Thursday, 10 July 1930
Audrey and Gertrude go to the auction; so does Milly, separately, but she doesn’t do a great job of appearing to be nothing to do with them. The other buyers appear to be mostly dealers, with a few other individuals. Two of the dealers and one individual are bidding for the Wigson lot; Gertrude manages to win, and the individual approaches her to ask specifically about selling the film cans, coming up with an unconvincing excuse. He gives her his card; it’s for a chemist’s shop in Camberwell.
The group repairs to Milly’s boarding house. Casual inspection shows the other film as before: white outlines where the villains should be, some shine, and no sign of burning. Using the projector, they watch Metropolis all the way through – but the robot-Maria is still a white outline in every frame. (There had been some thought that the burned copies might have reappeared on the film.) Looking at the projector itself, there’s no sign that the shine is coming off the film as it’s being projected.