We discuss our systematic series of experiments on the photoelectric detection of the Fermi edge using a cylindrical mirror analyser on films of high-T c oxides, grown in situ by pulsed laser ablation. The Fermi edge (comparable to the edge of the reference Ag) is very easily observed even in the two-phase BSCCO-2212 film that exhibits onsets of superconducting transitions, at 85 and 45 K. In contrast, the Fermi edge is weaker and more difficult to observe even in the state-of-the-art, highly epitaxial, monophase YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−y (YBCO) and NdBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−y (NBCO-123) films (both with T c =92 K). So far we could not detect the Fermi edge in the films of the double-`chain' YBCO-124.