British Pathe

Reel 1. Title: The Rt. Hon. Harold Macmillan

Harold Macmillan seated at desk. C/U Macmillan. Stone cottage in Scotland. Interior of drawing room of Macmillan's family home. Exterior Eton College which Macmillan attended as a boy. Still of Macmillan as a boy (he is wearing a hat). Exterior of...

Reel 1. Title: The Rt. Hon. Harold Macmillan

Harold Macmillan seated at desk. C/U Macmillan. Stone cottage in Scotland. Interior of drawing room of Macmillan's family home. Exterior Eton College which Macmillan attended as a boy. Still of Macmillan as a boy (he is wearing a hat). Exterior of Balliol College, Oxford University.

Explosions at front in World War One. British troops marching past camera. (Macmillan served in the Grenadier Guards). Snow covered Canadian landscape (Macmillan went to Canada in 1919 as aide-de-camp to the Governor General). Still of Macmillan's wedding (April 1920 to Dorothy Cavendish). Still of exterior of Macmillan and Co.'s building.

L/S Houses of Parliament from across the River Thames. Still of Harold Macmillan. Newspaper clipping showing Macmillan's result in the Stockton-on-Tees seat in 1924. M/S Ramsay MacDonald - Labour Party leader - working at desk. He is smoking. Crowds gathered in Downing Street (Paperwork suggests this is in 1931 during crisis leading to formation of National Government). Members of National Government come down steps in garden of Number 10 Downing Street. They gather in the garden. Among those present are Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald, Philip Snowden.

Crowd wave Nazi flags. German troops march past camera. Benito Mussolini in uniform making speech. Women in upstairs window give Nazi salute. German troops on horseback ride on horseback past Austrian road sign. Troops march. Crowds cheer. More troops goose stepping. Frontier barrier raised as Germans march into Czechoslovakia. German troops showered with flowers as they march through town.

Neville Chamberlain signing Munich agreement. Adolf Hitler visible in the background. C/U Munich agreement. Still of Harold Macmillan. Newspaper clipping from 'The Times' headlined 'Mr H. Macmillan M.P. - Government Whip No Longer Sought'.

Pan across 1939 Government seated in garden of Number 10. Downing Street. They include Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin. C/U Baldwin giving speech. His hands are characteristically clasping his lapels. M/S Chamberlain speaking.

C/U page in book - 'Reconstruction - A plea for a national policy - by Harold Macmillan M.P.' C/U cover of book - 'The Middle Way'. C/U Page of book ' Economic aspects of Defence'. War planes fly low past camera.

Intertitle - "War!"

Various shots of British military aircraft. Includes spitfires. Tracking shot of drawing boards in office. Blueprint of aeroplane. Men working on wooden bodies in aircraft factory. Scenes of aircraft manufacture. L/S American warships at sea. Troopship deck with British soldiers lined up. Three naval men looking through binoculars (odd shot). L/S North African coastline. Landing craft come ashore on sandy beach. American troops come ashore. One is carrying the Stars and stripes flag.

Newspaper clipping from The Times - 'Mr Macmillan in Africa'. (Macmillan served as Minister Resident in Allied Command North West Africa). General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Montgomery. Anthony Eden, Winston Churchill sit with General George Marshall and General Eisenhower. Still of Churchill and Macmillan. Churchill in white hat walks down steps of American headquarters in North Africa accompanied by Harold Macmillan. (From 43/46).

Naval warship fires guns. L/S Explosions on coastline. Troops landing during the Invasion of Italy. Italians celebrate liberation. Union Jack and Italian flag fly from balcony as British and Italian officers stand together. Crowds look up at balcony. British and Italian officials speak.

Allied paratroops walk past the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Tank fires at building - the E.A.M. headquarters. Still of Macmillan. Newspaper clipping from The Times - 'Full Agreement in Athens'. Cheering crowds of Greeks with flags and pictures of their king. High angle shot of Big Ben and Houses of Parliament. Huge crowd in London celebrate victory. Men pull at a Nazi flag or Swastika. Winston Churchill acknowledges crowds from balcony. He give a V sign.

Clement Attlee - Labour Party Leader - speaking into handheld microphone. Newspaper clipping highlighting Macmillan's loss of his seat in 1945 General Election. Still of Macmillan speaking. Macmillan seated at desk, he turns to speak to the camera. C/U Harold Macmillan.

High angle shot of building in Strasbourg. Flags are flying to celebrate the meeting of the Council of Europe in 1949. Cars drive in to the entrance of the Council of Europe building. Flags of European nations flutter in the wind. High angle shot of Council chamber. Newspaper clipping 'Britain and the Schuman Plan - Mr Macmillan at Strasbourg'. C/U unidentified delegate at conference. Macmillan at conference. High angle shot of conference chamber. C/U hands counting votes (probably 1951 General Election). Crowds in Downing Street. Harold Macmillan walks past stills cameramen, he is outside No. 10 (Door not visible).

Damaged building. Men laying bricks. Macmillan shakes hands with man. Men mixing concrete. C/U curbing stone being laid. C/U bricks. C/U Macmillan. New houses on estate. (Macmillan was in charge of house building in the 1951 Conservative government).

Massive bank of stills cameramen. Winston Churchill comes out of No. 10 Downing Street. He is smoking a cigar and carrying a top hat. (He is leaving Number 10 on his retirement as Prime Minister (55/28)). Harold Macmillan walks out of No. 10 Downing Street and gets into car.

Anthony Eden in doorway of No. 10 acknowledging cheers as he becomes Prime Minister.

End of Reel 1 - continued on Reel 2.

The copy is quite scratched. It is unclear whether a sound track was ever recorded, there is no script in the documentation. We are currently unable to find the sound reels of the cutting copy or a show reel of the finished film. Documentation includes a shotlist and various other information.