Party Strife

Party hats and finger food, funny faces, and a snowball fight; the Lane-Scrutton families enjoy a Christmas get-together and a giggle in this 1951 home movie.

For the Lane-Scrutton family the staple of a successful Christmas party is a quality finger buffet. There follows funny faces for the camera, Nanny first. And if the festive season allows for snow then a snow-ball fight adds to the family “Party ‘Strife’”! The filmmakers, brothers-in-law Sidney Lane and Cecil Scrutton feature last in the line-up of ‘funny faces’.

In an age before television, the hobby of home movie-making would fill in those vacant hours for brothers-in-law Sidney Lane and Cecil Scrutton. Throughout the years they captured a number of family events – away days, play days and parties – even employing a set of free-standing floodlights to ensure indoor scenes at their Norwich homes were adequately captured. They bought their 9.5mm cine camera in 1951, so this film must have been their first Christmas recording. Not only capturing, but also screening these home movies would become an integral part of the family’s winter schedule, accompanied by a bought Charlie Chaplin film short for added entertainment.