Accuracy First (https://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/accuracy-first-ca-1928): This silent Western Union film from 1928 warns telegraph operators that small mistakes can cost their customers thousands of dollars. A female transmitter is interrupted by a coworker (and I’m wondering why she’s stroking her hair, but never mind) and this causes her to transmit an error in the telegram she’s sending. The female worker at the other end sees the error and thinks she can “correct” it, but actually doesn’t know what she’s doing and thus ends up printing a telegram with the wrong message, causing a stockbroker to make an expensive mistake on the trading floor. This is pretty lively for a training film, with characters that are shown to be real people, rather than drones. It also has lots of historical interest in showing what it was like to work as a telegraph operator during the 20s. And don’t forget to sell one October and two December! Or is that buy? Sell, no buy! Arrgh!! No wonder the stock market crashed! Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.

Better Reading

Better Reading . Teenager Harold Wilson has a problem—he can’t read for (expletive deleted). So he has to spend all his free time studying ...