Le Giornate
del Cinema Muto

17th Pordenone
Silent Film Festival
Cinema Verdi, 10 - 17 October 1998


director: David Robinson


Football Champions

 
Long forgotten archive footage proves that a hundred years ago soccer was already the world's favourite game.
The 28 films listed below come from the National Film and Television Archive, London, unless otherwise stated. Selection and notes by Luke McKernan.

BALL OF FORTUNE, THE [TRAILER] (Mercury, UK 1926)
35mm, 45ft, 1' (16fps)
A trailer for an otherwise lost football feature film, starring the legendary Billy Meredith of Manchester City, Manchester United and Wales.

BLACKBURN ROVERS V WEST BROMWICH (UK 1898)
Dir: Arthur Cheetham; 35mm, 42ft, 1' (16fps)
The earliest surviving film of an actual game, played between the English sides Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion (in stripes) at Blackburn in September 1898. Originally 250ft in length, the film was taken from a single viewpoint behind one goal and shows action from both halves of the match. Blackburn won 4-0.

CUP FINAL 1921 GREATEST EVENT IN FOOTBALL HISTORY (Topical, UK 1921)
35mm, 505ft, 8' (16fps)
Topical Budget newsreel coverage of the F.A. Cup Final between Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers, played at Stamford Bridge. Tottenham won 1-0. Topical Budget used nine cameramen in what is a considerable advance in sports filming (not least in having two cameras capture the goal). However, it poured with rain in the first half but was dry in the second, and the keen-eyed may note that the action is certainly not in perfect chronological order of shots.

CUP FINAL REPLAY: NEWCASTLE UNITED V BRADFORD CITY (Gaumont, UK 1911)
35mm, 271ft, 4' (16fps)
The replay of the 1911 F.A. Cup final (see above) took place three days later at Manchester. Gaumont somewhat hurriedly filmed the entire match from a single mid-pitch camera position, positioned very low down. Bradford beat Newcastle 1-0.

CUP 1923, THE (Topical, UK 1923)
35mm, 324ft, 5' (16fps)
The most famous of all F.A. Cup Finals was that between West Ham Unitedand Bolton Wanderers in 1923, the first to be held at the new Wembley Stadium. An estimated crowd of 200,000 poured into the stadium and onto the pitch, incidentally ruining the exclusive camera position of newsreel rights-holder's Topical Budget, but producing some remarkable scenes (the policeman on the white horse became famous). Bolton won 2-0.

ENGLISH CUP FINAL: BARNSLEY V NEWCASTLE UNITED (Warwick, UK 1910)
35mm, 247ft, 4' (16fps)
The Warwick Trading Company's coverage of the 1910 F.A. Cup Final at Crystal Palace, a 1-1 draw between Newcastle United and Barnsley (Newcastle won the replay 2-0). The incidental detail is fascinating, but the camerawork is particularly clueless.

FIERCEST FOOTBALL (Topical, UK 1923)
35mm, 92ft, 1' (16fps)
The predecessor of soccer and rugby football was street football, where opposing sides from a village, often numbering hundreds, would play a rowdy game without rules that lasted until sunset. The tradition continued into the twentieth century, as shown in this Topical Budget newsreel item covering the game at Ashbourne in Derbyshire.

FOOTBALL (Lumière, F 1897) Dir: Alexandre Promio; 35mm, 40ft, 1' (16fps) Archives du Film du Centre National de la Cinématographie Members of an unidentified team take part in a practice football game in London. The earliest surviving football film.

FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION CHALLENGE CUP FINAL TIE: ASTON VILLA V HUDDERSFIELD TOWN (Gaumont, UK 1920)
35mm, 428ft, 7' (16fps)
The 1920 F.A. Cup Final, the first post-war final, played at Stamford Bridge between Aston Villa (dark shirts with light sleeves) and Huddersfield Town (in stripes). This kind of routine coverage with a small camera team would be replaced by the advances made in the filming of the 1921 final. Aston Villa won 1-0 after exra time (and for once a cameraman managed to capture the goal).

FOOTBALL CUP FINAL 1921, THE 
(Gaumont, UK 1921) 35mm, 273ft, 5' (16fps)
Topical Budget (see above) held the exclusive rights to the filming of the 1921 F.A. Cup Final, and made good advantage of the fact. Their rivals Gaumont Graphic were forced to 'pirate' illicit footage of the event, including awkward shots between heads in the crowd and some shots of play which are clearly not in the Stamford Bridge stadium.

FOOTBALL EN FAMILLE (Pathé, F 1910)
35mm, 314ft, 5' (16fps)
A crazy Pathé comedy about a family which creates havoc when it decides to take up football for exercise.

(FOOTBALL FINAL - ENTRY OF TEAMS) (Paul's Animatograph Works, UK 1901)
35mm, 38ft, 1' (16fps)
The earliest surviving film, with the film below, of a F.A. Cup Final, played between Tottenham Hotspur v Sheffield United (in stripes) at Bolton. The original game was a 2-2 draw; here we see the players coming on for the replay (note Sheffield's famous giant goalkeeper, 'Fatty' Foulkes).

(FOOTBALL FINAL - PLAY IN PROGRESS) (Paul's Animatograph Works, UK 1901)
35mm, 81ft, 1' (16fps)
Continuing from the film above, scenes of actual play from the F.A. Cup final replay match between Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield United. Tottenham won 3-1.

