Unidentified British Cookery Instructional Film, c. 1937
‘A woman’s cooking problems have been solved by 20th century minds and in a 20th century fashion…’ ‘It’s amazing how much you can get in it!’ This is a transfer from a 16mm print I bought from a junk shop a couple of years ago. It is in very poor condition, as you’ll see from the dirt and deep vertical emulsion scratches. A lot of footage is missing, and 73ft was not transferred for this video because the perforation damage was too severe for it to go through a telecine. The start and end titles were totally missing, so I have no idea what this film is. Can you help? The stock mark is 1937. The material may have been shot a year or two earlier, but of course no later. It appears to be a promotional film made either by an electricity generating company or a manufacturer of domestic appliances (given that it promotes electric cookers heavily). It is somewhat bizarre, to put it mildly. I doubt if the two ‘actresses’ had ever prepared an actual meal in their lives – even if the cut glass accents don’t totally give it away, people didn’t wear fur shawls to cook the dinner – even in the 1930s!
lmao 2 spaces to put your pans on the gorilla!!!
Ha, Ha!!
From a serious point of view, I like this film as it shows how in those days inventions such as this (which had been around for 20 or 30 years but not available to the bulk of the population) were beginning to make huge social/domestic differences – some surprisingly modern remarks about men in the kitchen and she does admit there has been play acting going on, with a serious message. We take this for granted now and silly folk like me make jokes about it but it is an important record so thanks!
These old cookers look great, much more robust than the modern ones!
Did she say she used a gorilla?
“the food is cooked with invisible heat” lolz
I’d like a stove like that, with the flat top plate. I bet they worked much better in those days. The cheap electric stoves these days are rubbish.
I like cooking with a joint too.
My Nan said they used to use a coal oven until they got a gas stove.
A really fascinating fragment! The previous comment about accents baffles me, however – everyone in this clip pretty obviously has a “British” (or rather, RP English) accent.
I think the idea that it’s some sort of Public Information Film sounds about right, though if it was from 1937 it wouldn’t have had anything to do with the war, which was still a couple of years away.
British? The accents are typical of American movies in the 30s. The child says, “mommy” not “mummy” which would be more typical in British English.
Fun film! Ignorant question: are electric ovens meant here to replace gas or wood?
My guess would be it’s either an electric company or government film to promote the “more efficient” electric ovens, what with the war on and shortages. If it was from a manufacturer, the product name would be there somewhere.
Apparently the electric oven of 1937 was way better than my electric oven from the 1980s, which had hideously uneven heat and couldn’t handle more than 2 loaves of bread at once.
Boy, are these women convincing or what? The kid’s a better actress than either of the adults. Maybe it’s because unlike mom, she has cooked an apple pie with a joint.