ANY moviegoer with a drop of salt water in their blood will want to swing aboard Windjammer - which Michael Edgecumbe will be screening in Sidmouth’s Methodist Hall on Saturday, February 22.

For this giant, panoramic colour picture of a 17,000-mile ocean cruise in a Norwegian sail-training vessel, shown in his Omniscope ‘Smilebox’ Cinerama process is so full of the thrills and beauties of ocean sailing that it takes the breath away.

This film should appeal to any student of cinema history, or technology, it should also be of interest to seamen, and anyone who loves ‘messing about in boats’.

Because of its maritime theme the film screening will be in aid of Sidmouth Lifeboat and Exmouth RNLI.

There will be two shows – one at 2 pm and another at 7.15pm.

The 1958 film Windjammer was the first and only one made in Cinemiracle, a competitor system to Cinerama, which was bought out by the Cinerama Corporation. It is the record of a training cruise of the full-rigged Oslo school-ship S/S Christian Radich from Oslo across the Atlantic, through the Caribbean, to New York and back home again.

The officers and young Norwegian boys of the ‘S.S. Christian Radich’ are the cast, and participating artists in the film include Arthur Fiedler and members of the Boston Pops Orchestra; Wilbur de Paris and his New Orleans Jazz Band; and Pablo Casals.

Their whole adventure is shared by the audience when it comes to life on Michael Edgecumbe’s huge Omniscope curved Cinerama screen with full 7 track stereophonic sound. Mike, a member of the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers, although retired, strives to recreate immersive movies of the past and studies the development of processes for the future.

Until now the last public screening in Britain of Windjammer was on Monday 23 November 1964, for one performance only, in the Casino Cinerama, Old Compton Street, London – That was a charity showing for the Sail Training Association in the presence of H.R.H. Prince Philip.

Tickets for the screening (£6 for adults and £3 under for 16s) are available from Paragon Books, Michael on 01395 512511 or on the door.