Nitrate Treasures: Seven Days to Noon

Boos in the Nite  (1950) 

Follow the bouncing ball and sing along with the galavanting ghouls of Ghost Town, where there are hauntings day and night at the local spookeasy! 

35mm nitrate, IB Technicolor, 7 min.  Director: I. Sparber.

News of the Day, vol. 20, no. 271  (5/5/1949)

“Army Bids Farewell To Clay As Soviet Yields To Blockade!”

United Nations representatives of Russia, Britain, France and the U.S. at a meeting in New York settle details for ending the Soviet’s 320-day siege.

35mm, b/w, approx. 7 min. Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. Preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Seven Days to Noon  (U.K., 1950)

Set on location in postwar England (the film’s Thank You credits include “The Citizens of London”), the Boulting brothers’ Oscar-winning (for Best Story) mystery-thriller moves swiftly from the local issue of a missing person on Monday, to a citywide manhunt on Sunday, as Scotland Yard chases down a disgruntled atomic weapons researcher responsible for a credible nuclear threat. With a tone that recalls Fritz Lang’s M and tension akin to Hitchcock’s clock-ticking Sabotage, the Boultings take us through the city’s sewers and the London Zoo (with brief cameos from elephants and a small bear) for a nail-biting progression from low-grade concern to chest-gripping terror.

35mm nitrate, b/w, 94 min. Director: John Boulting, Roy Boulting. Screenwriter: Frank Harvey, Roy Boulting. Cast: Barry Jones, Olive Sloane, André Morell, Sheila Manahan, Hugh Cross.