ANGLIA FILMS LTD

(1923-1926, 1935-1942)

The independently wealthy producer Archibald Nettlefold formed the live-action film production company Anglia Films in 1923, producing features such as The Fair Maid of Perth (1923) and Human Desires (1925). In 1926 he bought the bankrupt Hepworth Film Studio at Walton-on-Thames, renaming it Nettlefold Studios and installing his Anglia Films staff, with Business Manager W A Lott in charge. Subsequently the production company Anglia Films Ltd was shelved in favour of Archibald Nettlefold Productions Ltd.

Animator Anson Dyer, who had been working at the Hepworth Studio, approached Nettlefold about making animated films for him. After what was presumably a wide-ranging discussion of possibilities, Nettlefold agreed to produce a series of six one-reel animated films relating the historical evolution of the British flag and the flags of the Empire, an idea apparently suggested by W A Lott.

Produced by Archibald Nettlefold Productions, The Story of the Flag, in 6 reels, was first shown to the Trade on 23 November 1927 as a 6-reel feature, but when The Bioscope reviewed it (1 December 1927) it was listed as offered as a 3600 ft feature or in six chapters. The distributor of Nettlefold's films, Butcher, decided to go with the 6 part serial only, and after the reels were re-edited to even up the lengths of each chapter it was re-released in July 1928.

Now concentrating on the re-equiping of the studio to handle sound film production, Nettlefold was not interested in Dyer's desire to make entertainment cartoons. Dyer was employed on various projects for Nettlefold Productions, using his aptitude for diligent research to design the Chinese elements for The Silent House (released 1929), the film of Nettlefold's hit production at the Comedy Theatre, directing a silent live-action documentary, A Day in Liverpool (1929), for the Liverpool Organisation, and subsequently the sound film The Story of the Port of London (released 1932) for the PLA, which opened with an animated sequence on the history of the Thames before live-action footage of the Port's activities. This last job resulted in a script for a drama featuring the families of a lockkeeper and a Thames boatman, intended to highlight the workings of river life, which was made into a feature film, Flood Tide (released 1934), directed by John Baxter for Julius Hagen of Twickenham Studios. Dyer also contributed diagram animation to two Gaumont-British Instructional films, Breathing (released 1934) and Blood (released 1935).

But early in 1935 Nettlefold turned his attention to Dyer's request. The first consideration was Dyer's animation technique itself. The standard for animation was now clearly set by the American cartoons, and cutout animation was seen as old-fashioned. To compete Dyer would have to make cel-animated cartoons, and preferably in colour, as Disney had started doing in 1932. With that proviso, Nettlefold resurrected Anglia Films Ltd as an animation studio for Anson Dyer, renting office space in Eagle House, 109 Jermyn Street, and hiring animation team Sid Griffiths, Jørgen Myller, Henning Dahl Mikkelsen and Anker Roepstorff, who had been making advertising films for British Utility Films Ltd.

Charles Stobbart was hired as cameraman, and the young women hired to trace and paint the cels included Connie Pope.

On 5 September 1935 the Kinematograph Weekly reported:

New British Colour Cartoons
                          
DYER PROCESS
                          
Sponsored by Nettlefold
                          
     Anglia Films, a recently formed production company, with which Archibald Nettlefold is associated, is busy on several series of British-coloured animated cartoons under the direction of Anson Dyer. [ . . . ]
     Six months ago he concentrated on colour-cartoon work, utilising the Dunning two-colour process, and a staff of artists has since been busy in Jermyn Street, off Piccadilly.
     The most important result, which the Kine. has been privileged to see, is the first of a series of "Sam and his Musket." This well-known creation, identified with Stanley Holloway's popular comic monologue, now appears with Mr. Holloway reciting the commentary. Without aping any of the Walt Disney methods, it has been deftly put together, and, with much resource and creativeness of comic invention, and with a musical background cleverly devised by Wolseley Charles, is a new idea in cartoon technique.
     The historic "Sam," with his fellow-soldiers of Wellington's army, is a delightfully engaging figure, who should swiftly become extremely popular with the public. The colours are bright, but not garish, the lines clear, and the mobility smooth and copious.

For live-action filming the Dunning system used a special camera in which two separate standard black-and-white panchromatic rolls of film ran side by side, with the image split through two filters, red and blue/green. The animation process, in which each frame is shot individually, renders this unnecessary, as each frame can be shot twice, once red-filtered and once blue/green-filtered, with the laboratory separating the alternate frames during printing. Anglia Films used a Bell & Howell camera with a rotating filter attachment, and this would become the usual method for shooting animation for two-colour and three-colour processes until the introduction of colour-sensative film stock after the War. Dunning Colour was not actually a British process – it was invented by Hollywood technician Carroll Dunning in the USA where it was known as Dunningcolor. The system was processed in the UK by the George Humphries Film Laboratory in Charlotte Street, London.

