ERROL LE CAIN ( 1941 – 1989 ) is well known for his numerous illustrated children books. always fascinated by animation he joined RICHARD WILLIAMS animation studio in london in 1965 and worked on a wide range of animation projects, amongst them the titles for CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM and CASINO ROYALE. but his most important contribution was the stylistic work on the COBBLER AND THE THIEF, his beautifully painted backgrounds for this masterpiece. richard williams told me that errol made an animated short without any help after he had started to work in the studio. dick called it his ‘apprentice-work’. THE SAILOR AND THE DEVIL is a stylistic masterpiece, and the limited animation is fresh and unusual. according to dick williams there was a fire in the upper floor of his 13 soho square studio after the completion of the short, and unfortunately most of the artwork of that film burned or got badly damaged. following are a few screen captures of that short masterpiece…
© richard williams animation/errol le cain
my name is hans bacher, – I work as production designer in the animation film industry. for the last 40 years I lived and worked in duesseldorf, london, paris, los angeles, manila and tokyo. now I am professor for film-design at the nanyang techn. university in singapore.
I’ve been searching for this film since I saw a fragment back in the 60s. I’m glad to see that a copy of it exists somewhere. Thanks for the post.
hans,
thanks for posting these..i am thankful that i can come here and be introduced to new artists constantly. following reading this, i tried to look up more of his work. i found some sources for his childrens book work, but very little on the short itself and his animation work. i found a link to this movie title design ‘ The liquidator’. one of the youtube videos credits it to errol le cain. Maybe you can confirm?
here’s a better HD version
thanks again hans..his body of work is really inspiring stuff. i think i am hooked!!
from hans -
he worked on most of the titles the studio did during that time.
THE LIQUIDATOR is one of my favorites
Really good and very funny!!!
LeCain and a short bit of “The Sailor and the Devil” can be seen 6 minutes in to “The Creative Person” here:
Also Charlie Jenkins just before his work on “Yellow Submarine”.
Hello Hans
Are you still at NTU?
I am preparing a biography of Errol Le Cain – who Eurasian and Singaporean – and would be glad to be in touch
Good wishes
Denyse Tessensohn
from hans -
hi denyse, yes, flying to singapore tomorrow. send me an e-mail
center.for.visualarts@gmail.com