FOOTBALL SEASON BEGINS: WOOLWICH ARSENAL v LIVERPOOL (Gaumont, UK 1911)
35mm, 59ft, 1' (16fps)
Typical newsreel coverage (from Gaumont Graphic) of a standard pre-war Football League match between Woolwich Arsenal (the team changed its name to just Arsenal in 1913) and Liverpool.

FOOTBALL: THE MOST POPULAR OF ALL GAMES (Stoll, UK 1924)
Dir: John Betts; 35mm, 717ft, 11' (18fps)
Captain John Betts made numerous sports traning and interest films during the 1920s and 1930s. This instructional film, from the Sporting Life; and what not to do but how to do it series, illustrates assorted football skills in normal and slow motion, demonstrated by Harold Fleming of Swindon.

(FRANCE V ENGLAND) (Gaumont, UK 1928)
35mm, 123ft, 2' (16fps)
Newsreel library footage of an international match played between France and England at the Colombes stadium, Paris. England had yet to lose to a non-British team (they would do so for the first time in 1929 in Spain), and won this game 5-1, with two goals from Dixie Dean. The rapid panning shots and the low shots behind the goal make for some brief but interesting coverage.

FUSSBALLWETTSPIEL UM DIE DEUTSCHE MEISTERSCHAFT IN KARLSRUHE (Welt-Kinematograph, G 1910)
35mm, 177ft, 3' (16fps)
Good newsreel coverage of a game between Karlsruhe Fussball Verein and KFC Phönix, played at Karlsruhe.

GAUMONT'S CUP FINAL FILM 1911: NEWCASTLE V BRADFORD CITY (Gaumont, UK 1911)
35mm, 252ft, 4' (16fps)
Gaumont's coverage of the 1911 F.A. Cup Final, played at Crystal Palace, between Newcastle United (in stripes) and Bradford City, typical of the basic coverage for Cup Finals at this time, with one camera mid-pitch and another behind each goal. The game ended in a 0-0 draw.

GAUMONT'S CUP FINAL FILM 1912: BARNSLEY V WEST BROMWICH ALBION (Gaumont, UK 1912)
35mm, 351ft, 6' (16fps)
A charming record of the 1912 F.A. Cup Final between Barnsley (in the dark shirts) and West Bromwich Albion (in light stripes), played at Crystal Palace, capturing much of the atmosphere of the pre-war game. The final ended in a 0-0 draw.

GERMAN PROFESSOR LEARNS ENGLISH FOOTBALL (Topical, UK 1924)
35mm, 54ft, 1' (16fps)
Professor Herz of Berlin University examines the training methods of West Ham United in this Topical Budget newsreel item.

HARRY THE FOOTBALLER (Hepworth, UK 1911)
Dir: Lewin Fitzhamon; 35mm, 530ft, 9' (16fps)
Breathless excitement, as Harry (played by Hay Plumb), Hepworth's very own Michael Owen, is kidnapped just before the start of the big game. Will his sweetheart (Gladys Sylvani) rescue him in time?

HELLO FOOTBALL 1926-1927! (UK 1926)
35mm, 307ft, 5' (16fps)
An engaging interest film, full of rich period detail, introducing us to Burnley football team, one of the leading English teams of the period, as they train for the 1926-27 season.

(ITALY V SWITZERLAND FOOTBALL MATCH) (Gaumont, UK 1930)
35mm, 139ft, 2' (16fps)
Gaumont Graphic newsreel library footage of an international football match between Italy and Switzerland, played before Benito Mussolini in Rome on 9 February 1930 in Rome. Italy (in the light coloured strip) won 4-2.

JEUX OLYMPIQUES PARIS, LES 1924 (Rapid Film, F 1924)
35mm, 597ft, 8' (20 fps)
One section from the thirteen-reel (196 minutes) coverage of the 1924 Paris Olympic Games, showing the football final between Uruguay and Switzerland. In the years before the World Cup (founded in 1930 and first won by Uruguay) the Olympic football tournament was the sport's major international tournament, and here Europe saw for the first time the South American mastery of the game. Uruguay won 3-0.

KNOCKING AT WEMBLEY'S DOOR (Topical, UK 1927)
35mm, 74ft, 1' (16fps)
By contrast, a typical example of a standard newsreel story on a 1920s football match. This Topical Budget item shows Arsenal (featuring the great forward Charlie Buchan) beating Southampton 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in the F.A. Cup semi-final.

MATCH OF THE SEASON, THE (Topical, UK 1929)
35mm, 69ft, 1' (16fps)
Topical Budget newsreel coverage of the annual England v Scotland match, played at Hampden Park, Glasgow. Scotland won 1-0.

QUITE UNFIT FOR FEMALES (Topical, UK 1921)
35mm, 79ft, 1' (16fps)
The first of three Topical Budget football news stories is a light-hearted item on women's football, quite common and popular in the early 1920s.

(STOCKHOLM: THE OLYMPIC GAMES, 1912) (Pathé, UK 1912)
35mm, 320ft, 5' (16fps)
The opening section from this coverage of the Olympic Games at Stockholm starts with tennis, then shows the football tournament featuring Sweden v Netherlands, and Denmark v Great Britain in the final. The early Olympic Games were the first international football competitions. Because of the amateur rule Great Britain could not send a full strength side, but still won the final 4-2.