The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer (12 September 1935) gave the following information in its London Notes column, submitted by a Fleet Street contributor who had presumably attended the same screening:

   "Sam" on the Screen
     In a room in Jermyn Street today a gathering of some half a dozen of us saw the first of the colour cartoons produced by Mr. Anson Dyer. Mr Dyer aspires to be the English Walt Disney. For the present he plans a series of 18 cartoons, having hit upon the notion of using Stanley Holloway's comic monologues for his stories, and syncronising the cartoons with Mr. Holloway's voice reciting them. "Sam and his Musket"—most famous of all—has been his first choice, and it was this film I saw today.
     Compared with the Disney factory in Hollywood, Mr. Dyer has a small staff—three key artists, who indicate the main incidents in the cartoon, four "animators," and ten colouring girls. But this is only a beginning. He himself served his apprenticeship for cartoon work—long ago he turned out a version of Three Little Pigs when Mr. Disney, though born, had not been thought of—by painting stained glass windows; and examples of his work, he tells me, are to be seen at York. His cameraman, Mr. C. Stobbart, is a Yorkshireman and a cousin of Charles Laughton.

I would suggest that the four "animators" were really assistant animators or inbetweeners. The Sphere magazine, in a picture article on Anglia Films (21 December 1935), identifies Bob Privett as "an assistant animator [...] who does the intermediate sketches."

The music was arranged and recorded by José Norman, Liverpool-born leader of a Cuban Rumba band, had first been employed to arrange and perform the music of Bizet for the Carmen cartoon that had been the studio's first production – more of this later.

Before magnetic track recording came into use, in the late 1940s, sound was recorded onto the film soundtrack area by a camera. It became normal procedure to assemble music, dialogue and sound effects on seperate rolls of film (usually without any picture) and audio-mix them to re-record the final soundtrack. For the single reel Sam cartoons it was convenient to record the entire music and narration in one go (sound effects, etc, were added later when the film was completed, to match the animation) and Sid Grffiths arranged for the sound camera to film Stanley Holloway's face during the recordings, along with a signal light, operated by José Norman tapping his foot while conducting, flashing the beat.

When a print of the soundtrack was run frame by frame through an editing machine the image of Holloway's mouth would help Griffiths break down the dialogue more accurately, while the light indicated the beat, as he made out the timing sheets for the animators.

The entry for the studio in the 1936 Kinematograph Year Book (compiled in December 1935) appears as follows:

"Eagle Street" is an error: it should be "Eagle House". It is notable that the Danish animators are not mentioned, as they were responsible for the design as well as the animation of the films made by Anglia Films. Whether this was because they weren't British, or because their employment was on a temporary basis, or because it was deemed undesirable to include animation credits beyond the well-known names of Dyer and Griffiths, is a matter for conjecture.

Anker Roepstorff had shown Anson Dyer the script for a short cartoon burlesque of "Carmen" which he had prepared when working for Jørgen Myller's studio in Denmark, and Dyer had put it into production straight away, but the subsequent Sam Small series, because the popularity of Holloway's monologue gave it a better chance of successful distribution, took precedence when it came to the release schedule. Sam and his Musket was trade shown in October 1935 and reviewed by Kinematograph Weekly:

REUNION
   SAM AND HIS MUSKET. British (U). One reel. Release date not fixed. Devised by Anson Dyer.—This, first of a series of British cartoons in colour, is a clever and effective piece of work. Stanley Holloway delivers his famous monologue, from which the film gets it title, in his own inimitable manner, and the drawings synchronise perfectly with the words. The gags are bright and the colour work flawless.
   This short has both novelty values and selling angles, and can confidently recommended as a featurette.
["Shorts of the Week Reviewed" Kinematograph Weekly 24 October 1935]

The Sam Small Series

Sam and his Musket premiered at the Rialto, Coventry Street, on 8 November 1935, with the second in the proposed Sam Small series already in production, and Carmen was finally released along with this film, 'Alt! 'Oo Goes Theer? in April 1936. The films were released by distributor Reunion Films, the Sam Small series to consist of six films to be released one every three months. Carmen was subtitled "A COLOURTUNE by Anson Dyer," suggesting that Colourtunes had been intended to be a series.

REUNION
   CARMEN. British (U). One reel. Release date not fixed.—This amusing Anson Dyer "Sam" cartoon is a burlesque of the famous opera, "Carmen." The highlight of the comedy is a bull fight in which "Sam" accidentally becomes a matador and lays out the bulls with ball and chains. The cartoon seems to lose some of its appeal without the Stanley Holloway monologue accompaniment, but nevertheless animation is quite good. Colour is not of a consistent quality. Useful featurette for most halls.
   'ALT, WHO GOES THEER? British (U). One reel. Release date not fixed.—This, the second, "Sam" cartoon by Anson Dyer, with Stanley Holloway monologue, tells of the adventures of "Sam" when he dropped his musket at Buckingham Palace and went and had tea with the King. The monologue is delivered in the characteristic Stanley Holloway manner and is cleverly synchronised with the drawings. The North Country comedian's popularity, the animated gags and the colour work contribute to make this an acceptable short subject for the majority.
["Shorts of the Week Reviewed" Kinematograph Weekly 23 April 1936]

Interesting that the reviewer has assumed that Carmen is part of the Sam Small series: Don José doesn't even have a moustache! The inconsistent colour quality may be due to this being the studio's first film, with technical adjustments and improvements being made during production. Purists might also wish to point out that Holloway was not from the North but was a Londoner. He merely adopted a Northern accent for the monologues because they were written in a rather dour North Country vein. He wrote the original Sam monologue himself, but some of his subsequent verses, including The Lion and Albert, were written for him by comic and scriptwriter Marriott Edgar.

