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The Private Life of the Gannets was allegedly named to establish in the
cinema audience a mental link between its producer, Alexander Korda, and his
Oscar-winning feature of 1933, The Private Life of Henry VIII. Whether this
strategy was responsible for propelling this austerely simple nature film in the
direction of the Oscar committee it's hard to say. Regardless, the film won the
award for best short film in 1937.
The film records the life and habits of a nesting colony off the coast of
Pembrokeshire in Wales, on the small uninhabited island of Grassholm. Filmed by
Julian Huxley (who also spoke the commentary) with Henry VIII cameraman Osmond
Borradaile, the film was probably inspired to a greater degree by the work of
Ronald Lockley, who had been living on the otherwise uninhabited island of
Skolholm not far from Grassholm, and had been observing the habits of migratory
birds for some time.
As a highly respected biologist, Huxley was the star attraction in the
line-up, although he gave Lockley his due in the credits. Huxley wrote and
narrated and lent his scientific gravitas to the endeavour - like David
Attenborough, he had a natural talent for popularising scientific subjects. The
film did well in its day, but has since been criticised for pandering too much
to the world of entertainment at the cost to its scientific credibility - a
charge rarely levelled at Attenborough.
Derek Bousé, the most important writer on the subject of wildlife film in
recent years, expresses some disappointment with the genre's early years:
Few revealed a gift for popularisation such as that of [Raymond L] Ditmars,
[Mary] Field or [F. Percy] Smith. The most significant exception was Alexander
Korda's Private Life of the Gannets.... Despite the combined forces of Julian
Huxley and Korda however, it did not deliver. Emblematic of its failure to
explore and reveal the gannets' family and social systems is a passage in which
Huxley offers a surprisingly careless interpretation (given his advanced
knowledge of ritualised bird behaviour) of a male gannet's display as merely a
case of its being 'overcome by emotion'. His conclusion typifies the
capitulation to cinematic entertainment in many early wildlife films.
Bousé is right of course, although the film probably did more good than harm
in publicising an essentially rigorous model for the wildlife film in the
future.
Bryony Dixon
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Complete film (14:24)
