GALLIPOLI FILM.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19196, 30 December 1927, Page 7

GALLIPOLI FILM.

ACCOMPLISHMENT OF ONE MAN. PRIVATE EXHIBITION IN LONDON. (IROU OITE OWM COLBESPOKDIMT.) LONDON, November 16. It is a good many months since Mr A. C. Tinsdale, of the Embassy Film Co., entered upon the project of producing a film founded on the Gallipoli campaign, but he has so far progressed as to have been able to give a private exhibition of the film this week. He intends to go out to Australia early in the New Year, where additional scenes of the Australian and New Zealand forces are awaiting his arrival. It would be unfair at this present stage to comment on the make up of the new film, for it will still undergo a great many alterations, especially now that it has been submitted for friendly criticism. As the Rev. M. Mullineux said when he addressed the spectators the other evening, the pictures shown are really Gallipoli and not some headlands in Cornwall. He was speaking of the difficulties the producer had experienced. There was one class of producers, he said, who by some fortuitous chance got the backing of the people and the Government. Ships of war were at their command, ammunition probably paid for by the public was fired off for them,' the ground on which the picture was made was lent without rent, and everything was made easy for them. Success for these producers was quite an easy matter. There was the other class. There was the man with the brilliant idea who received no support whatever from the authorities. To this class Mr Tinsdale belonged. The great Commonwealth which ought to have been particularly interested in this film had not stirred a finger to help him. Another great Dominion which should have been just as much interested had done nothing to help him. He had carried through this stupendous task unaided. He hoped when the final film was put on the market it would achieve that success which was due to a man with such pluck, tenacity of purpose, and courage which was so characteristic of the British race.

No "Faked" Pictures. There is no attempt in the film to "fake" any of the actions of the campaign. The producer approaches his subject from many angles. Hie reminds us of ancient Troy. Ho takes us back to the beginning of this last war and uses authentic and interesting pictures of the mobilisation of the armies and the early days of the war in France. He works in some fine scenes of the Australian Army in course of preparation and their embarkation in Australia. He has been particularly fortunate in obtaining films taken by a Turkish agency during the campaign, and wo see the Golden Horn with its units of the Turkish and German navies, Turkish troops on the march, and even in action. We are taken to Salonika and. see its destruction by fire. The naval and military activities at the islands of the Sea provide further material. Every kind of naval action is illustrated, and a thrilling picture is that of the torpedoing of a sailing ship—one moment going with all sails 6et, the next moment going down by the stern and then the hull and sails sinking out of sight. The great naval bombardment is shown, and the results of the b'ombardment are suggested). We see a party of Turks scattered by a bursting shell. Then follow scenes at Anzac and Ocean Beach. Australian and New Zealand soldiers are shown at their daily tasks in the front line. In addition there are soenes of the evacuation. OaUipoli To-day. Finally, there is Gallipoli to-day. Eleven years after the campaign the Stella d'ltalia carried pilgrims to Gallipoli to visit the battlefields and the completed cemeteries on the peninsula. The story of this pilgrimage is depicted faithfully in picture _ form, and one may gain an excellent idea of the work carried out by the Imperial War Graves Commission in commemoration of the dead. There is no lack of material for the producer to choose from. His difficulty has been to arrange the films in some sort of sequence. Now that he has got so far as to be able to show his collected matter continuously for an hour and a half the polishing up process should not be difficult.