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Unlike some filmmakers we have discovered, Marjorie Martin (1929-2016) was not a lone filmmaker or part of a wife-and-husband team: she was fully immersed in the world of the amateur cine club; in her case, the High Wycombe Film Society. She served as the club secretary, while pitching her ideas to the club committee, and directing several films across the 1960s.
The Stray (1966). Courtesy of the East Anglian Film Archive
Marjorie Martin was born in 1929 in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales; likely moving to Buckinghamshire during the 1950s. She joined the High Wycombe Film Society in 1962 while she was working as a part-time secretary and looking after her two children. Her family were also closely involved in amateur film: her husband was a filmmaker and HWFS member; her two children appeared in another Ten Best film, A Quiet Afternoon (1964); while the lead female role in The Stray (1966) was played by Marjorie’s sister (‘Ten Best Amateur Films’, 1966: 489).
Despite telling Amateur Cine World that she "didn’t know which end of a camera was which" within a year her first film, Service with a Smile (1962), was awarded four stars in the magazine’s annual competition (‘Ten Best Amateur Films’, 1966: 489). Several years later she described the experience of making this film:
I plunged, green as grass, into the amateur film business... [with] a documentary about the local Meals on Wheels service to old people… I learned many lessons from that first film… when someone is rash enough to show me a script for a film or when I toy with one of my own, I try to find out why the people in it behave in a certain way… our screen people are manufactured; they have no past unless we give them one (Martin, 1966b: 670-671).
Following that auspicious start, Martin’s interest in reality-based filming led her to make Folk Like Us (c.1964), a sponsored production for a voluntary hospital association. However, her growing interest in creating believable characters within fictional worlds led her to resurrect a short story she had written which had been rejected by a popular magazine several years before (Martin, 1966a).
The resulting film, The Stray, was one of Amateur Cine World’s Ten Best in April 1966. Accepted by the club’s annual script meeting in 1965 the film was almost delayed by its need for synchronised sound – still a relative rarity for amateur productions in the mid-1960s. With several long-established club members on her crew (including Mike Nicholls, Ray King and Geoff Arthurs), Marjorie was able to make her film a reality.
Amateur Cine World felt the film was "a rarity in the amateur world… [because] it deals with an emotional relationship without once striking a false note of immaturity or bathos… [Marjorie] brings out the ironical point of the story with precision and subtlety… careful craftsmanship in the tightly composed interior shots… The Stray puts High Wycombe Film Society firmly back on the map" (‘Ten Best Amateur Film’, 1966: 489).
Marjorie’s impact did not end with renewed success for HWFS; she was invited to write two articles for Amateur Cine World. Women’s voices were not often found within this magazine: Marjorie was one of only five women given a by-line in the magazine in the decade.
Her articles about The Stray focused on the craft of filmmaking, not least the importance of good writing and careful editing; unlike several of the male directors given the opportunity to write about their films, Marjorie was also alert to problems that had arisen during production and the film’s possible shortcomings. Overall, however, she emphasised her collaborative approach to filmmaking: "working with people prepared to give their time and knowledge to make a small, personal vision into something real [was] a rewarding and humbling lesson" (Martin, 1966a: 505).
High Wycombe Film Society felt so strongly about the quality of The Stray they translated and added French dialogue to a new print of the film in order to enter it into the Cannes Amateur Film Festival. While it did not make it to the final judging round, the film was screened across the UK and won an additional award in Teeside.
In parallel with this activity, Marjorie was planning her next film, a comedy involving traction engines initially called Farmer’s Friend (1967). During production she told Amateur Cine World that steam traction engines "are the most awkward brutes that ever broke a director’s heart… when they do become mobile there are no brakes to stop them… you have to take pot luck and hope that it comes to rest somewhere near the desired position" (‘Club Newsreel Special’, 1966: 664).
The film was retitled Steam-A-Fair (1967) and won a Movie Maker Gold Star the following year (Movie Maker was the new name of a relaunched Amateur Cine World). The film was described as being a decent comedy in the vein of Ealing Studios, the reviewer noting the film had "a colourful, cinematic climax set against a real traction engine rally, a good-looking pair of romantic leads, lip-sync dialogue and all the technical trimmings. But somewhere it doesn’t quite come off" (Rose, 1968: 435).
Steam-A-Fair may not have met the high standard set by The Stray, but achieving a Ten Best and a Gold Star award for two consecutive films identified Marjorie as a name to watch within amateur film. And yet, as is so often the case with the women filmmakers in our research, Marjorie’s name seems to disappear from reports of amateur film production and awards.
Filmography
Service with a Smile (c.1962)
Folk Like Us (c.1964)
The Stray (1966) Watch via EAFA.org
Steam-A-Fair (1967)
Bibliography
Amateur Cine World. 1966. ‘Club Newsreel Special.’v.12 n.19 (10 November), p.664.
Amateur Cine World. 1966. ‘The Ten Best Amateur Films of 1965/66.’ v.11, n.15 (14 April), pp. 486-492.
Martin, Marjorie. 1966a. ‘Cut it tight for tension.’ Amateur Cine World. v.12, n.15 (13 October), pp. 504-505.
Martin, Marjorie. 1966b. ‘How to Create a Character.’ Amateur Cine World. v.12, n.18 (3 November), pp.630-631.
Rose, Tony. 1968. ‘Other Peoples Pictures.’ Movie Maker. v.2 n.7 (July), p. 435.