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Title: TABLE MANNERS

Reference number: 3952

Date: 1959c

Director: d. Stanley Russell

Sponsor: Educational Films of Scotland

Production company: Thames & Clyde Film Production

Sound: silent

Original format: 16mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 12.31 mins

Description: A short film outlining good table manners at home, drawing a line from a mother's authority to the school dining hall. This is illustrated by close shots of children learning to eat carefully at home, then behaving well at school.

Credits: ph. Ken MacKay
verse titles A.D. Mackie

Shotlist: ocs (0.12) gvs woman setting a table; c/u place setting; c/u cellars in miniature Welshwoman shape (0.55) When you come home from school or street, / Wash your hands before you eat! (1.08) gvs children arriving home from school; each child washing hands in preparation for dinner (2.47) Sit as erect as you are able, / With hands at rest below the table (3.01) ints. children sitting nicely (3.33) Express your thanks for what is good,/ And do not gulp, or waste your food! (3.47) ints children bow heads as their mother says grace (3.58) shots of boy gently corrected for gulping his soup (4.28) Let meals be served!/ Don't grab or fight!/ Hold knife and fork the way that's right! (4.38) gvs of mother serving children; c/u cutting small pieces of food (5.51) FOUR DON'TS for food should always linger:/ Don't spear, don't tear, don't stuff, don't finger! (6.06) Don't spear (6.07) c/u small girl spears sausage and takes a bite, lifting the whole sausage on her fork (6.19) Don't tear (6.20) c/u knife pins meat, fork tears away a piece (6.29) Don't stuff (6.30) c/u older girl chewing, her cheeks packed with food (6.49) Don't finger (6.53) c/u picking up sausage with fingers (6.59) Your knife and fork correctly lay/ Upon your plate, to clear away. (7.08) c/u boy carefully lays cutlery on plate; ls eldest girl and mother clearing table (7.37) Use fork and spoon in manner neat/ To deal with stony fruit or sweet. (7.50) gvs family serve themselves prunes in syrup with cream; c/u stoning a fruit (8.42) Ask "May I rise?"/ Stand up with care,/ And tidily replace your chair! (8.55) ints. older children rise; c/u mother encouraging smallest to finish her prunes; ls little girl replaces her chair and skips away (9.45) Just as at home, at meals in school,/ Remember every table rule! (9.57) c/u children seated four to a table; ls dining room filled with tables set for four, serving hatch at one end (10.37) c/u children wait, until fourth member returns with the last two plates; c/u children eating carefully (11.54) c/u neatly placed forks and spoons in empty bowls (12.06) ecs (12.31)