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Stopping the Rot

1926 , Norwich (Norfolk)

Cat no. 107

Cartoon advertisement for Colman's starch.

A cartoon advertising film for Colman's starch. A woman trusts her lace curtains to Mrs. Wosher but they come out full of holes, as does her tablecloth and her husband's shirt collars. Mrs. Wosher blames mice and offers to set a trap. In a fantasy sequence an enraged mouse decides to set the record straight. The mouse grows large, imprisons the mistress in a mouse trap and explains that the woman's problem is not mice but using cheap maize starch. He remembers her mother washing with rice starch and her linen lasted a lifetime and was always impeccable. The film cuts away to show a woman in an earlier dress style adding Colman's starch to her wash. The mouse lets the woman out of the trap after she promises never to use maize starch again. She gives Mrs. Wosher a packet of Colman's starch. The film ends with a picture of a box of Colman's Starch

Keywords

Advertising; Colman's of Norwich

Intertitles

Be careful with my best lace curtains, Mrs Wosher.Hanging day.There! Must be mice made them holes, ma'am! Did mice do this? And perhaps mice did this! I'll set a trap.Mice indeed! I'll stop this rot.Turning the tables.The pence you save using cheap maize starch costs you pounds in damage to your linen! Before you were born I watched your mother doing her washing.She used only pure rice starch.Her linen lasted a life time and its 'finish' was as brilliant as the sun that dried it! Let me out and I'll never use cheap maize starch again. Foolish woman! Bad starch - not mice - is the cause of your trouble! To get a perfect finish and to preserve the linen use always -

Manifestations

Stopping the Rot

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