Jul
28
Oyster Fishing at Whitstable, England (1920)
Filed Under (Film) by swapquot on 28-07-2009
Tagged Under : Bibs, Dinner Plate, Film Producer, London, Oysters, Shellfish
BFIfilms asked:
Bibs at the ready for this documentary showing the journey of the oyster from seabed to dinner plate. We see the oyster smacks (fishing vessels used for trawling) hauling in their plunder, the shellfish being packed for delivery to London and, inevitably, being shucked with gusto by a restaurant’s portly clientele. The film was shot in Whitstable, a seaside town known as the “Pearl of Kent” for its famous oysters. Beady-eyed viewers may spot prolific early film producer Charles Urban …
The part that mystifies me is how they call the little oysters to run and jump into their baskets to be hauled up into the boats.
I remember the walrus and the carpenter had their own methods, but this film doesn’t seem to go into that part!
I wonder who went down to call them? hmmm
Good movie.
Thanks for posting this and I have suscribed so that I can see other films in the archive. I stayed in Whitstable for three months recently and love the place – and yes had oysters at Peasons.
That may indeed be so! Maybe it was all those oysters!! I remember when I tried one once and my dash to the toilet was more of a panicked zig-zag across the room!
This was a hand-cranked camera and the operator needed to turn the handle at a certain and very precise speed; slightly too fast and the people seem to be moving slowly, too slow and they seem to be moving quickly. It was very difficult for the operator to maintain the precise speed necessary to achieve perfect, natural movement, so the people move jerkily and unnaturally. In old comedies, cameras would be ‘under-cranked’ so car chases (i.e. Keystone Cops) look faster than they actually were.
Wow – thanks for posting this !!
why is this type of old filming so strange looking..like the people are moving oddly
It turns out to be a commentary on the class structure of British society.
Easy to fall overboard eh? Whistable’s still got something special about it… It’s quite something to see all those ghosts, so to speak.