GALLIPOLI FILM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20289, 23 December 1927, Page 12

GALLIPOLI FILM.

accomplishment of one man. PRIVATE EXHIBITION IN LONDON. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 16. It is a good many months since Mr A. C. Tinsdale, of the Embassy Film Com- • pany, 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. tends to go 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 tor friendly criticism. As the Rev. M. Mullineux said when he addressed the spectators the other evening, the ■ pictures shown are really Gallipoli and not som e headlands in Cornwall. He was speaking of the difficulteis 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 whc 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 th e British race. NO “ (FAKED ” PICTURES. There is no attempt in the film to “ fake ” any of the actions of the campaign. The producer approached his subject from many angles. H e reminds us of ancient Troy. He 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 fin France. He works in some fine scenes of the Australian army in course of preparation and its embarkation in Australia. He has been particularly fortunate in obtaining films taken by a Turkish agency during the campaign, and we see the Golden Horn with its units of the Turkish and German navies. Turkish troops on the inarch, 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 Aegean 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 set, the next moment down by the stern and then the null and sails sinking out of sight. The great naval bombardment is shown and the results of tho bombardment are suggested. W e see a party of Turks scattered by a bursting shell. Then follow scenes at Anznc and Ocean Beach. Australian and New Zealand soldiers are shown at their daily tasks in the front lino. In addition there are scenes of the evacuation. GALLIPOLI TO-DAY. Finally, there is Gallipoli to-day. Eleven years after th e campaign the Stella. dTtalia carried pilgrims to Gallipoli to visit the battlefields and the completed cemeteries on the peninsula. Tho 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 tho 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 he able to show his collected matter continuously for an hour and a half tho polishing up pmcess should not be difficult.