On 29 October 1936 Kinematograph Weekly reported that distribution of the Sam Small series had been acquired by the Associated Producing and Distribution Co. This company had itself been taken over in January 1936 by the film studio Sound City, who shifted to distributing under their own name in 1937. The third and fourth films in the series, Beat the Retreat and Sam's Medal were released under the AP&D name in November 1936.

A.P. AND P.
   BEAT THE RETREAT. British (U). 700 feet. Release date not fixed.—Excellent coloured cartoon, the drawings of which illustrate one of Stanley Holloway's famous Yorkshire monologues.
   SAM'S MEDAL. British (U). 700 feet. Release date not fixed.—Really clever cartoon in colour, with humorous verse by Stanley Holloway. Excellent short.
["Shorts of the Week Reviewed" Kinematograph Weekly 12 November 1936]

The shorts were well received, but the returns were not enough to keep the studio going. The films were expensive to make and ther rental charge, though as low as possible, reflected that. The take-up was not high. Smaller exhibitors who wanted to include a cartoon in their programme could get American cartoon shorts for a lower rent.

There were people more than willing to pay for cartoon films, though – advertisers. Advertising had used films since the earliest days, and animation had been popular because of its novelty value. Companies had sprung up to make advertising films only, because of the financial security. Publicity Pictures had made black and white advertising cartoons in the early thirties with the series title Loony Libels, and in 1935 began a colour series named Cheery Chunes, both directed by animator Laurie Price. Such advertisements usually took the form of a short entertainment cartoon, with the product's involvement or revelation occurring towards the end as the solution to the characters' predicament.

Both Griffiths and the Danish team were experienced in this sort of work, and Anglia Films began making advertising films, for British and Continental clients. Griffiths worked on producing multilingual versions of the Continental films, so that the same film would fit different language tracks, along the lines pioneered by Horace Shepherd.

Publicity Films, an advertising film production company that did not have an animation department of its own, turned to Dyer for British advertising cartoons, including several for Bush Radio, including All the Fun of the 'Air (1937), where a series of gags around a fair on Hampstead Heath concludes with the pub sign of The Old Bull and Bush coming to life and the bull being chased off by a bee leaving the bush, the stylised fir tree of the Bush logo, to extol the virtues of their radios.

Besides its entry under British Studios in the 1937 Kinematograph Year Book (compiled in December 1936), where it promoted the entertainment films:

the studio also appeared in the Producers of Advertising, Propaganda & Sub-Standard Films, etc. section, as follows:

The Kinematograph Year Book announced the availability of the entry forms for submitting entries for the Directory sections (which was free of charge) on 8 October 2936. The Book went on sale at the end of February. Just over four months to receive all the entries, compile the Directories, add them to the rest of the many other sections of the Year Book, typeset, print and bind. Compilation must have been a hectic exercise, and errors were bound to creep in, either by the repetition of previous errors, when no change was indicated, or other oversights by the person filling out the entry form, or by erroneous sub-editing or slips in typesetting. A reminder that printed sources can be inaccurate.

The erroneous "Eagle Street" address line remains in the main entry, but is correct in the newly submitted entry for the Advertising section; The newly added "Directorate" line in the main entry hyphenates "Anson-Dyer" as a surname, and repeats this below for the "Production Manager" despite no Initial being added: the new Advertising entry is not hyphenated ("Anson" was the last of his three forenames and he had originally hyphenated it to his surname to make it more distinctive: eventually he had given up fighting the assumption, by the press and public alike, that Anson was his first name).

With the Sam Small series established, and further episodes in preparation, Dyer sought to begin a potential second series with another of Stanley Holloway's popular monologues, The Lion and Albert, the wryly humorous account of the Ramsbottoms' phlegmatic response to their son being swallowed by a lion in the zoo at Blackpool. The Lion and Albert was released by Sound City in February 1937, together with the fifth Sam Small film, Drummed Out.

SOUND CITY
   THE LION AND ALBERT. British (U). One reel. Release date not fixed.—Bright Anson Dyer coloured cartoon, with laughable monologue accompaniment by Stanley Holloway. Very good general fill-up.
   DRUMMED OUT. British (U). One reel. Release date not fixed.—Another clever and amusing Stanley Holloway monologue, with clever coloured illustrations by Anson Dyer. Very good featurette.
["Shorts of the Week Reviewed" Kinematograph Weekly 25 February 1937]

Note that before WWII "laughable" just meant eliciting laughter, and had not acquired the perjorative associations it has now. The sixth Sam Small film, Three Ha'pence a Foot – timber merchant Sam's price for the maple trim that Noah wants for his ark, refusing Noah's offer of a penny a foot plus a ride in the Ark, even when the flood is at its height – was released in March 1937, but did not get reviewed by Kinematograph Weekly. Denis Gifford quotes Today's Cinema as saying:

