Elstree Calling (1930) on Netflix
A revue of nineteen comedy and music sketches is staged as a live television broadcast from a London studio. An actor who wants to perform Shakespeare keeps losing his air time.
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- Netflix2.5/5
- IMDb4.9/10636 votes
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Plot summary
Nineteen musical and comedy turns make up a revue staged as a live television broadcast from a London studio, with a compère linking the acts and a British cast of stage performers. The show was billed as a cine-radio revue and answered the all-star Hollywood revues of the day. Two running jokes thread through the numbers: an actor determined to perform Shakespeare who is repeatedly refused air time, and a viewer whose constant tinkering with his television set keeps costing him the picture. Mechanical television was a topical subject, though Britain had no regular service. Four sequences were colored by the Pathécolor process, which stenciled tint onto parts of black-and-white prints.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Elstree Calling (1930)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Elstree Calling is quite possibly the first film to refer directly to television, with its linking narrative about a television broadcast of the revue, six years before the BBC began regular television transmissions.
- Four sequences in Elstree Calling were colored by the Pathécolor process, which used stencils to tint selected areas of the black-and-white prints.
