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!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• instructional
• promotional
• educational
• film
• cookery
• England
• 1930s
• 1937
• electricity
• cookers
• cooking
• women
• feminism

[scoterpool]

Did she say she used a gorilla?

[JamboyStu]

I like cooking with a joint too.

[ProjectFlashlight612]

Well, it's better than Avatar. :)

[SuperSososexy]

lmao 2 spaces to put your pans on the gorilla!!!

[85scampi]

Ha, Ha!!

[scoterpool]

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!

[scoterpool]

These old cookers look great, much more robust than the modern ones!

[JamboyStu]

"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.

[JamboyStu]

My Nan said they used to use a coal oven until they got a gas stove.