   Anson Dyer cartoon about Sam Small, the price he put on wood when Noah built his Ark in Bury. Typical Stanley Holloway tale-telling, enlivens slightly a coloured concoction which lacks unity and the essential qualities of humour, but which should pass muster with the average audience.
[Today's Cinema 17 March 1937]

The critic of Today's Cinema is not as complimentary as the Kinematograph Weekly, but it may well be that this film is weaker than the others. Of the seventh, and as it turned out, final, film in the series, Gunner Sam, released in May, Today's Cinema said:

   Based on a famous Stanley Holloway monologue in which Sam, according to this film, dreams of the time when he was press-ganged and was present at one of Nelson's sea battles. By refusing to let go of two cannonballs, he is nearly drowned but is saved by Nelson, who, according to draughtsmanship, is 'Stan Laurel' to Hardy's 'Oliver.' Up to the standard of previouse cartoons in this series.
[Today's Cinema 4 May 1937]

The Kinematograph Weekly only had room for:

SOUND CITY
   GUNNER SAM. British (U). 802 feet. Release date not fixed.—Anson Dyer colour cartoon with monologue accompaniment by Stanley Holloway. Very good short feature.
["Shorts of the Week" Kinematograph Weekly 6 May 1937]

The entertainment shorts made by Anglia Films were still not turning a profit. This was always a problem for British animation producers – although the questions "Why are there no British animated shorts to rival Hollywood?" and "Where is the British Walt Disney?" were constantly being asked in the press, distributors were reluctant to finance cartoon shorts, because they knew that the exhibitors were unlikely to rent them in sufficient quantities to turn enough of a profit for the renters, let alone anything to pass on to the producers.

America had a large domestic market, enabling films made on a budget to be shown nationwide at a profit. This in turn enabled factory-style production of shorts (and features) which kept costs down and encouraged constant improvement in slickness, if not necessarily quality. This was Hollywood's advantage over the rest of the world, where small domestic markets stunted growth. American cartoons which had already made back their costs at home could be offered at competitive prices on the world market, and audiences appreciated their sophisticated production values.

For their December 1936-January 1937 issue The Journal of the Association of Cine-Technicians1936 invited 29 key figures in various aspects of British filmmaking to sum up the current state of their sector. Anson Dyer's contribution, initially praising the technical advances in the World's Colour Cartoons, ended:

   My new series of Six Stanley Holloway subjects constitutes roughly our output for 1936, together with one or two Commercial Cartoons. Nineteen Thirty Seven, I hope, will prove that we are at least justifying our existence as a British enterprise.
   By the way, has it ever struck you that there is only one standard by which a British Colour Cartoon is judged?—the American Cartoon!—which spells practically unlimited production costs which are probably covered before their cartoons even enter this country! Secondly, an already established home on the British screen, advance bookings months ahead, and low rental charges for "Super" productions which forces the British animator to try and make a competitive Cartoon for as many hundreds as our cousins are spending thousands!!
   It's a tough proposition, isn't it?

Earlier in 1936, to promote the Sam series, Dyer had given the World Film News a brief history of the animation process, for an article headed:

         CARTOON COMES OF AGE
         FROM FILL-UP TO FEATURE
   Now that cartoon has taken its place in cinema programmes as a recognised and necessary feature, it is interesting to recall how they began.
   Anson Dyer, author of the Sam cartoons, tells of their gradual evolution.

However, an interview with Dyer by Leigh Aman for the Cine Technician in February 1937, headed I Ask You!, and reflecting the earlier article in its account of British animation technique from the days of cut-out animation to the methods of making the Sam series, ends as follows:

   Asked if the making of British colour cartoons is a paying proposition, Mr Dyer says, "Here we are in both the lap of the Gods and the hands of the British renter and exhibitor. It would seem reasonable to suppose that British colour cartoons could be made with profit to the producers, but a day or so ago I was discussing the question with the Sales Manager of one of the biggest distribution and renting concerns in the country, and he assured me that even a Walt Disney cartoon did not enhance the takings of a cinema one single penny. I ASK YOU!"
[The Journal of the Association of Cine-Technicians Feb-March 1937]

Dyer's situation is summed up in this comment by film critic Connery Chappell in the Weekly Dispatch, 7 March 1937:

   At the other end of the scale there is a man around London who is not so lucky.
   Anson Dyer, once an actor and previously a stained glass window designer, has just finished a batch of six British cartoons for his company, Anglia.

Pioneer

   He was one of the three pioneer cartoonists in London before the war.
   Today he is perhaps the best of the small band in this specialised field. His studio—Jermyn-street, Piccadilly, of all places—employs 27 animators, against the hundred on the Disney payroll.
   It is Dyer's bad luck that everything he does is automatically compared to Disney. To be good, he must be as good as the Silly Symphonies. Anything less gets him pelted.
   Dyer argues that it is difficult. His British cartoons cost little more than £1,000 each.
No one knows what Disney spends on a Mickey, but it is not less than £10,000 for a single-reeler.

