Gaumont-British Instructional

The Case of The Missing Scene is a children's crime thriller that has been designed in the tradition of classic British children's films. A camera team takes pictures of rare birds from a hide when a poacher happens to get into the picture. The evidence (namely shot 63) disappears under mysterious circumstances. As always in these films, the case can only be solved with the help of a few bright children.

Story of how two youngsters round up crooks planning to blow up the British fleet off Gibraltar.

Follows a young writer, James Selworthy, who is trying to establish himself as a writer. Supported by his wife Molly, he sends off manuscripts to publishers, but is turned down again and again. When war breaks out, he joins the army and fights in the trenches.

A wildlife film with a difference: it has A Message for any humans in the house. "The squirrel in the tree, the fox below, the birds, insects, all know that a time of plenty will not last forever". Austerity-stricken wartime viewers can learn from their economical feeding habits. An entertaining hybrid of public information and natural history from the makers of wildlife series Secrets of Life. Released in the BFI boxset Ration Books and Rabbit Pies: Films from the Home Front.

In Australia, five children pursue horse thieves through the mountains.

The Secrets of Life series (1934-50) may not conform to modern expectations of nature filmmaking, inclined as it is towards giving cute fluffy creatures human names and characteristics. But it couldn't be accused of shielding kiddies from the harsher realities of the food chain, as this exercise in ruthless Darwinism demonstrates to unintentionally hilarious effect. A more than usually eccentric narrator introduces us to the newborn bunny quartet of Donald, James, Charles and Clifford, but as the film's title gives away, "the boys" aren't all long for this world as they face an assault course of hungry owls, predatory badgers, shotgun-happy gardeners and aerial bombardment (no harm in a little anti-Nazi detour, this is 1942 after all). (from http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-once-we-were-four-1942/)

Short nature documentary by Mary Field and F. Percy Smith.

The film takes us to the North of England to follow the migration of the black-headed gull down to London. There, the narrator asks viewers to "listen to their gossip", before demonstrating the bird’s flight in slow motion. We see a polecat feasting on gull eggs, and then a man collecting the eggs for human consumption, with the film telling us that they are considered a “delicacy” in London. Indeed, according to the British Trust for Ornithology, around 300,000 gull’s eggs were sold every year in Leadenhall Market in London during the 1930s, when London Visitors was made.

A schoolboy almost misses the school sports day when he is wrongly punished for cruelty to a dog.

A film based on a story by Leo Tolstoy about a cabinet maker, his wife and an angel punished by God.

A Secrets of Life short.

Record of a voyage on the four-masted barque "Passat" from Sweden to Capetown.

A Secrets of Life short of which the BFI gave this description: "The first part of the film is a speeded-up picture of germination and growth of the tomato plant, ending with the fertilization of the flower and the growth of the fruit. The white flies are then shown in action on the plant, and by skilful micro-photography their life cycle is shown, together with the means by which they injure the plant. A natural parasite—small species of wasp—is also shown in action by means of micro-photography,and its method of parasitism is clearlybrought out. The film concludes with apictorial demonstration of the means forridding tomato glass-houses infested withwhite fly by the use of hydrocyanic gas."

Poetic tribute to Mrs Turner's vegetable growing prowess, plus the delights of "wartime steaks".

A Secrets of Life short.

A retired Major's efforts to hone his golf skills are thwarted by the diminutive but defiant common daisy.

Explores the natural history of the otter, depicted through the fictitious account of a day in the life of Otto the Otter and his mother. The narrator claims that the short features "the first film ever taken of an otter swimming underwater."

They Made the Land (1938) is a documentary showcasing how land in Scotland was reclaimed and cultivated for agriculture. It explores the challenges of making a living from the land while highlighting the contributions of agricultural research and animal breeding. Produced as part of a series of seven documentaries for the 1938 Empire Exhibition, the film was created under the supervision of pioneering documentarian John Grierson.

A Secrets of Life documentary about bathing time at the zoo. The film was registered on the Board of Trade's official list under Section 6 of the Films Act as 883ft long (roughly 9 minutes if projected at 24 frames per second) It is a remake, or update, of the short "Bath Time at the Zoo" from Secrets of Nature.