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Following an interview with Education Minister Lockwood Smith, presenter Leighton Smith introduces the next item: “Now, an old movie rescued by the National Film Archive [sic] has thrown new light on the early days of aviation in New Zealand. It shows the first flight of the locally designed and built Fisher Monoplane in the Wairarapa in 1913. The film is being used to promote the Archive’s Last Film Search , a project aimed at finding other historic movies before it’s too late to preserve them.”
This item begins with two Film Archive staff - man and woman - in orange overalls in an dusty attic. They successfully remove a wall panel and shine a light into crevices and onto scraps of 35 mm film. Voiceover from reporter: “ No, it’s not a hunt for household pests, but a search for old film in the attic of the long-disused Cosy theatre in Featherston. It’s just one of the nooks and crannies the Film Archive’s exploring in the Wairarapa and, to highlight interest in the search, which may soon go national, it’s showing some of the films it’s already saved; films like the Fisher Monoplane -”
A film reel is removed from a cardboard box. (Both reel and film are labelled “Regent Theatre”). The projectionist places the reel onto the projector and threads the film through. His preparations are intercut with the preparations of the Fisher Monoplane from the film, “The Fisher Monoplane” (F7306).
Voiceover: “Let’s go to the movies with the Film Archive’s Cheryl Linge.” Film Archive CEO Linge and the reporter, Gordon McBride, enter the Archive’s cinema - “This is an intimate little theatre,” from the reporter - and take seats. A close-up of the projector lens with light issuing from it. The two viewers are shot from behind: We see film countdown numbers and the Fisher Monoplane title on the screen in front of them. “David Hemmings” is written on the back of the ‘director’s chair’ the reporter is seated in.
The Fisher Monoplane and pilot Reginald White full our screen ... The monoplane takes off and lands.
“I wonder why the designer of the plane didn’t fly it himself” muses the reporter.
“The locals are quite excited in the Wairarapa having this, aren’t they?’ he asks.
“Very much so”, replies Cheryl. “At the moment they are are trying to identify the paddock that this film was taken in.”
The viewers are again seen from behind and these credits are imposed on the screen they are viewing: “A Charlie Barton Film. Music Dorothy Buchanan. Gordon McBride 3 National News.”
This item is followed by Don Estelle (“Lofty Sugden” in British sitcom It Ain’t Half Hot Mum) singing ‘Whispering Grass’ to piano accompaniment being interviewed by Leighton Smith.
[Recording concludes and an older news bulletin, that was was being recorded over, carries on.]