Projectionist anthology
I am interested to hear from anyone who has come across a projectionist or cinema as a major or minor character or part of a story, whether film, book, play or any other medium, simply
Movies
Fight Club - this film talks about how cue dots work in films as the main character worked as a projectionist.
The Projectionist (1971) - directed by Harry Hurwitz. A projectionist bored with his everyday life begins fantasizing about his being one of the superheroes he sees in the movies he shows. The film has just been released on DVD and there is information about it here
The Postman - only a short sequence, but the projection box is on the water, in a cover shed barge thing, projecting against a screen which has been set up against the side of the remains of the quarry. The projectionist is shown starting the projector up.
Shawshank Redemption - , there is a brief scene in which one of the characters, Andy, gets bitten up in a projection box. Unfortunately there isn't a proper view of the projector.
The Smallest Show on Earth - , is one really good film about a cinema projectionist starring Peter Sellers as a drunken projectionist. The projection outfit was rescued from the scrapheap of Rank Audio Visual's Woodger Road premises. The opposition cinema was the Gaumont Hammersmith.
Ticket to Jerusalem - - This is a brand new film, released in 2002. The story is about a Palestinian projectionist trying to show a film in occupied Jerusalem.
Casino Royale - - there is a short sequence set in a projection room with what look like G.K 21.
The Blob - - scifi film where the Blob gets ito the box does the projectionist in then gets through the port hole and attacks the audience.
The Family Way (1966) - - Hywel Bennett plays a projectionist who marries Hayley Mills and they fail to consummate the marriage, a great scene where he has a punch up with The Chief. Exteriors shot at The Ambassador Slough (close to Pinewood) the lines in the carpark were painted to look good on camera but in real life cars couldn't fit in them. Don't know where the box was filmed, but it wasn't Slough, which had GK 21s with President Arcs. The projectioni room had Westar projectors with peerless magnarcs.
Some additional information about this film was sent in by Dave Morris: The actual box at the Ambassador,had Kalee 19s.I was a very young Proj there when they had a complete refit by Rank in 1957.The cinema was part of the Odeon chain. Arthur Dednum was the Chief,a great man.
Gremlins - - where the Gremlins run riot in the projection box, while the film is running, well it is running to start with.
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) - , directed by Susan Seidelman. Aidan Quinn, as Dez, the hero, has a job as a projectionist. Final screen kiss with Rosanna Arquette in the box leads to a breakdown.
Kings of the Road (1976) - , directed, produced and written by Wim Wenders. This is a West German film in black and white, with the orginial title of Im Lauf Der Zeit. Includes a discussion of the maltese cross intermittent mechanism as a technician repairs it.
Persona (1966) - , directed, produced and written by Ingmar Bergman. The opening sequence to the film includes a bare bulb projecting onto a screen.
Cinema Paradiso (1988) - , directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. This is an italian film with the title Nuovo Cinema Paradiso and is a fantastic story all about cinema and projection, and some of the dangers. This film is a must see for anyone interst in this subject. It won the Grand Jury prize at cannes in 1989.
Sherlock Junior (1924) - , (Buster Keaton, USA, 1924) 45m Keaton plays a cinema projectionist who dreams himself into the films he is showing. Fantastically ingenious in its technique.
Available at the Internet Archive
Quadrophenia -
Things to do in Denver When You're dead - , Christopher Lloyd plays a character 'pieces' who works as a projectionist at an adult movie house.
Stop Press Girl - - the story evolves around a girl who stopped machinery wherever she went. Comedians Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne were the projectionists.
Hellzapoppin - - (Columbia) - at one stage the projectionist is on the screen trying to push the picture back into frame. The projectionist, played by none other than Shemp Howard, has a far bigger role than is indicated. If memory serves, he gets into a battle with the on-screen characters...so much for all those "intellectuals" who think post-modernism is something new. (Thank you to Peter Lushing for this).
Night of the Comet - , http://us.imdb.com/Title?0087799, which featured a projectionist and his girlfriend not watching the comet so thus not turning into zombies!!!
The Nihilistic's Double Vision. - This stars Graham Stark, Timothy Spall and Clive Mantel. It was about a sex cinema and the projectionist was a miserable sod, kept doing changeovers too early and kept talking about the goldern era of cinema 'In my day....' etc.
