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Scotland for Fitness (1938)
 

Courtesy of Scottish Screen Archive

Main image of Scotland for Fitness (1938)
 
35mm film, 12 mins, black & white
 
DirectorBrian Salt
SponsorFilms Of Scotland
Production CompanyGB Instructional Films
PhotographyG.W. Pocknall
Narrated bySir Ian Colquhoun
 
Scottish Screen Archive collection

Promotional film for the National Fitness Council for Scotland, encouraging public to take exercise and improve their fitness. A hiker, footballer and ladies keep-fit organiser explain how they keep fit and healthy through exercise and sport.

Show full synopsis

One of a group of seven documentaries produced by the Films of Scotland Committee (set up in 1937), under the supervision of John Grierson and made for screening at the 1938 Empire Exhibition held in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. The Committee was charged with the task of producing a series of films on Scottish life. The group of seven titles was much publicised at the time, the subject of comment in newspapers and on radio. Years later film industry observers hailed the project as unique in film history and successful in every way.

From the perspective of contemporary filmmaking, the stilted narration and conversation that follows seems naive, amusing even, in its rigidly formal and overtly forced manner. The presenter, Sir Ian Colquhoun of Luss, Chairman of the Fitness Council, betrays a distinct artificiality, of the sort that Harry Enfield lampooned so well with his 'Mr Cholmondley-Warner' sketches.

Kenneth Broom

Click titles to see or read more

Video Clips
Complete film (10:38)
GALLERY / SCRIPTS / AUDIO
SEE ALSO
Children's Story (1938)
Empire Exhibition (1938)
Face of Scotland, The (1938)
Seafood (1938)
Wealth of a Nation (1938)