Film & TV Database

AMATEUR. Whimsical record of the activities and antics of J.M. Barrie's guests at a summer house-party at Stanway in Gloucestershire, August/September 1923. Reel 1: "THE YELLOW WEEK AT STANWAY. A record of fair women and brainy men. 1923" (11). Iris out to LS Stanway house with man walking towards it (49). Two women and a man and a woman walking towards one another along path in front of tithe barn (94). The group of four (Lord and Lady Wemyss and their daughters Cynthia Asquith and Mary Strickland, with pet dogs) seated on bench (118). LS Stanway house, panning right (134). LS grounds with group of people (148). CS small child, Simon Asquith, in pram (173). MLS Nicholas Llewellyn-Davies (Nico) standing by gateway. Walks backwards through gateway (reverse action) (195). He walks through gateway correctly (212). CS Nico smoking and putting on a comic manner for the camera (231). MCS Nico by another gateway awaiting guests for the Cricket Week (259). Maurice arrives and shakes him by the hand (304). Two young men, one of them Ocker, arrive by car (332). Antony and Edward approach Nico, who mockingly spurns them, then greets them before they walk off arm in arm (371). Sam and Peter join Nico and another man playing croquet (388). Nico and two other men seated on bench: Pasty, Jimmy and Ralph clamber over and through a wall then creep up behind them. Having surprised them they walk off together towards the camera (446). Sequence shown in reverse (478). Six young women - Cynthia, Mary, Pamela, Hermione, Bunty and Joan - all come through doorway (516). They walk alongside house (562). LS Cynthia and Mary hurtling round lawn playing `croquet'. They shake hands and kick one another (616). Cricketers on field before game, including man in ordinary clothes (Barrie?) acting as umpire (662). Match between Etonians and village team begins, with man in ordinary clothes seated on shooting stick at square leg (671). Close shots of Maurice, Pasty, Sam and Jimmy bowling. General shot of game, Harry Holmes of village team bowling? (735). Close shot of Nico stumping Harry Last (750). Elderly man, James Prew [former coachman to Lord Wemyss], standing with Simon before ground (763). Two women by war memorial (785). Further shot of cricket game (810). CS Harry Holmes playing a stroke with Nico as wicket-keeper (826). Newspaper headline - "Strange disappearance of an Oxford blood. Vanished while meditating on the roof at Stanway" (835). Nico on flat roof walks forward, `disappears' then `reappears' (865). Group of young men in croquet lawn (869). Woman and child on bicycles plus Simon on a tricycle with woman beside him, all cycling backwards (reverse action) (909). CS Simon pedalling but not moving (961). Woman walks out of wood ["the forest of Arden"] past camera (993). CS Peter and Hermione lying on bank with Simon as Eros standing behind them. He `shoots' her in the heart (1022). MCS Nico lies down and falls asleep (1081). Long `dream' sequence where Nico seeks "his Rosalind" but sees all the other house guests pair up without him: Mary leaves him for Antony (1130); Edward and Pamela walk away from him when he greets them (1171); Sam and Rosemary hit croquet balls at him (1208); Pasty and Hermione sit on bench and he edges nearer to her (1252); Ocker and Hermione sit on same bench and she edges nearer to him (1297); Pasty and Cynthia cycle hand in hand past Nico (1332); Teddy and Ralph push Mary to and fro like a pendulum, walking off when Nico intervenes [filmed in rapid and normal motion] (1365); Maurice and Bunty walk off when Nico joins them on a bench (1412); Jimmy and Pamela walk together followed by Nico carrying their golf bags (1455); Greville serenades Joan with a banjo as Nico walks past (1479); Nico's dog abandons him (1538). LS the women creep up on the sleeping Nico and all sit round him as he wakes. The men approach, then walk away in disgust. Nico, surrounded, lights a cigarette (1631). Nico being petted by the eight young women (1684). The cricket match (1719). Reverse action shot of six of the women coming through door [same action as 478-516 but closer] (1747). LS Prew by fence outside his cottage (1775). Dissolve to CS of Prew (1788). Mr Allen at Didbrook comes through gate and poses for camera (1832). Nico comes up to small table on roof at Stanway. Takes lid off soup tureen and sponges soup into bowls (1894). Reel 2: Double exposure shot of Nico talking to himself (25). CS baby girl in pram [Pamela, daughter of Mary Strickland] (78). "The Pirates' Lagoon. An intruder" (84). J.M. Barrie and Michael Asquith on a small punt on a pond, Barrie punting (128). "Michael the captain could stand when pressed. But drink and the devil had done for the rest" (140). Michael and three other children, including Simon, in boat (204). "`Ware the redskins" (208). Michael pointing gun and smaller boy with bow and arrow on punt (235). Michael alone on punt pointing gun (250). "Escaping the tomahawks by a miracle, Red Michael reached Stanway by a perilous descent" (261). Michael climbing through window set in high wall (284). Two close-ups of Nico (306). Nico on roof of building [presumably Stanway] pretending to sleep and embracing someone (322). CS Nico surrounded by the young women at Stanway (331). Return to previous shot as Nico wakes (331). "A last look round" - the women coming through the door, six young men walking in the grounds, two women playing croquet, Nico waiting by the gateway (352). Panning shot of Stanway (386). LS through gateway of members of the house party. Eventually they walk towards the camera - mostly young people, but possibly Barrie among group at back. Fade (452). Panning shot of Stanway (488). Eton schoolboys outside the school, many looking at the camera (534). Panning shot of Eton area (550). THE END (554). MCS Simon and Michael waving handkerchieves through windows in garden wall (589). 2483ft. English intertitles. Note: J.M. Barrie first rented Stanway, the Cotswolds home of Lord and Lady Wemyss, in 1921, and held regular summer house-parties at Stanway thereafter. From 25 July 1923 Barrie invited his secretary Cynthia Asquith (the eldest daughter of Lord Wemyss) and her family, Nicholas Llewellyn-Davies and his Eton friends (who arrived late August and left by 10 September) and a number of other guests. Cricket and croquet matches were a feature of the house- parties, and there were `entertainments' planned - on this occasion the project was to make a film, and a professional cameraman was hired. Barrie wrote the `screenplay' [see Asquith, p 158] and most likely the titles, some of which are in verse. It is probable, given the above and Barrie's past enthusiasm for film projects, that he also directed the action. The film was premiered before the participants at a Wardour Street projection room on 11 October 1923. Nicholas (Nico) Llewellyn-Davies was one of the five sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewellyn-Davies who were the models for the `Lost Boys' and Barrie's "Peter Pan". The sequence on the pond (Reel 2 78-284ft) recalls "Peter Pan" and Barrie's photo-story `The Boy Castaways'. Barrie features in this sequence and may also be one of the umpires at the cricket match and a member of the house party in Reel 2 386-452ft. The eleven friends of Nicholas Llewellyn-Davies shown in the film are: Maurice Bridgeman, Sam Webber, Teddy Jessel, Antony Lytton, Evan (`Ocker') Talbot, Peter Thirsby, Edward Woodall, Ralph Tennyson d'Eyncourt, Pasty Barrett, Greville Worthington and Jimmy (unidentified). The young women shown are Cynthia Asquith (née Charteris), Mary Strickland (née Charteris, sister of Cynthia Asquith), Pamela ?Beckett, Hermione Lytton (later Lady Cobbold), Joan Talbot, Bunty (unidentified), Rosemary (unidentified) and one other. The two children most featured are Cynthia Asquith's children Simon and Michael. Other guests at Stanway that summer were J.M. Barrie himself, Lord Wemyss (the owner), Mr and Mrs William Winter (Barrie's sister), Hamlin Garland (with wife and two daughters, Constance and Mary), Lord Darling with daughter Diana, Lady Lytton (daughter and son referred to above), Elizabeth Lucas, Basil Dean, G.W. `Tuppy' Headlam, David Cecil, A.B. Walkley and T.L. Gilmour. Details of guests from notes supplied by Lady Cobbold and works cited below. Some of the titles in the first half of the film are numbered, and if correct do not always follow sequentially. Many have small cartoon illustrations. A separate record of the full titles has been made. The original print was donated to the Archive in 1985 by Lady Cobbold, whose mother-in-law is Hermione Lytton in the film. References: Cynthia Asquith: `Portrait of Barrie' (1954), pp 132-148, 156-9. [Details of summer parties at Stanway, mentioning filming p 158] Denis Mackail: `The Story of J.M.B.' (1941), pp 584-5. [Refers to filming and film's exhibition]