The Magdalene Sisters. - There is the very briefiest of scenes which included a film screening and a projector.
Bulletproof Monk. - One of the main characters is a projectionist who lives in his projection box of The Golden Palace. For more details of the film go to this website.
Omar Gatlato, - which is an Algerian Movie, directed by Merzak Allouache (1976) that has a great scene of a rough audience rioting after the film melts and the projectionist getting up on stage and talking back to the audience telling them that they can keep on complaining, he's happy smoking a cigarette. Worth checking out. Thanks to KK Sheridan for this one.
The Adventures of George The Projectionist - - this film has just been completed and the world premiere took place at the end of June 2005 in London. The Director is currently looking for a film distributor for the film and is planning on entering it into some film festivals. A review of the film will can be found here, and any further details that come along. It is certainly a fun film and if you are a projectionist then you are sure to enjoy this film.You can get more information from the website www.AdventuresOfGeorgeTheProjectionist.co.uk.
Här har du ditt liv (1966) (Here's your life) - Directed by Jan Troell Thank you to Mattias for this one via http://www.bulldozer.nu/patryck/yrke3.html
Inner Circle, The (1991) - Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. Thank you to Mattias for this one via http://www.bulldozer.nu/patryck/yrke3.html
Mooshak e Kaghazi (1997) - (Paper Airplanes) Directed by Farhad Mehranfar. Thank you to Mattias for this one via http://www.bulldozer.nu/patryck/yrke3.html
Mean Girls (2004) - Directed by Mark S. Waters. A projection box briefly makes an appearance in this film.
The Tingler - - The creepy crawly gets loose in a cinema dedicated to silent films - and its shadow is seen on the screen as it attacks the projectionist. Cinema seats at the premiere were electrically wired to shock the audience.
Cleo de 5 a 7 - - Cleo visits the box of a fleapit Paris cinema. Can't identify the machines.
Wish You Were Here - (1987) - stars Emily LLoyd and Tom Bell as her seedy projectionist father at the Dome Worthing with Simplex & Peerless Magnarcs.
The Comic Strip Presents - - 1980s TV series. One episode filmed in around and on top of (!) the Rembrandt (ABC) Ewell. Several scenes in the box. One character operates the tab control.
Volere Volare - - Two brothers run a company that dubs films. One hires semi-naked actresses to provide sound effects for porn films
Unknown - A 1950s Italian neo-realist film set in a boys' prison had a scene where the kids were being shown a film, but they revolted and set fire to the projector, a Prevost.
Man of Iron - - Although set in Poland it showed a GK 21 - and a Coles Crane !
Darling - - The Classic Notting Hill Gate appears in the background.
An American Werewolf in London - - Exterior of The Eros Piccadilly. The interiors, however, were shot in the studio.
A Kind of Loving - - Exteriors of the Walpole, Ealing. The foyer was decorated especially for the shoot.
Blue Lamp - There's that little cinema on the corner of Harrow Road and Amberley Road (the auditorium's still there). The cinema was Coliseum, 324 Harrow Road, Paddington which had a Seating Capacity of 800. Featrured in the film 'The Blue Lamp', as did the Metropole Theatre, Edgware Road and closed 1956. It is now demolished and site redeveloped. Andrew who gave me this information also says that the website for the movie 'The Blue Lamp' website (www.wickedlady.com/films/wwwboard/messages/1592.html) where various people were trying to locate the actual location, some putting it a far away as Manor Park.
The Little Ones - - The kids walk across the front and down the side of the Essoldo Shepherds Bush. This building is still there, as an Australian pub and still shows down the side something along the lines of 'continuous performance, all seats 6d and 1/-'
Account Rendered (1957) - - Andrew Ward says 'I may be wrong on this one, but I think the Gaumont/Odeon/Liberty/Himalaya Palace Southall appears as a major location.'
Last Picture Show - (1971) is an evocative and bittersweet slice-of-life 'picture show' from young newcomer, 31 year-old director Peter Bogdanovich, formerly a stage actor and film writer/critic. The screenplay was based on the novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry. [Bogdanovich had previously directed only two other smaller feature films, the low-budget Targets (1967) with Boris Karloff cast as a horror-movie star, and the awful Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968) with Mamie Van Doren.] This great picture, Bogdanovich's first major film, was a gritty, authentic-looking, black and white film (considered obsolete at the time since it was the first mainstream Hollywood feature film shot in B/W since the early 60s), with expressive, high-contrast cinematography by Robert Surtees. It was widely acclaimed at the time of its release.
