News on Screen

Richard Butler was a cameraman for Pathe, whose first surviving credit is for ‘BLESSING THE WATERS AT MUDDEFORD’ in Super Sound Gazette No.35/23 from March 1935. He was also credited in the camera team for ‘GRAND NATIONAL, 1935’ in No.35/26 of April 1935. It is possible that Butler also filmed for Pathe in the Abyssinian-Italian Conflict, which began in October 1935, as he later recalled that the Italian censorship was relatively efficient and ‘one Committee was sufficient to enable one’s films to be either rejected or released.' Butler also provided material for the Pathe Pictorial, including a four-part nature item entitled ‘QUEER FISH’ which appeared in No.22 from August 1936. Butler covered ‘RIOTS IN LONDON’ for Pathe Super Sound Gazette No.36/81 of October 1936, and his credits suggest that he continued to work freelance for Pathe until November 1936, when the first of his reports from the Spanish Civil War appeared in Super Sound Gazette No.36/92 as ‘THE WAR IN SPAIN: WITH THE GOVERNMENT FORCES.'

As Butler later recalled, he had been assigned to the government side, and assured the Commission of Propaganda in Barcelona ‘that I was out in Spain to obtain pictures of an impartial nature and to show the British public the Government as well as the other side of the question’: ‘So many Rebel pictures had been shown, I pointed out, but very few of the Government side.' Butler was in Spain for only nine days, but he obtained enough film for three other Pathe Gazette items in December 1936 and January 1937. After this he returned to freelancing, and his last credit is as part of the Pathe camera team which filmed ‘THE CORONATION OF THEIR MAJESTIES KING GEORGE VI AND QUEEN ELIZABETH’ for Super Sound Gazette No.37/38 of May 1937. However, he afterwards returned to Spain, where he provided footage of the bombing of Barcelona. This was apparently used in ‘BARCELONA: DEATH RAINS FROM THE SKY’ in Pathe Super Sound Pictorial No.38/20, and ‘BARCELONA - ANOTHER TERRIFIC AIR RAID’ in No.38/24, both of March 1938. These shots were credited to ‘Richard Butler, Pathe Cameraman’ by the ‘World Film News,' but at this date he may not have been employed by the company directly, for the issue sheet credits both items to ‘Progressive Films Ltd.'

Sources

R. Butler, ‘Newsreel Man in the Firing Line,' World Film News, March 1938, pp.6-8.