HUN WAR FILMS IN LONDON

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2712, 6 March 1916, Page 3

HUN WAR FILMS IN LONDON

CAPTURED FROM THE ENEMY

POSED PICTURES FOR NEUTRALS

Films captured from the enemy, showing the Huns at war, were exhibited for tho first time in Britain at the Scala Theatre, London, recently, and will be shown in the afternoons and evenings henceforward. They form' part of a. thrilling war picture programme, which . includes kinema pictures of all the principal belligerents in actual operations. Prince Albert; the King's sccond son, was an interested spectator at the opening performance. Prior to the exhibition of the Hun pictures there were Hashed the official War Office films of our troops in Franco which were recently described at length in "The Daily Mail." Nothing photographic so far seen in England brings 80 vividly home to ns the life and times of our men in the Western theatre of war. "Our Enemy at War" is a set of films manufactured _ by the German War Offico for the influencing of opinion in neutral countries. Although many of the pictures are therefore obviously "posed" affairs—such as those which depict the Huns'' touching solicitude for the starving babes and children of invaded Belgium—tho series affords a remarkable insight into tho thoroughness, organisation, and strength of the German war-machine. No one can fail to be impressed by the sight of the Prussian Guard, consisting of seemingly endless columns of young giants, goose-stepping past the Kaiser and his Staff in a' liekl parade. From tnis film it is also painfully evident how the ravages of the campaign have aged and whitened the Supreme War Lord, whose nervous gestures, gravo mien, and anxjety are depicted in relentless detail. Nor will our opinion of the workmanlike character of our enemy bo lessened by a glimpse of a picture showing now 8000 German sappers contrived within a fortnight to repair a huge rail.vtj.y tunnel destroyed by the Belgians ivV.lc the Huns were "ICrnpping" their way ucross Belgium in 1914.

Berlin War Spirit, There are vivid pictures of the damage the Russians managed to wreak in East Prussia in the early weeks of the war, and a tremendously stirring picture of Berlin crowds escorting a departing regiment to the railway station, as the troops march, singing and flower-bedcck-ed, through Unter den Linden. We see the German, war spirit raging here ,in typical fashion. A view of our smiling prisoners at Doberitz got hearty chccrs. Though the Hun pictures are the novelty of the. programme, British hearts will be stirred by _ the many splendid scenes of our men in France, as well as by the up-to-date toucli"supplied by films showing the Anglo-French camp at Salonika. .Tho pictures of the . Indian troops in France, of General Joftre in the trenches, and j>f our endlessly happy Tommies at work and at play bring the war home to us in graphic fashion. Before the programme is over the audience is brought face to face with the Tsar, tho Sultan of Turkey, King Ludwig of Bavaria, -Crown Prince Rupprecht "the Bloody," Enver Pasha, tho Austrian and Turkish armies in the field, and a host of other scenes which transplant one, as if by magic, from the Scala tp the fighting line in half a dozen "theatres", of another kind. The naval section shows the German' Fleet skulking at Kiel, the . Russian Navy in the Black Sea, French submarines and destroyers in vivid action, and, as a grand finale, "Britain's Might" in the form of H.M.S. Queen Mary. The French naval films are destined to draw the British sea-loving public and arouse quite special enthusiasm. . A special set of kinerna films of the 'operations in the Dardanelles was displayed for tho first time recently at the Empire Theatre. The films, whicli were' taken by Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett and include one or two pictures of the descent from Imbros on Suvla Bay—the landing parties in the crowded boats, and their hastily improvised quarters on the beacli—are excellent, and, like all good things, made one regret there were not more of .them.