The "three pioneer cartoonists" would be Lancelot Speed, Dudley Buxton and Anson Dyer. Although Speed had experimented with cut-out animation earlier, they had all started off making cartoons during the war, not before. The figure of 27, if correct, would refer to the entire staff at Jermyn Street, not just the animators.

New Companies

In June of 1937 Anson Dyer started three new companies. The first two, Anglia Films (Continental) Ltd and Anson Dyer Productions Ltd were to alleviate the debt burdon on Anglia Films. The "Continental" would seem to recognise the advertising films they were making for European countries, but these new companies were merely additional legal creations attached to the Jermyn Street studio.

It should be noted that from this date Archibald Nettlefold is no longer listed as a director of Anglia Films in the trade directories.

The third company is a bit of a mystery. The name Babar Productions Ltd (nature of business: Film Producers) may suggest the possibility that Dyer was negotiating with French artist and author Jean de Brunhoff for the rights to make a series of cartoons featuring Babar the Elephant. The character had first apeared in the book Histoire de Babar in 1931, and an English version was published in 1933 and proved popular on both sides of the Atlantic. De Brunhoff published six more Babar books, but sadly he died of tuberculosis on 16 October 1937, aged only 37. If there had been such a deal I imagine his death would have ended it, and any French financing that might have been put in place. This is, however, just speculation – I can find no information regarding Babar Productions Ltd.

Anson Dyer intended to use the new companies to enable him to expand his operations. With the addition of animator Len Kirley the number of staff members had been increasing, and the Jermyn Street offices were too cramped. On 9 September 1937 the Kinematograph Weekly reported:

Multi-Lingual Cartoons in Technicolor
                          
ANSON DYER FORMS COMPANY
     Anson Dyer, the well-known cartoonist of Anglia Films, is at present engaged in the formation of a new company with an enlarged directorate. This move follows the highly successful work recently carried out on advertising cartoon films based on an idea new to cartoon work.
     The Kine. understands that negotiations are proceeding with Technicolor, Ltd., to produce all future cartoons for public entertainment in Technicolor.
     Recently a Walt Disney artist joined the technical unit, and is now working on current cartoons, together with the highly trained members of Dyer's original group.
     It is proposed to make these new entertainment cartoons in several languages, a method which Dyer has already successfully followed in connection with his advertising subjects.

Technicolor had opened a processing laboratory in Britain (just outside London, opposite Heathrow Airport to facilitate processing from Europe) in 1935, in response to the huge demand following the introduction of its 3-colour system in 1932. As with Dunning Colour, Dyer did not need a special Technicolor camera, but he did need a contract with Technicolor for processing, and probably approved colour filters. It is interesting to note that Dunningcolor introduced a three-colour system in 1937, which Humphries Laboratories appears to have equipped itself to process. However, Technicolor had a five-year lead and was producing celebrated results, so it was the popular choice. The limited availability of film during the war denied Dunning Colour the opportunity to establish itself.

Dyer's arrangement with Technicolor was completed in time for the shooting of The King with the Terrible Temper, another Bush Radios advertising film for Publicity Films, which was shown at the Gaumont Palace, Streatham the week beginning 15 November 1937. Radio shops were encouraged to take out advertisements in the local press along the lines of "You've seen the film, now come in and hear the radio." The film was narrated by Sutherland Felce, a nonchalant conjuror and raconteur who was a regular performer on radio and early television and often billed as The Radio Joker, and it seems to have been based on a comic musical monologue he performed, The King with a Terrible Temper.

The "Walt Disney artist" would be Ed Smith, who had worked as an assistant animator for Disney in 1934 then joined Charles Mintz as an animator working on cartoons for distribution by Columbia. He had arrived in London at the end of July 1937, and presumably joined Anglia Films shortly after. The Danes were looking to return to Copenhagen, indeed, Anker Roepstorff had already done so, resigning in April to go to work as a guide at the Carlsberg brewery. Mikkelsen had been making occasional trips back to Denmark to pick up additional animation work from the advertising agency Monterossi. He would send the finished drawings back to the agency's studio where they were traced and painted, to be shot on a Danish rostrum camera. It appears he resigned from Anglia Films at the end of 1937, although it is possible he returned for a short period the following year. Smith helped to keep the standard of full animation up to the expected standard while additional British animators were brought onboard.

At the end of 1937 Dyer was talking to the press about moving to bigger premises, and on 13 January 1938 Kinematograph Weekly reported:

More Scope for Cartoon Specialists
     Anson Dyer, of Anglia Films, is arranging for the removal of his studio and offices from Jermyn Street to an imposing suite in the Ford Building in Regent Street.
     The renoval is necessitated by the remarkable increase in business experienced by this well-known firm of cartoon producers. The floor space available, which is nearly double that of the previous area, will be more than welcomed by the staff, who have been working under high-pressure conditions in a small production space.

