It involved a number of the personnel who had previously worked on a successful series of documentary reconstructions of First World War battles by British Instructional Films released between 1921 and 1927.
Although Wetherell received the directors credit, much of the film was made by Barkas and Boyd Cable.
A "masterpiece of British pictures," a "press agent" for the film told The Toronto Daily Star.
"[M]ere words fail utterly to describe even one scene of this mighty picture taken from the battlefields of France.
Judging by the excitement and enthuasiasm created in its first Canadian showing, The Somme will undoubtedly duplicate its effect every time it is thrown on the screen.