The Peanut Vendor Complete Director’s Cut - Len Lye (1933)

Puppet animation featuring a monkey singing and dancing to the jazz song ’Peanut Vendor’. Film is a recut of the 1934 animation ‘Peanut Vendor’. “Despite the interest generated by his first film, Tusalava (1929), the early 1930s were a difficult time for artist and animator Len Lye. A series of projects were abandoned through lack of funding, and he supported himself by designing book jackets. By 1934 he was doing relatively menial work in the Wembley studios of Associated Sound Film Industries, while trying to convince investors to back his latest project with his long-time friend and collaborator, Jack Ellitt, provisionally titled Quicksilver. Lye had already produced dozens of set and costume designs for this ambitious science-fiction musical comedy but, although an American producer eventually expressed interest, the film that emerged bore little relation to the original concept, and neither Lye nor Ellitt benefited financially. In the meantime, Lye turned his attention to puppet animation. He scraped t