GALLIPOLI LANDING

Hokitika Guardian, 7 March 1931, Page 8

GALLIPOLI LANDING

A NEW War film. LONDON, January 15. The Daily Teiegrapii film critic piais-s tlie ciforts or Air Anthony Asquith and Mr Geoifrey Barkas in producing a film in which the Gallipoii landing is reconstructed. A new Homer (says tno critic) won id be ittv-u'd to do descriptive justice to ;,h<* great screen epic which Mr Asquith and Mr Barkas have evolved from Ernest Raymond’s famous Gallipoli -x-nry. It. is a modern veisiou of me Trojan cLssie, lacking only a Helen, though feminine interest is represented in the drama by Fay Compton as a SLricUen English mother. i'n>.re Ju»s never been such a war ■ill)) s *‘'*‘.'ll England,” to which one might add that there never was such a war as that to..gnt oil Gallipoli. The reconstruction ol tlie assault on that ghastly shore has a quality that baffles ordinary powers ol description. It looks as if page after page had been torn bodily from history till the result is such a panorama of heroism nd wild adventure that no critic could describe it without resorting to extravagances of emotion. It would he unfair to anticipate in detail the film’s public presentation, hut it is worth saying now how much the British film industry is indebted to the Admiralty and the* Mediterranean Fleet for their co-operation in this new national epic. 'The navy does tilings generously and well. Tlie bombardment which covers the landing, and another which precedes an* attack on the heights, are two most thrilling spectacles. Not less realistic' is the dramatic advance of the reconstructed River Clyde, which is actually run aground, in the wake of a host of small craft crowded with troops, who land under terrific: fire from concealed Turkish batteries and machine guns. FILMED AT MALTA. All this took place on a lonely part of tlie coast of Malta, with naval detachments acting as soldiers and Maltese supers playing the role of Turks, hut there could he no praise too high for the 7/e al which both sides display in the affair. Another feature of great interest in this British instructional production is the “talkie” debut of General Sir fan Hamilton, no mean actor, who explains his ’plans in eloquent and lucid detail to the. admiral with whom lie is cooperating—plans which Sir lan summonses as “taking a good run at the Peninsula ancl landing on both feet.” The production will shortly ho presented under the auspices of Wardour Films, distributors of British International Pictures, with whom British Instructional Films have merged interests.