BONES [Main Title]

Second World War British Ministry of Information newsreel trailer reminding the public that bones are needed for salvage and are vital to the war effort.

The film opens with a close-up shot of a small wire haired fox terrier balancing on its back legs and then seated chewing on a bone in a garden. The terrier begins to bury the bone in the vegetable patch and is interrupted by the rhyming commentary (delivered in a strong Scottish accent) "What burying a bone - I am ashamed of you Rover! Prolonging the war when we want it over. Once you have finished with your bone, though it's of no use to you, the factories can make from it - explosives and glue, oil for engines and animal feed and bone fertiliser the farmers all need". Very short montage of bombs dropping from aircraft, a tank, a couple of pigs and fertiliser being spread by hand. The commentary continues "Don't forget that the bones must be dried very proper". The terrier seated looking at a bone drying on the hearth in front of an open fire. "Never waste small bones, now Rover, do you hear? Tonnes, 50,000 are wasted each year, so pick it right up, like a good little bloke and put it, that's right..." The terrier gets up and walks away from the fire and is then seen with a bone in his mouth at the back door. He deposits the bone in a metal bucket of bones by the doorstep. "... understand, okey doke!" The film ends with the caption BRING OUT YOUR BONES spelt out in bones.

35mm