THE GREAT WHITE SILENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19197, 13 June 1924, Page 9

THE GREAT WHITE SILENCE.

BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. FIRST COMPLETE FILM. ' JTbom Odb Own Cokbebfokdest.) LONDON, May $. It is nearly 12 years since the news was flashed round the world that the first Englishman to reach the South x ole had perished on the return iourney. Since then the story of Captain Scott and his companions has been told a thousand times in lectures, four or five volumes have been written on the expedition, and yet the story never grows old. Now, after all these years, the first complete cinematograph version of the expedition has been presented to the public by the Now Era Films, Limited, and the pictures and the story will be available for the many in every country instead of only for the few, as hitherto. Mr Herbert G. Ponting, the photographer, was lecturing with his pictures in London before the war, and he ha* lectured off and on ever since. His book-, “The Great White South,” contains mafiy of the photographs'he took, and it deals with the lighter side of life in the Antarctic as well as with the tragic climax. The film now exhibited is called . ,“Tb# Great White Silence.” Mr Pouting is responsible for the sub-titles, which are eufficiently complete to unfold the whole story with the aid of the pictures. The presentation takes over an hour and ahalf, and is accompanied with appropriate music. . . On the occasion of the private view last week the introduction was effective and dramatic. A 1 reciter clad in Antartic garb recited Owen Seaman’s “In Memoriam to the Polar party, and then followed- a picture representing an Antarctic blizzard. After this preparation the spectators were taken back to the scenes in Lyttelton and Dunedin, and one scene, as tli6 Terra Nova is leaving the shores of New Zealand, seems to be quite new to the public. It is a beautiful view of the New Zealand hills taken from the stern of the Terra Nova. So striking it was that it was responsible for a burst of applause, and the idea formed itself in one’s mind that a very wonderful film might be taken from the dock of a steamer voyaging round the coasts of the dominion. ’■' :,i The scenes then follow in rapid .Succession. The storm on the way down Id tpjfc Great Barrier, the first iceberg, the . bifid life, the pack ice, steaming past .. Bogs Island, Mount Erebus, unloading operations, disemtrarking the ponies, the dogs, motor sledges in motion, find numbers of other pictures taken in the early days of the expedition one recognises as having seen belore, but in a film where little time is wasted in explanations it is possible to show a great deal mora than ip. an, illustrated lecture. Not the least, interesting part of the film relates to the lives of the seals, the killer whales, the penguins, and the skua gills. Many of these pictures one has already seen, but here again there are many ’ that do not seem to have been produced before. The last part of the film relates to the dash to the Pole, which was commenced on November 2, 1911. Photographs of the events on the journey are actually available until the last supporting party turned back at a point beyond the Beardmore Glacier. There are interpolations of pictures made up to indicate the sledge parties completing the various stages. All this part is new and helps the spectators to visualise the incidents of the last great iourney. Then again one actually sees the Polar party patching camp at night, healmg their evening meal, getting into their sleeping bags, and settling down at night. Probably this was taken early in the great 850 mile trek;. The climax of the immortal story is reached bv the reproduction of some of Scott’s last entries in his diary, and by the actual photograph of the great snowcairn erected over tire bodies of the dead explorers. That the oft-told story impressed the select spectators last week was very obvious, and the film will doubtless make a like impression on the millions of people scattered over the world when it is released for presentation.'