Blue Scar (1949)

Interesting facts

Blue Scar is a 1949 British drama film directed by documentary filmmaker Jill Craigie and starring Emrys Jones and Gwyneth Vaughn. Set in a Welsh village where the mine has recently been nationalised, it focuses on the relationship between Olwen Williams, a miner's daughter who leaves the village to live in London, and Tom Thomas, who dedicates his life to working in the mine. With Craigie's background in documentary films with a social message, Blue Scar was designed to raise questions about the value of nationalising the coal industry. It was the only non-documentary film Craigie directed.

Production

Blue Scar was produced by Outlook Films, an independent production company established in 1948 by director Jill Craigie and managed in partnership with producer William MacQuitty. Craigie was a socialist documentary filmmaker, and Blue Scar was the first and only non-documentary film she directed; after Blue Scar, she concluded that documentary was the best film genre for social criticism.

The film was conceived as a critical commentary on the nationalisation of the coal industry, especially in terms of safety, working conditions and the treatment of miners. The title, Blue Scar, is a reference to the blue colour that characterises wounded skin when affected by coal dust.

The disused Electric Theatre cinema in the Welsh town of Port Talbot served as a makeshift studio, hired at a charge of £1 per day. The interior of the cinema was adapted for the filming, including the construction of a soundproof stage. Coal was brought in for filming scenes in the mine itself. Other scenes were shot on location in Abergwynfi, a village in south west Wales. Most of the cast consisted of amateur actors drawn from the local area.

The film was scored by Welsh composer Grace Williams. As well as being Williams's first film score, this was the first time a British woman had scored a feature film.

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