The episodic, bleak and mournful film was shot on location over an eleven-week period in northwestern Texas in a dusty, wind-swept, one-horse, declining small-town that was on the verge of being forgotten in the early 1950s. Bogdanovich's work recaptures and recreates the period of the early 50s (between WWII and the Korean War). One of the film's posters declared it as "the picture show that introduced America to the forgotten 50's."
My thanks to Linda in Pheonix, Arizona for this information
Yanks - - The auditorium, and Compton cinema organ of the Davenport, Stockport (see http://www.joycealldred.org.uk/page8.htm}. Andrew Ward believes that the end titles may credit 'The Three Js Leisure Centre', Gomersal, another venue which burned down shortly after.
Brief Encounter - - The cinema auditorium must have been genuine - it even had a cinema organ which rose up with Irene Handl at the controls.
Carry Ons - - One of the black and white ones showed the exterior of the (original) Odeon Uxbridge with Barbara Windsor's all too obvious stand-in riding off on a motorcycle.
Carry On At Your Convenience - was the 'Carry On' which showed an all-too-obvious double for Barbara Windsor riding off on a motorcycle from the front of the (first) Odeon Uxbridge. This information from www.wheredidtheyfilmthat.co.uk.
A Clockwork Orange - - Lecture Theatre 'E' at Brunel University was used for the 'aversion therapy' scene. The Hortson Languedoc 16mm projection outfit used is now in the museum of the PPT.
The Majestic - This film was released in 2001 and stars Jim Carey and features a large number of different grand cinemas. Further information can be found at the IMDB website or the films site
The Picture Show Man - (Australia 1977) - Storyline concerns a travelling showman (John Meillion) who brings movie shows to country towns in Australia in the 1920's.
A Private Function - (1984) - Maggie Smith plays a cinema organist. At the start of the movie she is in a cinema speaking to Liz Smith and she says "I have to go up now Mum" - and she does!
Clash By Night - (RKO, 1952) - Numerous projection room scenes as the lead character (Robert Ryan) is a projectionist.
Lepke - with Tony Curtis, at another long-gone cinema, circa 1977ish. Kigglewitz is sure there was a murder in a projection room, just don't ask him who did what to whom!
Unknown - A Robert Ryan film, from the 50s with the main plot unknown,but there was a scene in a projection room where his character says something like "let's get out of this sweat box."
The Black Windmill - had an important reference (although not by name) to the Dominion, Tottenham Court Road, where the Sound of Music played for so many years. I think it shows a brief exterior shot (after he cleverly mentioned the Sound of Music so his wife would know where to meet him without the villains catching on).
I Was Monty's Double - At the end they are watching newsreels, and are shown exiting the Monsignor News Theatre at Baker Street Station. Later a Cinecenta and MGM. Now an arcade.
Theatre of Blood - The Hippodrome's (Putney) exteriors and interiors featured in this 1973 comedy/mystery/horror which starred Vincent Price as Edward Lionheart. There are curious judders in continuity as stacks of burning seats in the stalls signal the end of Lionheart's murderous career. Andrew who gave me this information has a personal account from the filming of this: "I was working in Putney at the time the film was in production and walked down Felsham Road one day to find an exterior shoot in progress. Vincent Price's double was 'escaping' across the roof of the 'blazing' theatre with a dummy lady over, and attached to, his shoulder. Price himself was in a comfortable chair onthe pavement elegantly and appreciatively sipping a cup of tea, joining in the applause of the stand-in at the end of the take. I looked at him and thought: 'Hasn't he got big feet !'"
Ticket to Jerusalem - (2002, 85 min.). Jaber, a Palestinian projectionist, is asked to organize a film screening in Jerusalem.
The best projectionist scene - Not actually a movie, but a newspaper article about the best scene of a projectionist in a movie.
