Love Letters And Live Wires Review

Gathering shorts from the ’30s, this captivating BFI package marks the 75th anniversary of the GPO Film Unit, which sponsored some of the most creative screen artists of the decade. Some people might know Basil Wright and Harry Watt’s Night Mail, which marries Britten’s score with W. H. Auden’s verses. But gems abound, from the animations of Norman McLaren and Len Lye, to rural charmers A Midsummer Day’s Work and The Horsey Mail. The highlight, though, is The Fairy Of The Phone, a musical comedy with a prim Charlotte Leigh teaching novice operators to make calls, which is quainter than ever in this age of mass communication. A joy from beginning to end.