAWING BY ROBB

This was the key to a world of magical moments

A NOSTALGIC ASSESSMENT

were

Puit There

also the erlis, Ollen they were af

who

were

Variance with the men founded Hollywood and suffered rather than encouraged. Fortunately men like Champ- in, by Remonstrating that genius did not necessarily pre elude.popularity, blazed the trial for other artists of high talent.

LEGEND

BY THOMAS WISEMAN

030

50

there are

ROZDIC

every

alented forsos: the hemen who have grunted their obbreviated worda" of love full of machine- gun bullets, the lady-hams who have suffered Promethean agonies for the love of their in- cufferable husbands, children or doga; the sexy pieces whose hearty (if not minds) are dis- covered to be after all in the right places,

All along, the internal conflict for the film business has been between the artists who mado the films and the money-mon who had to sell them.

CONVENIENCE

In a few instances art and box- office have achieved a marriage of convenience: Pho best Westerns, musicals and the John Ford in Alms le But

earlier unpredictable a

Chaplin

Olma Stagecoach, The Long Voy business there is always A

of examples thin, There are age Home and Grapes of Wrath Renaissance round the corner.

signs

satie- now that a more evolveri the cinema's

Meanwhile, Gwn

factory lovo-match between unique kind of poetry the notable moments to remember: these two traditional antagonists poetry of sharp light on wet Garbo's first, smile in Ninotchka will be possible. quaysides, of juxtaposed faces, which changed her face like Rolloved by television of the "No shop? Once we had a

ur dusty, tralls and wind-carved plastic surgery; The

to provide routine, bubbling obligation Co-op here. The women used

rocks,

over exuberacice of On The time-kling entertainment, tho 10 stand around talking

appearance of cinema is now realising that in In an odd way, the proative Town; the ral all day. It was a waɛle of time.

iropulso has moved from

Marilyn Montee in Asphalt the long run only artistry con "Now all have to do is phone

ensure its survival. Jike ecuntry to another. Just after Jungle, looking Only thre of the original for supplies. A living can be

There are, of course, the freak Sound put the eirema poich-

the war Brlain, for a time, was adolescent's day-dream; the war families--the Mansons, the made on tisis island from form-

Jolton sang and a

in the Ienel with films like Odd scenes in War and Poace which successes the horror Alms and Wures, and the Sinclairs are ing und lobster-6shing. We shall By on the same level ng tho

Some, Be Erich VON

neto era began, left, still trying to live from stay."

theatre and iteratura. Perhaps Stroheim, never came to terms

Man Out and Kind Hearts and seemed to have been painted in the semi-pornographie ones crofting and lobster

Coronets and Great Expeein blood and all; the world-wenry which ranke large profits for fishing. Perhaps, 1 thought, Strome It has not yet reaised its pater with the commerical require-

The short while. But in these fields All Quiet on And at least

the Western tions. Then the Italians came to sex appeal of Dietrich in these was not such a bad prize after tallies, but then the drama ant mento of

of the medium they Front corohed the serven and the forefront. ercaling out of Blue Angel; Gorard Philip and satieton is rapidly reached: oudi fumbles doesn't inlend

literature have been going to all. stay.

Mr Manson pointed at A over 2,000 years, so they have experiences arose the legend of Se soon there will be only steamer on the

to Open City, Shoe Corps suffering the flesh-wounds to sentsations. The film industry horizon. We something of a head start

in a way that the printed word pleocs Hollywood's Philistinism.

of love; Katharine Hepburn and is now awakening to the more derelict cottages littered studiod is approach through Filma were talking before I

never could; Raimu, in films Shine and Bleycle Thieves, Yet, despite the obstacles, like La Fenue du

had Spencer Tracy working together that it has nothing to sell except with belongings

Meanwhile the Russians vas, so I cannel pronounce on Stroheim did make Grece axl brought intimate natural acting abandoned too cumber his binoculars.

