ON Thursday, October 11, 1937, the Regent Cinema opened its doors for the first time with the showing of The Limping Man.

Seven decades on, The Limping Man filled the screen of the Regent once again as the cinema celebrated its 70th birthday on Friday.

Around 100 people also settled down for the matinee screening of All Over The Town, the 1949 film set mainly in Lyme Regis, about a RAF pilot who returns to his job as a newspaper reporter in the town.

There was also a film quiz, and for the kids there was an after-school showing of the Disney Pixar film, Ratatouille, before The Limping Man in the evening and a pre-event for local councillors, the film society and people who have supported the cinema over the years.

Cinema manager, Karl Woods said: "It doesn't hurt every now and then to give people a reminder there is a cinema in the town. Lyme Regis is very lucky with the size of the town to still have a cinema.

"The film society, specifically David Johnson, managed to track The Limping Man down at the British Film Industry and he has been instrumental in getting hold of this, as well as All Over The Town. I would say 'here's to the next 70 years', but I don't think cinema is going to last that long - unfortunately, cinema is a dying art."

Mr Woods took over as manager from Alex Orme in February, and says he is glad to get back to 'real' cinema.

"I have worked at multiplexes before and I didn't enjoy it," he said. "It's not what I call 'cinema'. Now I am thoroughly enjoying working in an independent cinema again."

Also as part of the birthday celebrations, Mr Woods has set a competition to name as many films as possible from a collection of cinema clips, put together to celebrate 100 years of cinema in 1996.

The clips will be played continuously on a monitor in the foyer and the person who names the most number of clips will win a 12-month cinema pass for two people to see one film a week.

Mr Woods said: "There are 196 clips and I will be giving a deadline, probably for the end of the month.

"Hopefully, that will give people enough time to watch them and guess as many films as they can. We don't expect people to get all of them - I can't get them all and I have got the answers.

"But I will give a few clues. It will feature Brief Encounter, Get Carter, Lady and the Tramp and some Bond films."