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Poster for Old Bones of the River
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Released
1938 · FILM

Old Bones of the River

Directed by
Runtime
90 min
Comedy

Synopsis

Hay plays Professor Benjamin Tibbetts, representative of the Teaching & Welfare Institution for the Reformation of Pagans (otherwise known as T.W.I.R.P for short), and dedicated to spreading education amongst the natives of colonial Africa. As he arrives (still trying to learn the native language via recordings), Professor Tibbetts is tricked into sneaking a gin still into the country by a local prince. Later, Tibbetts makes his way to Kombooli High, where his students wear Eton collars alongside their native garb and Tibbetts finds himself sporting a mortarboard and safari shorts due to the heat. When the Commissioner falls ill with a dose of malaria, Tibbetts is forced to take over his duties, which include collecting the taxes. Upriver, he finds an old paddlesteamer operated by Harbottle (Moore Marriott) and Albert (Graham Moffatt) and the threesome rescue a baby from death by sacrifice.

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 18

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Alfred RoomeShot by Arthur Crabtree

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