Le Mepris - (Jean-Luc Godard, France 1963), The story passes during the shooting of a film and much of the first 20 minutes
takes place in a studio preview theatre where director Fritz Lang is showing the
day's rushes to producer Jack Palance and writer Michel Piccolli. We're in the
front stalls, looking towards the box. I can't make out the equipment, but it's
black. One might assume that the machines had been there since the studio opened,
and could therefore be 1930s - they certainly look it. Whilst the credits are
minimal, a search on the internet reveals that the film was shot at Cinecittà in
Rome, which might narrow things down a bit.
The producer has become increasingly unimpressed with the director's treatment of
the script and when the projectionist brings the cans of 'the film within the film'
to the auditorium he dashes them to the floor.
Coming Up Roses - Made 1985/1986. According to Kevin Phelan: Fab film, about a local town trying to save it's cinema whilst the miners' strike is having it's devastating effect on the local economy.
Made on 16mm and ALL IN WELSH, it features some very unique ways of using a cinema and how to try and save it from nasty inconsiderate 'developers'
A very good industry friend of mine ( who has a fantastic collection of cinema pictures ) told me his father used to work there as the projectionist and that is how he got into the film industry
The cinema is in fact The Rex, Aberdare, which is sadly no more, demolished a few years back.
Eric Evans adds some more information:
There is also a Welsh language film which was given a cinema release, it's listed in the Internet Movie Data Base, About a closed down cinema in South Wales. with the projectionist and usherette hoping to save the building. It's a comedy which is compared to the old ealing comedies. It stars Dafydd Hywel and Iola Gregory, directed by Stephen Bayly (1996).You can also find it in Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide.It was filmed at the now demolished REX cinema in Aberdare
Roger Rabbit - believed to include the Grays State Theatre .
Private Function - includes Regal Henley
Desperately Seeking Susan - starring Susan Arquette and Madonna. (1985)
Phantom Of The Ritz - 1992 about a guy who buys a boarded up cinema and tries to re-open it as a music venue, to not much success. Director, Allen Plone : never released in the UK
East Is East - the british indie film has a projection room sequence, (1999)
Bu san (Goodbye Dragon Inn) - Goodbye, Dragon Inn is set in the approximately ninety minutes of the last feature at an old and grand Tapei cinema that is closing down. See also the entry in the Wikipedia.
Come See the Paradise - directed by Alan Parker and released in 1990. Dennis Quaid plays Jack McGurn, projectionist and workers' rights activist in Los Angeles during the onset of war. Some enjoyable shots of a Simplex box even if 'our hero' does subsequently set fire to the cinema !
Targets - Boris Karloff's last film, in which the projectionist's routine is fatally interrupted by the hand of a psychopathic gunman hiding behind a screen at a drive in theatre.
Expresso Bongo - set in Soho 1959 and director/producer by Val Guest. As part of the opening sequence you catch the side on view of The Casino Cinerama, Old Compton Street Soho (now Prince Edward Theatre ) advertising " Seven Wonders of The World" in flashing lights.
Mickeybo and Me - (2005). The two main characters go to the cinema, where you hear the Pearl and Dean theme song, and see them in the circle of the cinema. Anyone know which cinema it was filmed in?
Eskimo Nell - from the seedy 1970s starring Christopher Timothy and Roy Kinnear. Filmed in the then closed Astoria Brixton London, featuring the managers office, fire escapes and a 2 minute sequence in the projection room showing the GK 21,s. Trivia note: Bill Maylor Jones has a small role in "Eskimo Nell" as the "manager" of the Odeon Leicester Square, when he was the manager of the Dome cinema Worthing Sussex which was of course featured in 1987,s "Wish you were Here" . My thanks to Andrew Garner for this one.
LAUGHTERHOUSE - a quirky comedy from the pen of Brian Glover in 1984. Ian Holm stars as a stubborn geese farmer who decides to march his geese to london : ( title is derived from Slaughterhouse ) Cinema featured in one scene if The Hyde Park Leeds.
Meng ying tong nian (Melodrama) - 'Electric Shadows' tells a story about a girl named Ling Ling and her friend Mao Dabing against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution in China. The story includes a character who is a projectionist.
The Inner Circle - Based on the true story is based on the life of Stalin's private projectionist.
Unknown - a young boy goes to a theater that was closed down when a fire killed a little girl at her birthday party. The owner/projectionist/someone lets him in and he relives the entire event and manages to change the past and save the girl.
