"WITH COBHAM TO THE CAPE."

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19113, 23 September 1927, Page 14

"WITH COBHAM TO THE CAPE."

♦ ■ ADVENTURE IN THE AIR. Yet another great, picture comes to, the G):and Theatre next week I This time, Sir Alan Cobham, perhaps the world's greatest aviator at the present.-day, captures up a passenger or two and wafts thetu away with him over.lcarean skies,' over Egyptian valleys, an<J tombs of kings and- pyramids of the Pharaohs, a rollicking adventure right through tho African Continent, from Caifo to the Caps, a visionary glimpse of the land that Cecil' Rhodes colonised, and an achievement of aviation only accomplished. . on™- or twice in a lifetime. On one oi Sir Alan's sensational and courageous, flights, on' which he was accustomed to take only Arthur Elliott, his late mechanic, the Gaumont Company of Britain sent one of its most intrepid cameramen on the flight, and this photographer, Basil Emmott,. brought back with him such a/wpnder film that only comes to the screen as. often as such an undertaking is brought off. For "stars" this pietnre has Alan Cobham and the equally famous Elliott; for locale it has a whole continent, ■ and tho fair landß of Prance, Italy, and Greece; , for thrills ■it has all the dangers that lay in wait for the brave, the safe negotiating of the Victoria' Falls, and tho flying .over hundreds of miles of trackless forest, cleared of. all human habitation in an endeavour to, stamp out the dreadful sleeping sickness; circling low over the gaping craters of copper, silver, and diamond mines; delightful human and humorous touches when the trio come in contact with the equally gaping and wondering natives, "With .Cobhaasl' to. the Capo" is like old Africa herself— with . colour and essential drama.- Prom the takeoff at Croydon, the pilot flies over the . Mediterranean, over Prance, Italy, and , Greece, flying over the Acropolis and the Pantheon and other vantages 6f historic interest. From thence he journeys across to Egypt, where the impassive "phinx, the t towering pyramids, the romantic Valley of the Kings, and tho same old Nile that ' bore Cleopatra on its silvery surface adorning the face of the country, (ill seen beau- ( tifully from the air. The huge Assuan dam, now the /second largest in the world since a dam in India beat it, is seen to great advantage, as arc the Ripon Falls, the • source o'f the Nile, discovered as late a3 1 1868. Leaving Egypt, the machine takes tho enthralled spectator oh to fhe Soudan, the scene of so much fighting some twentyfive .years ago; and the British Residency at Khartoum, Gordon's last stand, makes a vivid' splash of white agaiflst the green vegetation. Through the darker parts of the Continent, with occasional landings (twentysix in' all were made in tiie flight), where childish natives and important chiefs . ate initiated, to the best of their mental ability, into the intricacies of the magio machine, the de Haviland sails, a giant piece of perfect mechanism, doing its seventeen thousand miles with scarcely a hitch. One particularly humorous incident is brought out on the screen. On one of his landings amongst some natives, a- coy young Zulu tiling proceeded to sit herself in the cockpit, with many an inviting glance to the perturbed Elliott, who evidently fancied not an enforced role of Solomon to the Ethiopian ' Sheba. After many coquettish disappearings and roappearings, the skittish maid was induced to come forth, no doubt with groat hopes of more pronounced conquest, on • Elliott. (Hopes dashed.) Over the Victoria Falls, as mentioned in the first review in yesterday's paper, the spray got . into the carburettor, and' the engine _ began spluttering badly over the yawning -hasm of raging waters, and only the nerve and skill of Cobham saved all three men from annihilation in tho world's greatest waterfall. That shot makes sensational "reading." The welcome in Cape Town lends another note of human interest, as doe 3 the picnic with some impromptu friends ir. some out-of-the-way spot in Basutoland or Bechuanaland—somewhere near Pretoria. "I/ow we're in Pretoria." "With Cobham to the ends, humorously enough, back at Croydon, just to see the < welcome honi<;, and the hundred-point Cheltenham posters out in i London; "Cobham Home Again." Ths | plans for the necessarily brief season are now open at Tho Bristol -Piano Company, , where patrons ar& advised to book their | seats. •'