Lieutenant Pimple and the Stolen Submarine
- Twickenham
- 1914
A winter paradise in the Peak District: beautifully-composed shots of snow-clad Buxton.
Sporting events and extreme weather were both popular newsreel topics and the spectacle of tobogganists speeding down Buxton's white-mantled slopes would have delighted Pathe's cameraman and cinema audiences alike. The horse-drawn sled passes through the Pavilion Gardens, a major architectural landmark whose Victorian splendour has been regained thanks to a recent restoration.
This item appeared in a January 1914 edition of the Pathe Animated Gazette newsreel, which screened twice-weekly in cinemas across Britain from 1910.
The outbreak of war in July 1914 came as a shock to most. But from our privileged position today, we can find among the films produced in the early 1910s scattered hints of the looming conflict that would split Europe in two.
One ominous sign was the proliferation of stories of international espionage and intrigue (played as drama or comedy), while newsreels offer evidence of the prominence of the armed forces in British society. Even so, the overwhelming majority of films of the period point to a nation blissfully unaware of the horrors to come.