Movies by F. Percy Smith

Fight for the Dardanelles

Fight for the Dardanelles

The film uses stop-frame animation to create maps on the screen, and showed the then-current military situation in the Dardanelles, using various maps to assist understanding. Small cardboard cut-outs show the deployment of men and ships. Intertitles explain tactics, and shelling explosions are illustrated by clouds of cotton wool.

The Strength and Agility of Insects

The Strength and Agility of Insects

A short, early documentary work showing insects exhibiting extreme strength and agility.

To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly

To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly

Charming animated illustration of one of nature's wonders from Britain's most inventive pioneer of wildlife filmmaking.

The Birth of a Flower

The Birth of a Flower

"Percy Smith (1880-1944) was world famous as a photographer of plant life. Probably the first British example of time-lapse photography as applied to the growth of plants." Monthly Film Bulletin, November 1955.

Story of the Silk Moth

Story of the Silk Moth

Tale of a Tendril

Tale of a Tendril

A bug’s life laid bare in this charming cut-out animated tale.

Romance in a Pond

Romance in a Pond

Short, anthropomorphically-inclined documentary showing the life-cycle of the common newt.

Varieties of Sweet Peas

Varieties of Sweet Peas

An early British Kinemacolor short, in which delicate tones and shades of color are beautifully reproduced in examples of highly cultivated sweet pea flowers.

Magic Myxies

Magic Myxies

Short film showing (with limited accuracy) the life-cycle of myxomycetes.

The Acrobatic Fly

The Acrobatic Fly

Propped upon the tail-end of a match, a housefly performs astonishing feats, alternately juggling a series of objects - a blade of grass, a cork, a miniature dumbbell… Most extraordinary of all is the sequence in which the fly spins a ball twice its own size, while a second fly perches on top. In the final sequence, the fly repeats some of its earlier tricks while apparently seated on a tiny chair.

Peas and Cues

Peas and Cues

The film shows the birth, life and reproduction of sweet peas, a familiar and well loved plant of British gardeners.