Illusion - A legendary film director is shown three visions of the life of the son he never knew. As he lies dying, he is given one last chance to affect his son’s life.
Night Must Fall (1964) - Susan Hampshire sees a film in the Pavilion at Hoddesden in Hertfordshire, one of my old haunts in the 1960s. There is a very nice exterior shot and I am 100% certain that the interior shots were also filmed there. It was a very distinctive barn of an interior with asymmetrical seating - a large block of seats on the left and a smaller block on the right when facing the screen. I doubt that they would have bothered to build a set to replicate this. The best seats were the aisle seats in the right hand block, which gave a clear view to the screen across the aisle with no one in front. I really started to appreciate these wonderful old single auditoriums and large screens once they started to disappear. Happy days.
Thanks to Kevin Wheelan for the information
The Projectionist - SYNOPSIS: China, 1966: It is a pleasant autumn night. A group of Red Guards and townsfolk gather at an outdoor theater waiting to watch a new propaganda film of Chairman Mao. Punctuality is highly regarded, but the projectionist (Scott Chan, “Miss Wonton,” Sundance 2001) is late. Exhausted, he finally arrives with the film and apologizes to the restless crowd that the demand for the film has been so great that he was delayed from returning here, to his hometown. He greets his wife (Kathy Shao-Lin Lee, “Red Doors,” Tribeca 2005), who has been waiting for him at the projection booth. He speedily threads the film into the projector, and begins the movie. The website can be found here
Popcorn - Popcorn is the story of Danny. Too insecure to approach the girl of his dreams, he takes a job at the local multiplex only to discover that his first day is her last. Desperate, he enlists the help of the chief projectionist, a guru-like figure who unfortunately no longer sees any difference between real life and ‘reel’ life…
This is cinema. But not as you know it… IMDB Link
Spirit of the Beehive - (1973 Spanish) - (El Espíritu de la colmena directed by Víctor Erice)
A young girl is profoundly affected by watching Boris Karloff in James Whale's "Frankenstein" at a travelling film show that visits her village.
Coming up roses - From Len: This was a welsh language film where the projectionist and usherette keep the about to be closed down cinema open. Filmed at the Rex cinema Aberdare and directed by Stephen Bayly who also purchased the cinema .It won an award at Cannes film festival in 1989.
Solient Green - With Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson.Its about the earth being contaminated and kills off all the living things.[Bit of truth in it!] Made about 20 years ago.Heston walks into this cinema which is deserted, picks up a reel , threads it and runs the film.Bit impractical , but interesting.[ I think I spelled the title right.]
Thanks to Len
Inglourious Basterds - One of the main characters in this film is a projectionist, who sets fire to nitrate film.
Various - The IMDB list of titles relating to Projectionist. Some of the titles will be listed here already.
Jim Henson:Movies-The Muppet - A scene shoes Kermit alone in a room after Miss Piggy leaves him which then melts on screen.
A moment later a shot into the booth through the booth window of the Swedish Chef standing next to a metallic gray Simplex XL projector.
The Green Mile - There is a brief scene when John is watching a film and they cut to the projector running.
Canon City - (Canyon City) Eagle lion Films 1949 show’s the Colorado State Pen Booth as one of the prisoners worked in the booth.
One of the projectors is now in the prison museum.
John
Television
Emmerdale - - episode on Thursday 19th January 2005 shows a 16mm projector blowing up (incorrectly).
Unknown - According to Duncan Smith in an episode of Columbo: The projectionist was the murderer and was caught by columbo because he found out that he only had 20 mins for each reel at the most and this timeframe helped him work out the killers method. It showed a lot of the projection room and explaned a little about changeovers too.
Mr Love - According to Andrew Ward 'There was one 'made for TV' film based on the story of the cinema where the sound packed up and the projectionist and an usherette went on stage to 'dub' the voices. I just cannot trace it. The operator was played by Ben Kingsley or Maurice Denham or somebody else like them. A Channel 4 production, maybe, but I can't trace it via that route' Kevin Phelan adds The exterior is, I believe, the Broadway Stockport, and the interior is definitely The Phoenix East Finchley : it was released theatrically in the States, but not here ( I projected the film in it's unfinished form when I worked in preview theatres ) : it's a charming film that any projectionist/cinema fan would adore.
