SCOTT POLAR EPIC.

Northern Advocate, 4 August 1924, Page 8

SCOTT POLAR EPIC.

SOMETHING FOR POSTERITY. Under the patronage of the Queen the epic Story of , Captain Scott's South Pole Expedition was told in picture form in London recently. The total proceeds from the first performance—"The Great White Silence"— Were handed to the fund resulting from Field-Marshal Earl Haig's British Legion Appeal for ex-Service Men of All Ranks. The King had seen the film privately, and in conversation with Mr. Herbert G. Pouting, the wellknown photographer of the expedition, his Majesty remarked:— "I wish that every British boy could sec these pictures. The story of the Scott Expedition should be known to all the youth of the nation, for it will help to foster the spirit of adventure upon which the Empire wins founded.'' In the film, the race against the Norwegians to the Pole, the return with a sense of defeat, the sacrifice by Captain Oates, the death of his companions soon after, when only eleven miles from food, and the recovery of Scott's diary with its simple and tremendous entries, are recorded in this wonderful film, which reveals all the dramatic qualities of the great occasion. But, though the prevailing atmosphere is tragedy, much humour wins laughter from the audience. The film begins Avith the arrival of the Terra Nova at Lyttelton, New Zealand, in 1910. Sailing south, the Terra Nova is shown breaking her way with iron prow through the pack ice, with wonderful pictures of great icebergs against which the waves roll as on a seashore. The habits of seals, with a startling little incident of the saving of a bay seal, from the ferocious killer-whales, arc the first incidents of fun, which are followed by the penguin pictures, birds so human, though grotesque in their gait and ways of life. The skua-gulls with the chicks coming from their shells, are other bird pictures of striking interest. From these scenes the film moves to a tragic end. The South Pole party is seen leaving with its three supporting ones, and, ingeniously, the little groups are shown arriving at their appointed depots, and each party returning as the main one pushes on. A still photograph gives the arrival at the Polo, and then the journey back is traced on a map and illustrated with extracts from Scott's diary. Lastly, the three snow cairns nnd the great cross above them inscribed with the immortal names.