Time Have you ever noticed the apparently accelerated speech of people in movies made in the 1930s and 1940s? I've often wondered whether the speech pattern was the result of a conscious effort at presentation, a reflection of speech patterns of the time, or the result of acceleration due to the film shrinking over time.

I'm not sure if this is related or not, but I have seen footage of rugby matches from the 1920s where the film was shot at something like 26 frames per second rather than the now standard 24, and the extra couple of frames mean that players seem to be moving very fast.