If Dyer hoped that this item might persuade his creditors to give him more time then he was to be disappointed. On 14 April 1938 the Trade Finance pages of the Kinematograph Weekly carried this story:

CARTOON MAKERS' £1,977 LIABILITIES
                          
ANSON DYER PRODUCTIONS AFFAIRS
     At the statutory meeting of creditors of Anson Dyer Productions, Ltd., Jermyn Street, London, S.W., in voluntary liquidation, the statement of affairs showed ranking liabilities of £1,977 12s. 7d. The assets totalled £64 15s. 4d., but were all absorbed by preferential claims.
     The deficiency so far as the creditors were concerned was £1,977 12s. 7d.
     Resolutions were passed in favour of the voluntary liquidation of the company being continued with W. Rosser-James, of 87, Bishopsgate, London, E.C., as liquidator.

Anglia Films
     At the statutory meeting of creditors of Anglia Films (Continental), Ltd., Jermyn Street, London, S.W., in voluntary liquidation, held recently, the statement of affairs showed liabilities of £921 9s. 3d., all due to unsecured creditors. The only asset was a book debt of £906 14s. 3p., which was thought to be bad. The company, it was stated, had been associated with Anson Dyer Productions, Ltd., and specialised in film cartoons. An arrangement was being made with another company to continue certain films, and a sum of £200 would be paid, which would be distributed amongst the creditors. The directors, who were creditors, would also withdraw their claims.
     A resolution was passed confirming the voluntary liquidation of the company with W. Rosser-James, of Messrs. B Davis and Co., 87, Bishopsgate, London, E.C., as liquidator.

My interpretation of events is that the new companies, Anson Dyer Productions Ltd and Anglia Films (Continental) Ltd, had taken over the purchasing of goods and services from the original Anglia Films, but that the latter company had retained the studio assets – staff and equipment – and its debts had been paid off. Hence the new companies and their debts could be liquidated, but the original company could continue making the profitable commercials without the burden of the losses of the entertainment films. The only problem was that the lease on the Jermyn Street studio was up and Dyer needed to find somewhere relatively inexpensive to continue operations.

Riverside Studios

Three months later Kinematograph Weekly announced, on its British Studio News page:

Anson Dyer Resumes Production
                          
CARTOON SET-UP AT HAMMERSMITH
     Anson Dyer, the well-known cartoonist, following the volutary liquidation of his old Anglia Films company, has opened a new cartoon studio, at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, and is contemplating forming a new private company.
     The new studios have greater facilities than his previous one at Jermyn Street, and his main key men are still with him. He informs the Kine. that it is a little premature to give full details of his plans, but it is his intention to re-enter the 35 mm. entertainment cartoon field.
     At present he is working on his bi-lingual advertising cartoons, which have proved so succesful on the Continent.
[Kinematograph Weekly 21 July 1938]

Riverside Studios was a small film studio in Crisp Road, Hammersmith, overlooking the Thames. In 1933 Triumph Films had bought a disused iron foundry, warehouse and attached cottages, and converted it into a compact studio with two sound stages, a large dubbing theatre, a workshop area and other facilities, dressing rooms and offices. To make the larger of the two stages a wall between the original two foundry sheds had been removed and a box truss inserted to support the joining of the two roofs – the resultant roof area was hard to drain, and tended to leak during very heavy downpours. In 1937 the studio was bought by producer Julius Hagen, as an overflow for his Twickenham Studios.

Dyer knew Hagen, having sold him the story for Flood Tide (1934) and more recently a script for the Stanley Holloway vehicle The Vicar of Bray (1937), which had been shot at Riverside. Hagen had increased his production values on the strength of previous success, and found himself suddenly caught out by the fact that British film sales had peaked in 1936 and now dropped significantly, partly due to Hollywood discouraging the US distribution of British films. On 8 January 1937 Hagen's companies had been forced into receivership. It seems the Receiver kept the Twickenham film studios going, and allowed Hagen to rent the facilities to continue filmmaking. It seems likely this applied to the Riverside studios as well. On 1 July 1937 the Kinematograph Weekly reported that Riverside Studios had been acquired by a company formed by Leslie Hiscott, who had worked for Hagen as a film director at Twickenham. In June 1938 he was reported to be directing the first of a series of twelve comedies there, produced by Harry S Marks, starring Jerry Verno, although this series may not have been completed. In August 1938 Jack Buchanan bought the lease of Riverside Studios for his own production company, and spent around £10,000 on modernisation.

Anson Dyer and his staff presumably took over a suite of offices for their studio – they would have needed a room for the rostrum camera, and space for the animators and inbetweeners, the trace and paint department, an editing room, and offices for Dyer and his admin staff. Access to the studio's dubbing theatre would have been a bonus. They would have been a self-contained unit, as the studio continued to be used for live-action filmmaking.

With the loss of the Danish animators on the move to Hammersmith, Dyer hired Laurie Price, previously the head animator at Publicity Pictures, who had made a series of colour advertising cartoons in 1935 under the series title Cheery Chunes, and Kathleen "Spud" Murphy, who had worked as a tracer and painter on London Film Productions' Technicolor cartoon short The Fox Hunt (1936), designed and animated the diagrams in How the Motor Works (1938) for British Animated Films and now started as both a tracer and an inbetweener for Dyer.

