Life Cycle of The Newt

About the film

Part of the archive's Junior Biology series, this study of the newt is aided by diagrammatic and microscopic footage.

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Details

• Release year - 1942
• Director - Mary Field
• Production company - G.B. Instructional Limited
• Cinematographer - F. Percy Smith
• Advisor - M. Munro
• Running time (minutes) - 10 mins 08 secs

Original description

'A biological film of the smooth newt, its history from egg, through tadpole stage, to fully developed three-year-old next returning to the pond in spring to breed. The male and female of the species differ in size and colouring. Crested newts, axolotls, and salamanders have a similar life history.'

(Films of Britain - British Council Film Department Catalogue - 1942-1943)

Did you know?

• The distribution of this film was not well planned. The 1946 feedback form for this film from the Kenya Information Office, Nairobi, to the British Council simply stated, 'Newts unknown in Africa'.
• Mary Field had previously produced Romance in a Pond (1932) - considered to be one of the classic films from the Secrets of Nature series, which also details the life cycle of the common newt - though far more humorously.

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