Jerry the Troublesome Tyke, 3

Sid Griffiths, Bert Bilby: Jerry the Troublesome Tyke: Jerry Is Too Canny for the Cannibal (1926). My screenshot from YouTube.

Sid Griffiths, Bert Bilby: Jerry the Troublesome Tyke: Treasure Hunting (1926). My screenshot from YouTube.

JERRY THE TYKE, 3
Jerry the Troublesome Tyke

Dave Berry (GCM): "Further animated adventures of that capricious UK canine Jerry the Tyke are released this year, as part of the restoration programme of the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales and British Pathe. This third successive Jerry presentation at Sacile ensures that the festival has hosted more than 30 of the 40-plus surviving films of the madcap mutt so popular in Pathé Pictorial cinema programmes between 1925 and 1927. The films, a resourceful blend of live action and animation, were made by Cardiff’s Sid Griffiths, working with photographer Bert Bilby, with much assistance (certainly from early 1926) from former Bonzo animator Brian White. The often tetchy interaction between Griffiths and his mercurial creation is a distinctive feature of the series and distinguishes these films, heavily influenced by Felix in style and content, from Otto Messmer’s stylistic preoccupations."

"Since the Jerry films were “rediscovered” in the Pathé vaults at Pinewood in the late 1990s, the lively bad-tempered mutt has become a cult figure in Wales as the mascot of the influential Welsh Animation Group. BBC 2W, the Welsh digital channel, has screened a half-hour documentary on Jerry, as well as 9 episodes with specially commissioned scores by composer John Rea played by members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Soundtracks for 14 episodes have now been completed for the BBC." – Dave Berry (GCM)

Series: JERRY THE TYKE (Pathé / United International Corporation, GB 1925–1927)
Dirs: Sid Griffiths, Bert Bilby; anim: Sid Griffiths, Brian White (from 1925 or 1926+); ph: Bert Bilby; 35 mm, (16 fps), National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales / British Pathe.
    English intertitles.
    All film notes by Dave Berry.
    Viewed at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Sacile, 9–16 Oct 2004

A BIRD IN THE HAND (GB, c.1925)
277 ft., 5”.
Jerry finds himself in a battle of wills and ingenuity with a feathered aggressor, and once more reveals his capacity for violence, seen last year in his short Shown Up!
    AA: 9.10.2004.

ALL COD! (GB 1926)
240 ft., 4’.
Jerry once more demonstrates his bellicose talents – tangling with a bear on a fishing trip.
    AA: 10.10.2004.

HE BREAKS OUT! (GB 1926)
246 ft., 4’.
Sid unwittingly engineers Jerry’s downfall as the mutt hits the bottle. The animator experiments with some dizzy POV shots.
    AA: 13.10.2004. * Drunken Jerry, sees the distorted figure of the animator. A favourite of mine among the Jerry cartoons.

JERRY IS TOO CANNY FOR THE CANNIBAL (GB 1926)
257 ft., 4’.
Our hero’s Utopia is soured by a cannibal – deliciously politically incorrect!

JERRY TRACKS THE TREASURE (GB 1926)
283 ft., 5’.
Robinson Crusoe makes a surprise appearance in Jerry’s world, and his parrot becomes another of Jerry’s flighty assailants before the pooch discovers the casket which could change his life.
    AA: 13.10.2004.

JERRY’S TREASURE ISLAND TRAVEL (GB 1926)
c.237 ft., 4’.
A hazardous unscheduled trip on a whale’s back leads to Jerry’s eventful arrival at his island oasis.
    AA: 11.10.2004

A SPLASH AND A DASH (GB 1926)
172 ft., 3’.
More surrealist capers as Sid grants Jerry a holiday, which turns into an ordeal when the pooch is pursued by a sea monster.

SPOOFING A SPOOK (GB, c.1926)
319 ft., 5’.
Jerry applies for a house dog’s job in Easy Street(!), and winds up chasing ghosts.

TREASURE HUNTING (GB 1926)
386 ft., 6’.
Jerry is chased by an octopus during sea, air, and car escapades – merely the prelude to Jerry’s discovery of a treasure map, and the three successive episodes shown here.
    AA: 11.10.2004.

HIS BIRTHDAY (GB 1927)
277 ft., 5’.
The pooch displays his dubious musical talents to liven up his celebrations.
    AA: 15.12.2004. A good pianist: studente SMI. Dog-trot.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS (GB 1927)
278 ft., 5’.
The sequel to the previous episode. The Tyke rides a rocking horse (shades of his 1925 Pathé debut episode Jerry the Troublesome Tyke, and his 1926 cowboy adventure Going West).

AA: This is a series of reduced animation, based on the "out of the inkwell" concept popular in silent animation series, the live-action animator often present in the proceedings. In He Breaks Out! Jerry gets drunk and sees the animator in a distorted vision. A Slap and a Dash is another case of breaking boundaries.