James F. Gemmell ("Jimmy / Jim")

Jimmy Gemmell began working in the film industry at the age of fourteen, later recalling that ‘I started at Pathe in 1912 making spacing on the roof of 84 Wardour Street...it was no joke pulling down old film into huge tubs full of caustic soda’: ‘The idea being that the celluloid film base could be dissolved and sold for making cheap combs, etc.' Gemmell presumably got the job through his brother Jock Gemmell [qv], who was then working in the Pathe laboratories. Gemmell was also involved in hand-tinting Pathe films. However, by 1929 Gemmell was working with Adrian Jeakins [qv] as a cameraman for British Screen News, a newsreel which had been launched by British Screen Productions in the previous year. In 1930 Gemmell was photographed among a crowd of newsreel cameramen filming Austen Chamberlain in Downing Street, presumably for British Screen News. This newsreel ceased production in 1932, but by 1934, according to Patrick Wyand [qv] of Movietone, Gemmell was working as a cameraman for Paramount.

It is clear that Gemmell got his education in the film business, for his Paramount dopesheets are consistently badly written and misspelt. Gemmell’s first recorded assignment was for ‘COMMONS REASSEMBLE’ in British Paramount News No.486 of October 1935, after which he is frequently credited. On one occasion before the war Gemmell pirated a Test Match for the British Paramount News, assisted by Norman Roper [qv], and in June 1936 he was credited in the camera team for ‘NEW YORK WELCOMES ‘QUEEN MARY’ - FIRST PICTURES RUSHED BY BOAT AND ‘PLANE’ in British Paramount News No.552. Gemmell also appeared in front of the camera. When Jack Harding [qv] filmed a gag shot with two soda siphons for ‘SH! IT’S SUMMER! HOT IDEAS FOR KEEPING COOL’ in British Paramount News No.674 in August 1937, the two men featured were Gemmell and Paramount cameraman W.M. Macgregor [qv]. Gemmell again appeared on camera in ‘FRENCH HORSE WINS DERBY’ in No.758 of June 1938, where he was shown manning the Paramount camera tower on Epsom Common.

Gemmell was still working for Paramount when war broke out in September 1939, and in July 1940 his work was featured in ‘CHANNEL CONVOY ATTACK FAILS’ in British Paramount News No.979, and ‘AIR BATTLE OVER CHANNEL’ in No.980. In November 1940 Gemmell was sent to film a ship which had survived a convoy attack, noting on his caption sheet that although the press had been excluded from the dockside for four hours, ‘once again Gemmell’s personality shines as I was in right from the start. Ha - am I good or am I good? I don’t get it.' The film ran as ‘EPIC OF THE ‘JERVIS BAY’' in British Paramount News No.1015. In December 1940 Gemmell and sound engineer Ronnie Read [qv] interviewed General de Gaulle in London for ‘TYRANNY FORCES THE ISSUE’ in No.1021. Gemmell also filmed the Blitz for Paramount, in company with Maurice Ford [qv], and in January 1941 British Paramount News No.1027 carried an item ‘GREAT FIRE OF LONDON’ which noted that ‘Paramount cameramen Gemmell and Ford risked life at height of inferno to obtain exclusive night-picture.' Gemmell’s dope sheet for this story notes that ‘I went to twenty fires around Fleet St St Paul’s and the City...while I was there which was very early the huns did their best to make it most difficult for our firemen by bombing and machinegunning them.'

In October 1943 Gemmell was listed among the eight cameramen and two sound engineers on Paramount’s London staff, working on an assignment in Belfast for Warwork News. In June 1944 Gemmell was one of the six newsreel cameramen assigned to cover D-Day, along with Jack Ramsden [qv] and Alec Tozer [qv] of Movietone, Jock Gemmell [qv] of Pathe, John Turner [qv] of Gaumont, and R. Colwyn Wood [qv] of Universal. Gemmell covered D-Day from a warship, filming from a position on the flag deck - although he later admitted that ‘it is not very easy nowadays to find a good position as every camera position is a gun position.' On the following day he went ashore, and stayed in France for almost a fortnight. In October 1944 Gemmell worked in Canterbury with Paramount sound engineer Christopher Lankester [qv] on the story ‘ARCHBISHOP LAID TO REST’ for No.1428 of November 1944. Gemmell continued to cover domestic stories, and in March 1945 filmed the funeral of David Lloyd George for ‘LLOYD GEORGE LAID TO REST’ in British Paramount News No.1471.

In May 1945 Gemmell and Bob Colwyn-Wood [qv] of Universal filmed the liberation of the Channel Islands, which became ''OUR DEAR CHANNEL ISLANDS’' in British Paramount News No.1484. As Gemmell noted on his dopesheet, they were ‘overwhelmed by the crowd’: ‘Crowd pulled me off truck where I was working.' In August 1945 Gemmell appeared as a dirty old man in the gag shots which ended ‘BRITAIN TAKES A HOLIDAY’ in No.1507. Gemmell was one of Paramount’s principal cameramen after the war, filming a wide range of domestic stories, including ‘THE CORONATION’ in No.2323 of June 1953, where he filmed from the Queen Victoria Memorial. In July 1956 he was one of the cameramen who filmed at Ascot for ‘RIBOT THE WONDER HORSE’ in British Paramount News No.2651, and in March 1957 a credit to ‘J. Gemmell (Freelance)' for ‘STORM OVER A PYLON’ in Pathe News No.57/21 may refer to Jimmy rather than to his brother. Paul Wyand [qv] credited Gemmell with ‘the greatest of all boxing snatches,' when he concealed both his camera and sound equipment in a wheelchair to pirate a boxing match at the White City for Paramount. A similar feat was claimed for Ben Hart [qv].

Sources

World Film News, July 1936, p.42, ‘Sensational ‘Queen Mary’ Newsreel’: BUFVC, British Paramount News files, Issue Number 1027, Number 1428 (Lankester dopesheet, 31/10/1944), Number 1471 (Gemmell dopesheet, 30/3/1945), Number 1563 (Paramount ‘Daily Assignment Sheet,' 12/10/1943), Number 2323 (Paramount memo, 28/5/1953): J. Gemmell in ‘D-Day as the newsreel boys saw it,' Cine-Technician, September-October 1944, pp.90-91: P. Wyand ‘Useless if Delayed’ (London, 1959), p.45: P. Norman ‘The Newsreel Boys,' Sunday Times Magazine, 10/1/1971, p.15: J. Ballantyne (ed) ‘Researcher’s Guide to British Newsreels: Vol.II’ (1988), cover photograph and p.35: BUFVC, British Paramount News files, Issue Number 2651.