At sometime in the late 60s or early 70s, five years before I my joined Derann, Derek had purchased four titles from Tom Blakeley, one of which was ‘Off the Dole’, a film that Tom’s father John Blakeley had produced in 1935. It starred George Formby and had been George’s third feature film, all I can remember of the standard 8 print I viewed is George saying “What’s five shillings, if you don’t pay!”.
George Formby was always a pretty sure bet on 8mm and this 200′ short was already a best seller by the time I became a member of staff. It consisted of three musical numbers taken from the film ‘Off The Dole’: “With My Little Ukulele In My Hand”, “If You Don’t Want The Goods, Don’t Maul ‘Em” [both written by Jack Cottrell] and “I Promised To Be Home By Nine-O-Clock” [Written by Arthur Mertz & Albert W. Stanbury].
We also issued this title on 16mm and if you’re a U.K. member this extract, complete with the ‘Derann’ film logo is being shown from time to time on ‘Talking Pictures TV’.
Label courtesy of Peter Brooke at ‘SPROCKETS’
Leave a Reply