British Pathe

Joe Noble animation. "Venus was the classic personification of beauty, but would Venus still be beautiful in modern clothes?" Beside a depiction of Venus, Joe Noble draws a woman in modern dress. "Fashions change. The Modernist's idea of beauty may be this - " We see an abstract drawing labelled "Portrait...

Joe Noble animation. "Venus was the classic personification of beauty, but would Venus still be beautiful in modern clothes?" Beside a depiction of Venus, Joe Noble draws a woman in modern dress. "Fashions change. The Modernist's idea of beauty may be this - " We see an abstract drawing labelled "Portrait of a lady". It has a mouth and an eye in opposite corners of the painting with geometric shapes all around. "The old-time Artist used to dream his ideal could live. Nowadays, however, the Cartoonist is more fortunate." C/U of Joe Noble at his drawing board. He dips his pen into an ink pot and finishes a drawing. "His idea of beauty really can come to life - " Stop frame animation is used to make a drawing come to life before our eyes. Joe draws "Wally, the Wily Welsh Rabbit". It moves its head from side to side, following Joe's pen. The rabbit moves from side to side then says (inside a speech bubble) "An orse! An orse!! My kingdom for an orse!!!" A clothes horse appears beside him. He says: "I wanted a race horse!" The words appear: "Well... you can put your shirt on this!" A shirt flies in and hangs itself on the clothes horse. The rabbit laughs. Animation of the rabbit riding along on the clothes horse with the shirt flying out of the back.

"Baby thinks Peter Pan the acme of beauty." Two women are seen admiring the statue of Peter Pan in Regent's Park - the scene is shown within a picture frame device. "Not far away, we may see another form of beauty - " C/U of a duck standing beside a pond, camera tilts up to show a sculpture in the park - possibly a Jacob Epstein. "Well may we ask "what is beauty?" Suppose we ask various people their ideas of beauty - " A flapper is shown, her idea of beauty is a man playing a saxophone. Percy the Pup likes the idea of a juicy bone. Moggie likes a dustbin with a fish bone sticking out. McTavish likes his bottle of Scotch Whisky. The cameraman likes an acrobatic act. "Cigar-face Malone" from Chi' (Chicago) admires a machine gun. T.B.M. - a "tired business man" looks through binoculars admiring a group of bathing belles posing with a De Havilland biplane. The two shots of the girls are real action - the rest of this sequence is animated.
Was an item in Eve's Film Review issue number 577.