The Photographic Society

its praise except that throughout the cameraman used the sunlight and shadows of Italy to give us many beautiful compositions in black and white : the long sustained silhouette of boy, donkey, and precious rider against a brilliant evening sky was a superb piece of imaginative film-making.

Two of our other films have been of the "cops and robbers" order. "The Devil Makes Three" had some conventional playing against the background of attractive scenery in Bavaria and Salzburg. "State Secret" also had the virtue of a chase filmed out-of-doors, but in which country precisely, was hard to gauge : one part was certainly where the road to Fluelen on Lake Lucerne tunnels through the rocks; others were almost certainly in Italy; but perhaps an amalgam of countries was the best way of conveying the fabulous Vosnia. The Vosnian language, incidentally, was pure gibberish, made up for this film, and, one must admit, very convincingly delivered.

The season closed on an appropriately light note with "The Man in the White Suit". Too many Ealing Studio comedies are content with a mild visual wit almost on the style of the Lilliput juxtapositions which seldom raise more than a smile by way of appreciation : this one went out boldly for broader laughs and certainly got them from us.

Three supporting films deserve mention : British Transport's new film "This is York", which we viewed with the critical eyes of local inhabitants but still liked; a very lucid and therefore interesting film on the building of Pacific engine 60156, for the loan of this film we are greatly indebted to Mr. F. M. G. Wheeler, of Birmingham, one of our parents; and "Operation Europe", a product of the Rootes Organisation, which gave us a twenty-minute ride in a Humber Snipe through a Technicolour Europe; remarkably effective because it was not too long. F.J.W.

The Society has flourished this term. The first of four lectures was given by J. Saville, entitled "Electronic Flash Photography". He described the uses of the flash and how it worked. He took some photographs by flash which were immediately developed.

The second meeting, a fortnight later, was given by P. G. Brooke on "eine Photography". He described his camera and its use, telling us some of the pitfalls which beset the amateur. He finished his lecture with some excellent tine shots of his own. Everybody present enjoyed the meeting.

The penultimate meeting of the term was given by D. A. Stabler, whose subject was "Ilford Colour Film". He outlined the processing of the film, and went on to show us some very creditable transparencies 34