I have not found any references to the Continental commercials made, but another of the series of Bush Radio advertisements made for Publicity Films was This Button Business, narrated by comedian Vic Oliver and examining the importance of buttons to firemen, nudists and Cockney pearly kings, and ending up with the new pre-tuned push-button radios from Bush.

Ed Smith was also ready to return home. His last film for Dyer was probably Red, White and Blue, an advertisement for Samuel Hanson & Son's French coffee essence which the Advertiser's Weekly (29 September 1938) described as follows:

   It tells the story of three Foreign Legionnaires Beau Best, Beau West and Beau Zest, who are sent into the desert by a villainous sergeant, Beau Looney. Red, White and Blue coffee essence plays a stirring part in the eventual rescue. Red, white and blue are the predominant colours of the film, and the tune "Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue" is also featured.

Ed Smith returned to the States in September 1938, sailing from Southampton on the 21th.

Dyer had formed a new company, Anson Dyer Studios, but it appears that he continued to use the Anglia Films company as well. The 1939 Kinematograph Year Book lists Anson Dyer Studios under BRITISH STUDIOS:

and Anglia Films under PRODUCERS OF ADVERTISING PROPAGANDA & SUB-STANDARD FILMS, ETC:

It should be noted that in their listings in the GENERAL TRADE DIRECTORY (the Year Book's single line listing of all film trade companies) the telephone number given for Anglia Films is that of the Lincoln's Inn solicitors' office that was presumably the company's registered address:

Anglia Films, Ltd., Crisp Road, W.6.  ...............................................................  Holborn 2224

Anson Dyer Studios, Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, Hammersmith, W.6.  .....  Riverside 3012

The entries in the 1940 Kinematograph Year Book are similar – under BRITISH STUDIOS:

and under PRODUCERS OF ADVERTISING PROPAGANDA & SUB-STANDARD FILMS, ETC:

Clarion Films was an advertising film company set up in August 1939 by producer/director/scriptwriter Ralph F Smart, run from Riverside Studios by E C Smith, with Dyer on the Board of Directors.

The GENERAL TRADE DIRECTORY listed Anglia Films at the Lincoln's Inn address:

Anglia  Films,  Ltd.,  Lincoln's  Inn  Chambers,  Chancery  Lane,
W.C.2  .....................................................................................   Holborn 2224

Anson Dyer Studios, Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, W.6.  ......   Riverside 3012

With the onset of the Blitz in the autumn of 1940 Dyer evacuated the studio to Stroud, Gloucestershire. The 1942 Year Book entries (compiled at the end of 1941) for Anglia Films remain similar to the above, under PRODUCERS OF ADVERTISING PROPAGANDA & SUB-STANDARD FILMS, ETC with the Riverside Studios address and in the GENERAL TRADE DIRECTORY with the Lincoln's Inn address, but thereafter it ceases to be listed.

In 1939 the tobacco company W D & H O Wills sponsored a short documentary, You're Telling Me, directed by A G Jackson for Gaumont-British Screen Services, showing the Anson Dyer Studio working on an advertising film for their Capstan cigarettes. It is only 5&189; minutes long and ends with the completed cartoon, but it apparently features, besides Dyer himself, shots of Sid Griffiths and Kathleen "Spud" Murphy. Although probably shot at Riverside studios, it is a sound stage reproduction of an animation studio we are shown, as the level of lighting required for live-action Technicolor was too high to attempt to illuminate the actual location (the light that entered the camera lens had to expose three separate negatives). The result is a highly stylised version, where tracers and painters in matching purple smocks work at pristine white desks beneath the slope of a row of smart, sparkling clean skylight windows.

The studio continued to concentrate on advertising films, and it would seem they made at least one stop-frame model film. At the beginning of 1939 the Kinematograph Weekly ran this item:

A NEW TYPE OF CARTOON
ANIMATION IN COLOUR
                          
Anson Dyer Apparatus Demonstrated
     Anson Dyer, film cartoonist and originator of the "Sam" series, has originated a new form of animation for use with the Technicolor process at his studios in Hammersmith, to which the Kine. received an invitation to inspect the apparatus and view on the screen the results achieved in its first try-out.
     S. Griffiths, Dyer's chief assistant, and an expert in table-top and animation work, devised the novel horizontal set utilised. The camera, adapted from a standard Vinten for Technicolor work, has a turret head and is mounted on a special super-rigid base plate. Working in conjunction with special counting and regulating devices, perfect register is readily obtained. The apparatus has justified the time expended upon its creation, for the screened results show a surprisingly steady and clear-cut picture.
     The try-out consisted of a stage setting with orchestra conductor visible in the foreground. Various stage sequences with rising curtains depicted the dance of cigarettes, in which various zoom shots prove most effective.
     Dyer informs the Kine. that he now proposes to use the Ano-shot camera in an entertainment film, following the wide acclamation when tried out in one of his Technicolor advertising shorts for a famous American tobacco firm, and which was shown on the Continent.
[Kinematograph Weekly 12 January 1939]

