JIG-SAW [Main Title]

A 'Careless Talk' film.

Film begins and ends with a U-boat attack on a convoy, in which many ships and an escort cruiser are lost, and the reactions of the mother and newly-married wife ('Anne') of one of the lost seamen ('Dick'). The mother is inclined to be philosophical, but Anne is angry - "too many fools talked", a point which had been worrying Dick on his last leave. The bulk of the film shows how scraps of information can be thoughtlessly given away in conversation or letters, and examples are intercut with shots of hands putting together a (literal) jig-saw of scraps of information - the characterisation and drama are strongly developed to build up the force of the moral (eg Dick's fatal recall is among the congratulatory telegrams at his wedding; the film closes with Anne saying straight to camera "I hate those talkers... their slack minds and silly babbling mouths").

35mm