I never knew about this tragedy until very recently while researching some trivia from the classic "The Crowd" (1928), which said this was the movie audiences went to see
at the Glen Cinema when a fire broke out and 71 children were killed in a tragic moment that united Scotland for a long period and even today there are tributes whenever it's
New Year Eve's day. What makes me curious that while "The Crowd" isn't actually made in the documentary - though a poster can be seen on an archive image - is that why kids and
teens would want to watch such film (sure, there were serials and fun shorts back then but that movie is so not destined for kids (unless you are a great curious film buff as me).
Anyway, let's talk about the movie. It's an incredibly sad documentary that features survivors of the tragedy and they talk with quite precision about the events that led to
the whole incident, how they came trapped inside the cinema and manage to survive. It happened after a young assistant projectionist accidentally put a film can on top of a
battery and since nitrate film rolls are quite sensitive an obvious smoke would come out and not being able to put it all out, the smoke was the reason of panic in the audience
and a tragedy broke lose with many children losing their lives. Yet a fire didn't exactly broke out, the smoke effect inside a crowded place was what created the deadly scenario.
And another great prove of that is of a current filmmaker revisiting the place in its recent years, now a department store.
Just hearing about this story is enough to leave anyone sad but the "good" outcome from that was that Scotland started to create higher regulations from cinemas and their
fire department since many obstacles were problematic when it comes to dealing with rescue and procedures. Won't even mention since in those days the lack of proper procedures
were highly troubled. A similar tragedy happend in Brazil at the Cine Oberdan in 1940, a story more alarming for the fact that a false alarm at the theater prompted the panic
from the audience, and again the majority of the audience were kids and teens. And it's also a department story these days.
Interviews, some archive images from the period and the recently tributes to the victims are all presented, even though there isn't much of images from the period. Iain
Glen's narration is a superb work. My only complaint (but it's very little) is that it was a little hard to understand the survivors interviews such Scottish is a little hard for
me to understand. Other than that, this is a very comprehensive and complete film about a devastating moment in Scotland. 8/10.