For an article promoting a 'novel apparatus' this is remarkably uninformative. My best interpretation is that it was a mechanism for smoothly moving a table-top (model animation) animation camera frame-by-frame to track in and out while maintaining focus and exposure. Dancing cigarettes suggest model animation rather than cel animation, and there is no mention of cels so it is presumably not like the Fleischers' 'set-back' camera, where cels were shot vertically in front of a model background on a turntable. The reporter does not really seem to understand what it is that he is supposed to be extolling. Perhaps Griffiths concentrated on the details and failed to paint the bigger picture. If they were hoping to move into model work they were facing stiff competition – in 1933 Hungarian animator George Pal had been set up in a former butcher's shop in the Dutch town of Eindhoven to make animated commercials for radio and electrical manufacturers Philips, using his Pal-Doll technique of wooden models with replaceable parts, which allowed sequences of stretch and squash to be used in the action. Pal was contracted to make films for Philips alone, but in 1936 a representative of the London branch of advertising agency J Walter Thompson negotiated an arrangement for Pal to make a series of advertising films for Horlicks, for the British market.

Dyer's comment at the end of the above article shows that he was still keen to return to entertainment films. On 1 June 1939 the Kinematograph Weekly reported:

GIANT PANDA AS CARTOON STAR
     A new series of cartoon films in Technicolor with Peter Panda as the central figure is announced by Anson Dyer, who, since his series of Sam cartoons based on Stanley Holloway's famous monologues, has been kept busily engaged on orders from British and Continental firms for advertising cartoons.
The sound track will play a predominant part in the new Peter Panda series, the music of which will be in the hands of José Norman, composer of "Cuban Pete," and one of the special numbers is likely to prove a big musical "hit."

Pandas were big news in 1938-39. Unknown in the Western world before 1868, the first living panda to be brought out of China was a cub captured by American explorer Ruth Harkness in 1936 and donated to the Chicago Zoological Society. New York Zoo acquired a young panda which arrived in San Francisco from China in June 1838, an event that inspired the Walter Lantz character Andy Panda, and when in December London Zoo got its first pandas, the popularity of the cute baby Ming clearly prompted a similar reponse at Anson Dyer's studio. I do not know how far the pre-production work for this series may have got, but the outbreak of War brought any plans for entertaiment films to an end.

Dyer had started his career in animation making propaganda cartoons mocking the Kaiser during the First World War, and the studio's response to the outbreak of World War Two was initially in the same vein, making four short animated spots ridiculing Hitler for inclusion in the Gaumont-British Newsreels. But with the occupation of France and the imminent threat of invasion the situation became too serious for such simple levity. The Ministry of Information commissioned animated films to advertise and encourage practices on the home front to aid the war effort, and the armed forces needed diagrams for training films. Dyer's studio was commissioned to make a series of aircraft recognition films for the RAF.

Besides conscription, Dyer lost staff to other projects: the forces had started preparing for conflict back in 1936 and by 1939 Connie Pope's tracing skills were already being employed by the Admiralty, and it appears that Gerald Grubb was drawing maps for the Air Ministry.

Probably the last person to be employed by the studio while it was still at Hammersmith was a young illustrator and cartoon enthusiast, Harold Whitaker, who was hired in 1940 as a background artist.

Rusty and Dusty

In 1936 the Band Leader Henry Hall had a regular spot at 5.45 pm, in his Wednesday 5.15-6 pm BBC broadcast, for children's music. He had popularised The Teddy Bears' Picnic, but finding new items was not always easy. When songwriters Jimmy Kennedy and Michael Carr brought him Rusty and Dusty, a song about a boy and his dog, it was decided to make this a regular item, with a different adventure each week, a sort of musical radio comic strip. The first of these seems to have been broadcast in early November 1936, and by December the success of the series was being reported in the papers. The Sunday Express started to capitalise on this popularity from 20 December by publishing a comic strip of each Wednesday's adventure, with the words and music running along below, in the following Sunday's paper, for children to sing along to at leisure. (The opening and closing parts of the song remained the same, but the rest of the music varied slightly according to the adventure.) The paper chalked up 14 of these strips before Henry Hall's programme came to an end at the end of March 1937.

It would appear that Anson Dyer had arranged to turn the Rusty and Dusty songs into a cartoon series. The BFI have the original picture negative and master sound negative of a Rusty and Dusty cartoon, the picture shot with doubled-frames for Dunning Colour, apparently featuring a caricature of Henry Hall and telling the story of Rusty Brown and his dog Dusty and a fishing trip. The length appears to be quite short – about 4 minutes, which would fit in with the length of a song. The sound negative is marked 31/12/1936. This would suggest that Dyer was very quick to do a deal with Hall, and had got the song recorded before the end of December.

I can find no mention of any such cartoon in the press, nor any suggestion it was ever released. It may be that Dyer had run up debts with Humphries Laboratory and they were demanding payment. The film would have to had been made inbetween work on the commercial fims that were paying the way, so it could well have been as much as six months before it was finished, by which time Dyer was preparing to switch to Technicolor. So perhaps the film was just abandoned.

It is not possible to determine under which company name the various advertising films were made, so I have attributed them all to Anglia Films in the Filmography below.

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Filmography (1935-1940)

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