Spaghetti Eating Race (1959)

Soho, London. M/S of seven glamorous but scantily dressed women getting out of a London taxi - “a bevy of beauties and a party about to begin - what more lively combination could you ask for“? They walk past a doorman in a top hat and enter Fleming’s hotel. M/S of five men with handlebar moustaches in vests sitting at a restaurant table, one of the men is wearing a sombrero and they all have garlands of pasta around their necks. The women saunter past and the men stand and doff their hats. Two of the men pretend to have a scuffle, as if they were trying to get to the women. The women take a seat at a nearby table. M/S of the restaurant and the two tables. Panning shot along the table of waiters serving large plates of spaghetti to the women. The narrator explains “the party is, in fact, a contest to see who can swallow spaghetti fastest - the beauties from London’s Talk of the Town, or the hairy gentlemen of the Handlebar Club - who are recognised (in some places!) World Champion Spaghetti Eater