Father Ted, - some scenes outside an Irish cinema.
Dad's Army - They visit the Embassy Chesham.
Steptoe and Son - The old man visits the Galaxy Shepherds Bush.
Fat Friends - - interiors and an exterior at 'The Hyde Park Picture House' Leeds.
Potter's Picture Palace - This was an afternoon children's tv series produced by the BBC between 1976 and 1978 starring Melvin Hayes as a projectionist. Melvin was a projectionist and the handyman was called Bogart. The IMDB has a little more information here
A Turnip-head's guide to the Cinema - made by Steven Frears,1986 and shown on ITV as part of a series, and featuring the director,Alan Parker talking about his North London upbringing and what got him into films : show's one of his favourites that helped inspire him : The Carlton Essex Rd with it's famous Egyptian frontage.
Dalziel and Pascoe - A Pinch of Snuff. - When newly-arrived Inspector Pascoe receives a tip-off from his dentist about an incidence of violence in blue movie, a massive investigation is set in motion. Overseen by the irrascible Superintendent Daziel, routine enquires at an adult cinema club lead to arson and murder. Starring: Norman Pace, Gareth Hale, Christopher Fairbank, Freddie Jones, John McGlynn, Ursula Howells (Widescreen)
Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=70801 Copyright GipsyMedia Ltd.
Includes some scenes inside a 'cinema' with a projectionist and a 16mm projector.
Jericho - an episode of this ITV series broadcast on 6th November 2005 used the State Cinema, Essex as "The Rex". The cinema appeared quite prominately in the programme.
All the Presidents' Movies - This fascinating made-for-cable documentary looks at what movies were screened at the White House over the past century, what each president's favorite movies and genres were, how often they watched, and who they watched with.
Odeon Cavalcade - The development of the Odeon chain of cinemas in Britain in the 1930s, and an examination of its Art Deco house style.
Books & Short Stories
The Year the Glop-Monster - Won the Golden Lion at Cannes by Ray Bradbury - focuses mainly on a drunk projectionist who managed to create an award winning film.
Red Flower for Blue Lady - by Donald Thomas, (ISBN 0333781546). This is a story set in 1936 gangster times. 'Sandboy, by day a cinema projectionist, soon finds himself caught in a nightmare world of informers and killers, a world in which Tarrant manipulates his victims with the deftness of a flick-knife'. Get a full review and a link to the book on Amazon from here.
Picture Palace - by Peter Haigh, (ISBN 1-86106-798-4) This is a story which is about an ushertte between 1927 and 1977, but because it is all set within a cinema has numerous references to projectionists.
Flicker - by Theodore Roszak. A review can be found at Amazon. It's a kind of thriller but it mainly focuses on the lead character's passion for old movies and his job as a projectionist. There is much signifcance attached to the projector and especially the maltese cross. Thanks to Magda for this.
Red Roses Every Night - Long out of print but your local library can get the copy held at Boston Spa. The story of Granada Cinemas in wartime. Stories of cinema managers, organists, projectionists. Sample story - the projectionist who looked outside during an air raid and saw balls of fire far below, whizzing around the local back gardens and believed these to be some new kind of incendiary bomb. Dawn brought the realisation that he'd been watching next door's chickens who'd been set alight and escaped !
The Scarecrow Man - by Christopher Bray (I think) Gonlag and Surzo go into what could be The Classic Notting Hill Gate and one of them starts fondling the usherette.
The Spy Who Loved Me - (a James Bond) She and the spy go into one of the two cinemas in Windsor and get involved in a bit of hanky panky.
Marion's Wall - , by Jack Finney (1973) - But this is not terror, just a great story about a man who loves silent films and meets the ghost of a silent film actress. So, not quite what your list is about, but it does contain some projecting scenes (where the hero finds a collector with the world's only hand-tinted complete copy of the silent classic Greed). It was much later made into a truly awful tv film starring Glenn Close.
Gotta Find Me an Angel - by Brenda Brooks. For a review of the book look at the review here.
Flicker - by Theodore ROSZAK. This book includes a number of references to projection boxes and techniques, although at times it can be a bit of a tough read.
