Bringing new life to silent 1930s film (From Dorset Echo)

Bringing new life to silent 1930s film

10:32am Tuesday 9th February 2010

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COMPOSER Rachael Leach has created a dramatic new score to bring to life a silent film made in Bridport in the late 1930s.

Dope Under Thorncombe, a melodrama based around West Bay, was made by local people under the direction of amateur filmmaker Frank Trevett.

His daughter, Vivienne Smith, pictured with the camera that captured the story, handed the film over to rural media charity Trilith for safekeeping.

Trilith’s Trevor Bailey said: “It was shot on 9.5mm film, the amateur’s favourite film choice in the 1930s. It was an amazing project for local people to take on and has been crying out to be given its own special music and to be seen more widely.”

The film receives its musical premiere at Bridport Arts Centre on Thursday, February 11 at 7.30pm.

Mrs Smith, who lives in Bridport, said: “My father bought the cine camera when my brother Rex Trevett was born in 1933, for filming the family. Dad was very keen on his hobbies – he’d throw himself with much enthusiasm into any hobby.

“He liked using his cine camera and thought he’d like to do something different to filming the family.”

Thriller writer Andrew Spiller, who lived locally, offered to write the story, which is about dope smuggling under Thorncombe Beacon. Frank, who was a hairdresser, enlisted his family and friends for the starring roles.

“They did it purely for their own pleasure,” Mrs Smith said. “They would be so thrilled to think that it is going to be seen. Dad would be so pleased, they all would be, that it hasn’t been lost and forgotten.”

Rachel previously worked with Trilith on a ‘radio ballad’, which combined music and the memories of people who worked in Dorset cinemas in their great days. She has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Aldeburgh Festival, Glyndebourne Opera, Opera North and many others.

West Dorset District Council and the PRS Foundation have funded Trilith to commission the music.

A live performance of the score and film can also be seen in Burton Bradstock on Saturday, April 24. A recorded version at Eype Centre for the Arts is due to be staged on Saturday, March 6.

A website that includes photographs and interviews with local people by journalist Margery Hookings will be launched later in the year.

Trevor Bailey said: “The aim is to draw the website’s visitors from initial interest in the place or in the arts to fascination with films and vice versa.”

Tickets for the live premiere cost £6 from bridport-arts.com or by calling the box office on 01308 424204.

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