Adventures Of Sidney Mann with his Cine Camera

The Mann family have fun together at the seaside in summer

Family members are introduced through close-ups next to a car VX3226 near another car WD2530. A brief glimpse of children on the beach with beach huts, promenade and pier, is followed by a street scene with a policeman directing traffic. Joan and Sidney use one of two machines on the pavement which dispenses a ticket – probably a weighing machine as it involves stepping onto a platform. A close-up of a hand holding a ticket looks like a card for Mann’s Music Shop. Outside a beach hut or shed, a girl sits knitting something stripy next to a gramophone with horn. In a garden, family members play with a dog, and have a laugh together. Outside a wooden house with verandas, family members read, and shake the dust from a doormat. Three girls in trousers set up the gramophone and perform a co-ordinated dance together. Other family members of all ages sit in deckchairs surrounded by drying towels and laundry then they try putting with a golf club and ball games while the children play in the sand. Joan emerges from the house in her swimsuit and settles on the lawn with a cigarette and paper parasol. After more golfing on a putting green there are scenes of a motor boat heading out to sea and views of the seafront buildings. On the promenade a board indicates high tide at Walton-on-the-Naze. The family eat ice creams. A sequence of rough sea shows crowds watching waves crash over the promenade, and the family dodging the waves in coats buffeted by the wind. Bathers go into the sea and a few people sit in deckchairs. In calmer weather, people dive into the sea and splash in the waves. Relaxed family portraits include a man taking off a woman’s jumper, cigarette in mouth, and a couple kissing as they lie in the grass. In a brief shot a diver in kit with helmet off sits on the promenade.; behind him is a Walton pier poster for deep sea diving. More scenes of ball games on the beach include a short trick sequence with the film running backwards, inspired by the fashionable yo-yo. The family walk along the crowded promenade, an older couple kiss, and the film ends with visits to a beach hut, a garden, and a couple playing tennis.

Intertitles

The Adventures of Sidney Mann with his Cine-Camera Sidney Mann presents Summer Holidays 1931 Joan Rough sea

Background Information

The films by Sidney Mann were shot in black and white on 9.5mm with some notched intertitles. The titles throughout the 9.5mm film are "notched" - the cut-out notch to the right of the frame activated a device in the projector which would hold the frame still for a few seconds (saving film stock and reducing length of reel). The fims contain some very short shots, sometimes only a few frames, so they reveal more when viewed in slow motion. Sidney Mann often appears in front of the camera (young man wearing glasses) with his wife Joan (dark hair).