THE NEW FILMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25048, 11 November 1944, Page 4

THE NEW FILMS

HEEOISM AT SEA "SAN DEMETRIO, LONDON" INSPIRING BRITISH PICTURE BY A STAFF CORUKSPONDF.NT One of the films reviewed this week, •'San Pemetrio, London." deserves special consideration. During the past 15. years, British film producers have shown a marked superiority over all rivals in the making of documentary pictures—films which record events as they actually happen to living people. Recent outstanding examples have been "Desert Victory," the account of the Eighth Army's smashing success at El Alamein, and "Target for Tonight," the record of a bombing mission over Germany. " San Demetrio, London," is a British picture and is not, strictly speaking, a documentary film, in that ell the episodes have been re-enacted by a cast of professional actors. In comparison with the average Hollywood product of the day, "San Demetrio, London," demonstrates very clearly the superiority of the British method. A few months ago, an American picture called ''Action in the North Atlantic" was shown in Auckland. It had the benefit of expensive production and the services of two good actors, Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey, but it did not ring true. This would not matter bo much were it not for the fact that "Action in the North Atlantic" was produced for general distribution as a tribute to American merchant seamen and claimed authenticity by implication. Realism and Entertainment The charge that Hollywood distorts serious themes has been made before, tut never has it been so generally true as it is today. What America produces for her own consumption is her own affair, but to those who are concerned about the effect of n)any American films fn this country and about the prestige of the cinema 'generally, the matter is serious. There are signs that a few American film producers are aware of the danger. The picture recently shown here, "With the Marines at Tarawa," was made along the lines of the British documentaries and was all the better for it. „ ... , On the other hand, the few British films shown here in recent months—"The Foreman Went to France [(directed by Charles Frend, who also made "San Demetrio, London, ) Noel Coward's "In Which We Serve' and Leslie Howard's "The First of the Few" have all combined sober realism with splendid entertainment. It is a happjjr augury that "San Demetrio, London, should be in the same tradition. "San Demetrio, London" (Regent tTheatre) has the hallmarks of a film classic. A remarkable exploit or the ■war at sea, an exploit that takes a proud place in British naval history, is depicted in this picture as a graphic, convincing and inspiring narrative.^ The San Demetrio was a British jfcanker in the homeward-bound convoy attacked by the Admiral Scheer in the North Atlantic in November, 1940. The sole escort of the convoy was the armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay which heroically engaged the enemy battleship, drawing her fire and enabling the convoy to scatter. As the Jervis Bav went down, shells from the Scheer hit the San Demetrio, damaged her superstructure and set her cargo of petrol ablaze. The crew took to the lifeboats, two of which were encountered the following day by a rescue ship. It is with the occupants of the third lifeboat, the chief engineer, second officer and 14 men, that the film principally deals. For two days they row, endunqg cold and storm. Then, when their strength is ebbing, they sight a ship—the "San Demetrio, down at the bows, still on fire, but miraculously still afloat. They prefer reboarding the vessel and risking her blowing up to remaining in the lifeboat and dying from cold and exhaustion. The film then tells, with increasing excitement, how they put out the fires, start the engines and sail the San Demetrio home, without charts, compass, radio, bridge or adequate steering gear. Humour and Drama The film is presented within the narrow limits of the documentary method and has had the advantage of being etipervised in production by Mr Charles Pollard, 0.8. E., the San Demetrio's chief engineer and one of the leaders jn the heroic enterprise. Professional actors, whose abilities are greater than their fame in this country, play the Bailors' parts to perfection. The dialogue sternly avoids both heroics and flamboyance: Understatement, one feels, has rarely served humour and drama so well. The film has many _ memorable moments —the encounter with the Admiral Scheer; the look of grim decision on the chief face when he decides to risk exploding petrol fumes and light a fire in the galley to brew hot tea; and the hilarious sequence when, after land has been sighted, the crew run a sweepstake on what country it is. Some pointed remarks are made, too, about people who hoard or waste petrol. But the lasting impression is of the gallantry of a group of British merchant sailors who endured cold, wet, hunger, fire and exhaustion and who did not flag or fail. "San Demetrio, Loudon," is suitable for children, especially boys. "George Washington Slept Here" '(Civic Theatre) is a knock-about farce involving a wife with back-to-the-land ambitions, her long-suffering husband, a laconic caretaker and handyman, a rich uncle (who turns out to bo "a gold brick instead of a gold mine") and a carpet-chewing dog. Forsaking glamour for a straight part, Ann Sheridan does very prettily as the wife who buys a tumble-down house possessing legendary associations with George Washington, but lacking water supply or road access. Jack Benny, as the husband, falls through floors, down stairs and into wells. He has his clothes nearly stripped from him by a plague of locusts, but still delivershis lines with the flair that has made him a most popular comedian. Sharing the honours with Benny is Percy Kilbride, as the caretaker, who manages his "deadpan" so effectively that the sequence in which he smiles becomes the comic highlight of a continuously amusing picture. "The Epic ol Arnhem," a nowsreel showing at both the St. James' and Century Theatres, is a most vivid piece of reporting. The film shows the First Allied Airborne Army taking off from England, flying over Holland and landing in the Arnhem area. There are two remarkable sequences showing a glider and Douglas transport crashing. The final scenes depicting the landing of paratroops are most spectacular.