Underplayed Gems

Painted Boats (1945)

Painted Boats poster
Directed by
Charles Crichton
Genre
drama film
Country
United Kingdom
Runtime
1h 03m
Rating
7.1 of 10 from 8 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This is a short drama about the lives of people who work on England's canal boats in the 1940s. It shows their everyday routines and the hard work of moving goods along the waterways.

nostalgicgentleslow-pacedobservationalearthysimpleinformative

What happens

Painted Boats (US titles The Girl on the Canal or The Girl of the Canal) is a British drama film directed by Charles Crichton and released by Ealing Studios in 1945. Painted Boats, one of the lesser-known Ealing films of the period, is brief (63 minutes long), uses a little-known cast and has a slight storyline. It is however considered significant by waterways enthusiasts as a fictionalised documentary, providing a rare extensive filmic depiction of a long-gone way of life on England's working canal system in the 1940s. The narration was by Louis MacNeice, including some verse specially written to suit the onscreen action, most notably the sequence in which the narrow boat is being 'legged' through one of the tunnels. Much background information on canals and suggestions for suitable filming locations were provided by the writer L. T. C. Rolt, who also provided the title, and who records in his autobiography that he was disappointed to find that his name had not been included in the film's credits. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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