PLAZA THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 279, 28 November 1935, Page 12

PLAZA THEATRE

•‘THE FIRST WORLD WAR” “The First World War,” which is hhe current attraction at the Plaza Theatre, is made entirely from actual pictures taken in the European capitals before 1914, on the battlefields, and on the high seas. It contains much that is educative and of definite historical value, it reveals enough of the ghastly horrors of modern warfare to. check the most belligerant believer ini war, and it leaves one thinking with j some anxiety about the present un- i settled state of the world. “The First; World War” was screened yesterday; and it made a deep impression on a:l! who were privileged to see it, Including some New Zealanders who saw service film should be very effective. Some ■ •f its most remarkable scenes were

photographed in Europe years before the war began. There are clear moving pictures of military activities in Germany, in the Balkans and m Russia, There are photographs of the Emperor 1 I ranz Joseph, of the Kaiser as a young i man, of the Tsar and his family, of the j Prince of Wales as a child. The visit | of King George to Berlin and his j friendly meeting with the Kaiser, his ’.coronation as King of England, and ■ the fateful funeral of the Archduke 'Ferdinand are all built into the film, I and the growing atmosphere of misi trust and hatred created skilfully with- ; out apparent exaggeration. One is • shown the massing of troops in Ger- I I many and elsewhere, the first desolation of Belgium, the first winter campaign. and the development of the struggle on many fronts. The desper ate campaigns in the frozen north, the ' abortive Gallipoli attack, and the lasi

great German offensive and repulse are shown in fragments of fierce fighting and death. The end of the film is skilfully designed to review, with vivid impressions of world-wido military pre- < paration, the present state of the : world. Here for the first time in the 1 picture clever studio photography has

been employed, and its effect is devastating. “The First World War,” although made in America, is internatonal in application and appeal. -It shows, without adornment, the brutality of war, and it deserves wide atI tention.