E. V. H. Emmett

Three sailors get drunk while on shore leave and end up on the wrong ship. When they realise their mistake they scramble off it and onto their warship, HMS Ferocious. However, they soon realise that the vessel they have boarded is not the Ferocious but a German battleship.

A documentary on the island off the French Riviera where 'bathing in the buff' isn't just practiced, it's highly encouraged!

Two Britons—inventor Hengist Pod, and Horse, a brave and cunning fighter—are captured and enslaved by invading Romans and taken to Rome. One of their first encounters in Rome leaves Hengist being mistaken for a fighter, and gets drafted into the Royal Guard to protect Julius Caesar.

A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.

Naive Stanley Windrush looks for a career in a family business. Much to his dismay, he finds work at a munitions factory where he has to start from the bottom, while both the management and the labor union use him as a tool in their fight for power.

Travelogue film looking at the sights to see in the Lowlands of Scotland.

Led by British officers, partisans on Crete plan to kidnap the island's German commander and smuggle him to Cairo to embarrass the occupiers.

The perky Cockneys are London sparrows, who star in this natural history film.

Miniature railways, out-of-the-way single track lines and some of the great loco motives in use in Switzerland and Norway.

Two wealthy Victorian widows are courted tentatively by two impoverished British aristocrats. When one of the dowagers suggests that her beau go away with her for a month to see if they are compatible, the fireworks begin.

Follows the life of a foal who enters the Grand National.

This ultra-kitsch documentary goes behind the scenes at Murray's Cabaret Club, where Christine Keeler was later a showgirl.

This peek behind the scenes at Kew Gardens in the 1940s was part of the ever-eccentric Secrets of Life series. Arcadian images of tranquil greenery, attended to by a discreet army of gardeners, make it hard to believe WWII was raging in the background. We're also treated to a spot of the series’ trademark time-lapse nature photography and charming narration - one plant described as "rather like an Italian having an argument with his hands".

Compiled in 1953, this is a scrapbook-style documentary about Britain’s Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. It charts her transition from childhood to womanhood and from Princess to Queen. Footage includes the Coronation of King George VI, Her Majesty’s first broadcast, her engagement to Prince Philip and their wedding, as well as her experiences of the war captured on newsreel. With voice-overs by well known British figures, this is both an insight and a tribute to Britain’s much-loved Monarch.

This early, influential propaganda film blends documentary and studio footage to show the valiant efforts of the Royal Air Force to defend the British people against the Nazis.

Get Cracking is a 1943 British comedy war film, directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Dinah Sheridan, Ronald Shiner and George Formby. It was produced by Marcel Varnel, Ben Henry and Columbia (British) Productions. This comedy explores the wayward rivalry between mechanic and Home Guard Lance Corporal George Singleton (George Formby) and an adversary also in the Home Guard (Ronald Shiner). When the rival Home Guard units of Major Wallop and Minor Wallop are sent on battle manoeuvres, George Singleton (Formby) launches his own unique style of commando raid against neighbouring Major Wallop to steal a Vickers machine gun. The raid fails and Singleton loses his Lance Corporal's stripe, so he and a little evacuee girl named Irene (Vera Frances) decide to fall back on 'Plan B' - to build their very own tank.

A London travelogue.

A beautiful Gypsy girl falls in love with a horse trainer.

A Secrets of Life short.

During a charity football match between Arsenal and touring amateur side Trojans, the Trojan's new star player collapses and dies. Inspector Slade of Scotland Yard is called in and declares it was murder. It takes all his ingenuity and another death before the motive is discovered and the killer revealed.

Go with the flow: to gentle but spellbinding effect this innovative natural history film glimpses marine life astride rising tides at Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae. Urchins, lugworm, weaver-fish and crabs are the shy-but-elegant stars coaxed onto the screen (with the assistance of Millport’s local research station) for this archetypal edition of Gaumont-British Instructional’s 1930s cinema series Secrets of Life.

A British officer in the Camel Corps in Egypt goes undercover to investigate a gang of drug smugglers. He enlists the aid of a female pilot to help break up the gang.

History - and natural history - filmed on location in Selborne, East Hampshire. This unusual edition of the long-running series Secrets of Life tells the story of the village's famous son, Rev Gilbert White, whose 1789 book The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne is a classic of natural history. The film follows in his footsteps, with camera rather than quill in hand, focusing on nature but also taking in views of the village and its human inhabitants. The ingenious close coverage of bird, reptile and other wildlife was the stock-in-trade of the filmmakers at Gaumont-British Instructional, producers of the series. Under the direction of the redoubtable Mary Field, the behind-screen talent here includes legendary 'cine-biologists' Percy Smith and Oliver Pike. A tribute by one generation of pioneering naturalists to another, it's a quietly moving film in spite of its clipped English reserve - or perhaps partly because of it.

A Secrets of Life short about the tawny owl.

Travelogue film looking at the sights to see in the Lowlands of Scotland.

A dramatization to promote the Territorial Army.

Flock to your local keep fit class - there's a war on and Britain needs its citizens in tip-top shape.

This ultra-kitsch documentary goes behind the scenes at Murray's Cabaret Club, where Christine Keeler was later a showgirl.

Compiled in 1953, this is a scrapbook-style documentary about Britain’s Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. It charts her transition from childhood to womanhood and from Princess to Queen. Footage includes the Coronation of King George VI, Her Majesty’s first broadcast, her engagement to Prince Philip and their wedding, as well as her experiences of the war captured on newsreel. With voice-overs by well known British figures, this is both an insight and a tribute to Britain’s much-loved Monarch.

Compiled in 1953, this is a scrapbook-style documentary about Britain’s Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. It charts her transition from childhood to womanhood and from Princess to Queen. Footage includes the Coronation of King George VI, Her Majesty’s first broadcast, her engagement to Prince Philip and their wedding, as well as her experiences of the war captured on newsreel. With voice-overs by well known British figures, this is both an insight and a tribute to Britain’s much-loved Monarch.

This early, influential propaganda film blends documentary and studio footage to show the valiant efforts of the Royal Air Force to defend the British people against the Nazis.

Episodic tale of four factory girls and their various romances at the local dance hall in Chiswick, London. Unusual at the time, the film tells its story from a feminine perspective. Today, it is mainly recognised for its post-war London atmosphere, with bomb sites, trolleybuses and rationing.

Episodic tale of four factory girls and their various romances at the local dance hall in Chiswick, London. Unusual at the time, the film tells its story from a feminine perspective. Today, it is mainly recognised for its post-war London atmosphere, with bomb sites, trolleybuses and rationing.

A London travelogue.

The best of the action from over 30 years of FA Cup finals at Wembley Stadium.

The best of the action from over 30 years of FA Cup finals at Wembley Stadium.

The World's First Three Dimensional Advertising Film In Colour for Capstan cigarettes.

A flagrant plug for the trusty safety razor disguised as a comic history of shaving, this witty treat was made by EVH Emmett, whose sardonic tones graced many an educational film in the 1930s and 40s. Jumping from the Bronze Age to Ancient Egypt to the dicey barbers of Victorian England (cue Tod Slaughter hamming it up in "Britain's most fruity drama", Sweeney Todd), the film follows the development and mass production of King Camp Gillette's 1890s invention.