A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Release Date:
June 30, 1936
Original Title:
Calling the Tune
Genres:
Drama | Music
Production Companies:
Independent Film Producers (IFP)
Phoenix Films
Production Countries:
United Kingdom
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 80
Calling the Tune offers a fascinating look at the fledgeling gramophone industry as it tries to solve the problems of reliable recording and production methods. 'I predict that the gramophone will be the democratic entertainment of the future' states unscrupulous record label boss Mr Gordon (Sam Livesey), who finally gets his comeuppance after one dirty trick too far against his rivals. If the film's love story is perfunctory, the real interest comes with watching performers of the day, from Henry Wood and his orchestra to George Robey and Charles 'the laughing policeman' Penrose laying down their recordings direct to record. And something very like a prototype laser disc makes a crucial appearance too.
Art Direction:
R. Holmes Paul
Assistant Director:
Vincent Permane
Director:
Reginald Denham
Thorold Dickinson
Director of Photography:
Franz Weihmayr
Editor:
Ray Pitt
Thorold Dickinson
Producer:
Hugh Perceval
Sound Recordist:
Eric Williams
Writer:
Reginald Denham
Basil Mason
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Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
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Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.