Jice jugglers: Brando in On The quality; television can do cvery- their all they have had to say, nor; The Wedding March, before he to its highest peak.

greatest "Norwegian liner, some to be worth taking to the

creative talents to a fate worse

Waterfront wrestling with feel thing that the cinema can do, maininud.

think," he said.

Indeed, would anyone who had declined into a character actor,

than Siberia anes

Inge too difficult to express, but it cannot do it so well for Lurned heard all they had to say be in a and Orson Welles did direct The

to

These are all personal treasures. the simple reason that it has to propaganda

behalf 10. Mate

of to pronounce 0:3

Magnificent Ambersons ani

agriculture. And the French had therapeutie lunacy, the gorgeous

Nor should we overlook the doit more often. anything.

may be naive in saying this, Citizen Kane before being chain-

turned to a condmed ganged Into

on propaganda While frantic lelephone calls cinema addict since I was 13 and thrillers.

But I have been

making esoteric

Welles In Clilzen Kanc, behalf of sex. Whatever they nonsense which in the 30 years but I do not believe that the

the brightened

dark future of hims is with Franken- London, Rome. Glasgow,

belig made

following in the tradition of the die for these two laudable and have between still need my twice-weekly

New

What is amazing about the Germith" and Russian'

stein and his assorted monsters. auditorium. York, and

**x"

nor do I want

cinema, reecisary inalitulkes, --they did to be brief history of the cinema is not used the camera and the various little for the cinema.

After 30 ycors of talking, I Washington, while State Department officials rushed

Ameng the atrocities, com- think the cinema still has some- that so much falen! was sup- techniques of culting My earliest Idut was

A litle later the Italians, too, mitted by the cinema, there are, thing to say and its survival will Ronald

I cherish

as depend

skill and upon the lesa feeling in the way that writers

the money, collectors' llems; the talentless aristry with which it says it. ute metaphors,

cuties who have wiggled their

(London Express Service),

"It makes no

one

difference to us who owns the island,” said Robert Thompson, the light. house principal.

But veryone goes. then Stroma will be a rock station, and we will not be able to have our families here," said Ham

There is

no vlage on ihe Island, no shop, no trees, no

radio

were

I should

Frantic calls

cured,

for worked in and from their bitter the heart with its picture of war remembered offony, much master. Micheling Prelle in Le Diable ay nices are quick to become inured

Boulanger,

BRITAIN LED

and

לום

ish Kennedy. a lighthouse man. to and fro in a Blurry of excite Colman. He appealed to me pressed but that so much of it ongling, to suggest emotio, and went the way of all flesh and many which

church. There telephone, a car and tractors, and a lighthouse.

It is a ghostly, certe place. The only sounds are the dash- ing of the sea on the shore and the wind in the grass.

the

•

through more

capitulated OT

spinning powers of the bosom.

10

By Leo Falk and Phil Davis

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN

ment, while television magnates because he was always so well- urscathed. nervously champed at Their pub, no nurse, no functioning cigars, we quielly studied

mensored even when set about

cut-throats progrera of the ship as it leam-foreigners, He never got flurried,

Lyy

ang munsty ed down to Pentland Firth. This of Stroma have the islanders

1101 even when set about by done since ships began.

Marlene Diqrich. I sed that, At the post office I met Azaic suppose there thr worse Wares, who acts as postmistress sans for idolatry.

Colmen when she is not helping her

wus personality- one went to see him brothers on the craft. We dis- star and cussed the situation over a cup rather than the films in which he appeared. All movie-making, will about 10 years ago, was based on the assumption that the star was all-important.

So seldom used

neat

of teil.

In the school there are

"It could bring good to the piles of textbooks and the island," she said, "If the winner calendar is open at July 1950. came over here to stay, and if Next door is a hall once used, he had some money.",

years ago, for dances,

One of the more agrecable

An old-fashioned gramophone watened the progress

With her binoculars she outcomes of this star system was

of her Grata Garbo, who could not the have existed in any other

is blanketed in dust, and the brother Alec as he crosseri record on top of the pile is: Firth in hie motor-boat. "Come Ye Back to Bonnie Scot land," by Henry Hall and Gleneagles Hand.

his

Next to the records lie two gasmasks.

