British Film Institute

Along with Boys Sliding and Boys' Cricket Match and Fight (both 1900), Leap Frog (also 1900) is one of Bamforth's single-shot studies of young boys at play.

This is the most elaborately structured of the three films, with the boys' initially simple leap-frog games becoming increasingly sophisticated, culminating in repeated (albeit failed) attempts at constructing a multi-layered human sculpture, using the wall that dominates the picture composition as support.

The surviving print cuts off partway through the fourth such attempt, which creates the impression that the boys will carry on their efforts in perpetuity.

Michael Brooke

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