Whilst we’re generally very happy with our lot here at Clips & Footage, there are certain parts of the collection which show such ridiculously glamorous and fun lifestyles that we wish we could wind back the clock and be there. The biggest culprit for this is the Mountbatten home movies from the 1930s, centred around the exploits of handsome Lord Louis (Dickie) Mountbatten and his wife Edwina. As the original jet set elite, they travelled all over the world capturing their trips to destinations such as Australia, Russia and Egypt as a remarkable video diary. The films show their lives as an endless round of planes, parties, silver service picnins and fast cars, accompanied by a coterie of Royalty and celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin and Vivien Leigh:
That said, behind the high life there are some chilling hints that their carefree world was on the brink of drastic change. The rise of fascism in the UK is alluded to as Oswald Moseley makes an appearance at a garden party, at the other end of the political spectrum, during a visit to 1930s Russia they are careful to document the extreme poverty and snaking breadlines of the Communist reigime. There is also footage of a visit to a Warsaw Jewish market in the 1930s just before the Nazi pogroms, one shot shows an old man standing by a pile of shoes, foreshadowing similar images of Jewish people’s posessions taken at the concentration camps in a few years time.
One post is nowhere near enough to do this collection justice, so look out for more gems from the Mountbatten Collection coming soon to the blog.
That said, behind the high life there are some chilling hints that their carefree world was on the brink of drastic change. The rise of fascism in the UK is alluded to as Oswald Moseley makes an appearance at a garden party, at the other end of the political spectrum, during a visit to 1930s Russia they are careful to document the extreme poverty and snaking breadlines of the Communist reigime. There is also footage of a visit to a Warsaw Jewish market in the 1930s just before the Nazi pogroms, one shot shows an old man standing by a pile of shoes, foreshadowing similar images of Jewish people’s posessions taken at the concentration camps in a few years time.
One post is nowhere near enough to do this collection justice, so look out for more gems from the Mountbatten Collection coming soon to the blog.
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