At the top of the hill, in the centre of the island, is the kirk, Inside, broken oil lamps

and

texts liv scattered about between

this land

į medium. Some of the flims in "Only men born and bred on which she appeared were trashy, can navigate the|bul Gurbo, in the manner of Firth in bad weather," she said. the legendary alchemists, could

Television and America seem turn com to gold.

ed far away.

Irresponsible

the pews. The bell es Inside Back in Wick,

the

county

Nothing can detract from her achievements — except, possibly,

a coincback which I am sure site

is wise enough nei to make.

She was a product of the ruthi

the door and the Bible is open town. met Mr JL. Russell.csly commerelat cinema and of

the camo sludio that gave us the

at Exodus. The last service was county clerk, "The counell have

two objections, to Stroma being Andy Handy series (which mate

he saldre money). Other stars pro-

a year ago.

Outside the church is a lone- uffered as a prize." 1 telephone box. On The undignified manner and fouced to appeal to the differing plaque informs you that it was Irresponsibility of the purchase. Idiosyncracies of public taste the six millionta G.P.O. tele- And also the ownership going were perhaps, to say the least, phone in the United Kingdom, overseas."

less Immortal. But

many of

It was opened with a small But the Warcs, and the Sin-them were none the less fun. ceremony in 1933, It works, but clairs, and the Mansons, would They kept leopards as pets, now in seldom used. The ghosts not mind a bit it there was an they swam in champagne, slept of Stroma can pick it up and Amerlean owner. After many in silk or thin air are their lives speak to Bagdad ot South years, at last, they see a ray of were everything that a good America whenever they choose. hope."

mirage ought to be.

BOGS; YOU'RE AWHIZI THIS DEAL REALLY WORKS!

FERDINAND

! Estufate!

DID YOU

DOUBT IT WE MUST- FIND ANOTHER LUCKY (CHUCKLE-CHUCKLE PERSON TO GIVE MY NEW-TYPE RADIO TO.

THREE MEN WITH GOOD RECORDS--ALL COMMIT STUPID CRWES WITH HUNDREDE CA WITNESSES--THEN DENY ITALLY DOSI, IT MAKE SENSET OS

四期

EVERYTHING MAKES

SENSE WHEN YOU KNOW"

THE ANSWER. WE

MUST FINDITT

CONTINUED-

SHEAFFER'S

NEW BALDINTZ

WITH!

STERLING

SILVER

TIP

AVAILABLE ATALL

4000 STORES

Pioneer

the mark of a march

JOHNNY HAZARD

YOU AIN'T HAD TIME, TO WARM UP GULLET! IF YOU CUT LOOSE HARD YOU'RE LIABLE TO COME UP WITH

↑ A BORE ARM Z

FORGET IT, CORKY!

THAT FISH-AN'-CHIPS. „BREAKFAST WAS \ JUST WHAT I NEEDED THIS BALL GAME IS IN THE SAGL

IN THE PROVATEWBOX OF "LÒNG-SHOT" LODIE, NOTORIOUS BOOKIE...

YOU GOT HERE JUST. IN TIME, B059) SAY- WHAT'S THE BIO NORSE

«LAUGH FOR T

By Mik

By Frank Robbins

I'M LAUGHIN'ABOUT A BET I JUST MADE, BRAINY BENNYI BOME BIS-SHOT WISE GUY JUST TOSSED ME TWO GRAND ou BECAUSE HE THINKS THAY GÜLLET O'HARA GUY CAN WIN TIN STRANNY GAMES {

tank fire

SWISSAIR

AUSTIN

for

WORK

fide and sleek) Encircle him with this. supple Pioneer Mellow-tone belt. Hand stained wax fimlah for that expensive look in gifts.

Star in striganı The stripe's the thing in this Pioneer elastlo belt, slim and smooth, with smart leather trim. Perfect for collegiates and post rada aliko,

inct

METRO CARS (H,K,) LTD.

N