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13 Messidor CCXIV (July 1, 2006)

(Ramblings) This Day in History

July 1, 2006 marks the 90th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme.  (Not to be confused with the First and Second Battles of the Somme, which began on March 21, 1918 and August 21, 1918, respectively).

What?  You thought I was going to reference something else?

Anyways, this post is actually a request for help in finding something.  There was a film, called The Battle of the Somme, made by the official British cinematographers, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell, and I'd like to get my grubby little mitts on it.

It's about 63 minutes long, consisting of actual footage of the battle, as well as staged enactments filmed before the start of the battle.  It is, of course, in black and white, and is silent with title cards interspersed throughout.

If IMDB and Amazon are to be believed, then a copy of it was still in production as recently as 1992 (although it appears to have only been as a PAL videocassette), and there are copies of a DVD titled The Battle of the Somme on eBay.  However, these DVD listings are virtually information-free, and I'd rather not spend the money to purchase and ship one from the UK just to have it not be what I want (given that I can, last I checked, play Region 2 DVDs).

So, what I'm looking for is information.  Does anyone know if the film is still out there?  If so, who makes it, what does the cover art look like?  Or, alternatively, I'd also accept information on where I could acquire a digital copy of it.  (Being a creation of the UK government prior to 1956, it is now considered in the public domain, and therefore could legally be downloaded.)

Anyone?

Posted by g026r at 00:52
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