Salvage with a Smile

Propaganda short made at Raking Studios.Directed by Adrian Brunei who had made some important films in the silent era.However after a falling out with the studios he ended up doing quota quickie and then shorts.The film features Kathleen Harrison as as the dustpan Ronnie Shiner

Home owner Aubrey Mallalieu and housekeeper Kathleen Harrison enlist dustman Ronald Shiner and bone collector Phyllis Morris to explain to the audience why old paper, bones, and metal need to be salvaged, and how to prepare it for collection in this War Ministry short produced by Ealing.

It's a very minor example of war movies produced by the British government, and far too straightforward to be of much interest except for the information it provides. I have no clear idea why Adrian Brunel was called upon to direct it. Usually he was involved in highly artistic movies. I suppose they figured he could use the work.

As usual it take a crisis to make people behave responsibly, and this Ministry of Information short made at Ealing Studios has a message if anything even more timely eighty years later about the value of recycling; succinctly explaining how old bones and old magazines can be converted into raw materials to help the war effort.

Mind you, what they'd have done with all the plastic packaging we amass these days I've no idea. And I'd have liked a quick look at those hardbacks they were so nonchalantly discarding!