Matches: An Appeal
About Matches: An Appeal
A matchstick figure climbs a scaffold of matches and paints a message on a wall. The text says that for one guinea Bryant & May will send a case of matches, one box for each man in a battalion, with the sender's name inside. A note adds that the soldiers need them.
Cast & crew
More about Matches: An Appeal
Arthur Melbourne-Cooper made the stop-motion short with wire-jointed matches. Silent London and the East Anglian Film Archive describe it as an appeal commissioned for Bryant & May. The year is disputed: Melbourne-Cooper and some catalogues place it in 1899, for the Second Boer War, while the BFI and Denis Gifford have argued for a First World War date, possibly a reissue of a 1908 matches film.
Themes
Background
The appeal asks viewers to pay for matches for British soldiers. Whether those soldiers are in the Boer War or the First World War depends on which date is accepted.
Technique
The figures are built from matches and moved one frame at a time.
Preservation
A print has been screened from the British Film Institute. The production year on that print is still argued.
Notes
- The on-screen appeal names Messrs Bryant & May.
- A reviewer for the Internet Movie Database wrote that he viewed a print in the British Film Institute archives.
- EOFFTV also lists Birt Acres, Melbourne-Cooper's earlier employer, among the credits.
- Gifford noted that the setting matches Animated Matches (1908).
Scenes
- A matchstick man stands on a match scaffold and paints the appeal.
Quotes
For one guinea Messrs Bryant & May will forward a case containing sufficient to supply a box of matches to each man in a battalion with the name of the sender inside.
