BFI Screenonline: Door in the Wall, The (1956)

Door in the Wall, The (1956)

British Film Institute

Main image of Door in the Wall, The (1956)


VistaVision, 29 min, colour

Director	Glenn H. Alvey Jr
Production Company	Associated British Pathé
	British Film Institute Experimental Film Fund
Producer	Howard Thomas
From the story by	H.G. Wells
Cinematography	Jo Jago

Cast: Stephen Murray (Sir Frank Wallace); Ian Hunter (Henry Redmond); Leonard Sachs (the father); Ann Blake (the aunt)

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An outwardly successful politician is perturbed by a recurring vision of a childhood memory in which a mysterious green door led to a magical garden. But when the door appears again, should he go through it?

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This is essentially an experimental film, designed to explore the possibilities of the Dynamic Frame technique evolved by Glenn H. Alvey, Jr. The aim of this method is to combine the advantages of the new big screens with an ability to compose in close-up, to select detail, to emphasise mood.

The dimensions of the frame (in this case VistaVision) change both laterally and vertically - in cutting from one shot to another and during a full scene. Dynamic Frame, however, is based on an intelligent idea, and some of its effects in this short-story film are sufficiently striking to indicate that it has a most valuable future.

Monthly Film Bulletin, July 1956

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