FILMING WAR SCENE

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 49, 21 November 1928, Page 11

FILMING WAR SCENE

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES FOR INJURIES BY AUSTRALIAN VICTORIA CROSS WINNER (Australian Press Association.) London, November 19. In the Court of King's Bench, the Australian Victoria Cross winner, Lieutenant Leonard Keysor, sued the film producer G. B. Samuelson for damages for injuries received in filming a re-enactment of the Gallipoli bombing episode for which the plaintiff was decorated. The plaintiff’s case was that in consideration of £75 a week he went to the studio at Isleworth. Smoke bombs and gunpowder were used in the reproduction of the trench scene. He alleges that the bombs were carelessly thrown and the electrical discharge of the gunpowder faulty, with the result that a bomb and also gunpowder exploded in his face and fractured his jaw. A hundred incised wounds were left in his forearm, and fifty wounds in his knee. He was confined to bed for five and a half weeks, and his jaw, despite operations, was permanently disfigured. In cross-examination, Lieutenant Keysor denied that he had not told Mr. Samuelson about the sandbag portion of the episode. “Samuelson,” he said, “told me a lot of things I did to get the Victoria Cross, but I hadn’t done them at all.” (Laughter.) He said that the doctor ordered him to Monaco, which was very quiet. Mr. Beyfus (for the defence) : I suppose you went across the border to Monte Carlo? Lieutenant Keysor: Oh, yes. Mr. Justice Horridge: I don’t think yon need pursue that. Keysor admitted that he did not know that the cardboard jam-tin bombs were empty with a small piece of fuse attached.

Mr. Beyfus: I suggest that not one of the bombs exploded. Lieutenant Keysor: There was a certain amount of smoke. Something exploded when I threw them back. The defendant, in his evidence, said that he included the sandbag after Lieutenant Keysor told him of it. It was not the case that the signal for firing the charge was the dropping of n sandbag. The scheme was as safe as it could be in a war film. The case was adjourned.