Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 3 October 1940, page 18


"MEN OF THE LIGHTSHIP."

North Sea

Drama«

' ' FROM BETTY WILSON.

LONDON, Aug. 8.

N its way to Australia by this

( mail-if all goes well-is the

best propaganda film England has pul out this war.

. it Is so good that the Ministry of Infor-mation 'thought it was worth sending a telegram to the Australian Press telling representatives about a special showing this morning.

"Would very much-like you to see 25mlnute film, 'Men of the Lightship,' showing at Gaumont British private theatre,. Film .House, Wardour Street, at 12 noon Thursday. Film is reconstruc-tion of German air attack on East Dud-geon Lightship," it. read.

? To-day I he Press officer from Associated British Film Distributors-who -,vas seeing the film for the fourth time himsslftold me that the film would be shown In 140 London theatres next week. "And that isn't'paper talk. It's the truth," he

added.

"Concentrated Punch."

fTHIS film packs all the propaganda

earlier. Ministry of Information films have tried lo put over into 33 minutes. It is 25 minutes.of concentrated punch.

? At the opening, an impersoml vn:c» explains why the bombing and machine

O

HTHERE is not much cliunce of taking cover on the lightship when.,1 *? the Heinkels swoop backwards and forwards over her, playing a¿, cat and mouse game with the unarmed men. The men crouch tindery what pitiful shelter they can find as machine-gun bullets tear into ? the decking. The men in this film are not actors. They are

comrades of the men who died.

gunning of the East Dudgeon ll«_ifc._!_

StX!',Kta 8hake" &*$

"T?f_..n£ cIvlIlsed world. #*. lnt.rn_Vi Pis .have been f«s«med to ,fe iSÎSS. ÎÏÏÏÏÎîíor 300 years' ^ haw

always been unarmed and BIO noUJrf

communication with the" shSie Trieft

fnr .h? 0ne,aní! tnelr íoghorns sound*» for ships of all nations-even *-for fife «Ty; "/"^International principle wg inspected until this war; until, one daw ÎÎL M,a1' two Kinkel bombers appeared belan Dud&eon Light," the voice

There are no actors in this film. Ths m.S are T7i,nit-V Ho,,se «"I «oyal Navy men on their everyday routine, just'», uielr comrades were on the.aay the Helnkels swooped down from the clouds.

"Cat and Mouse"' Game.

"3f EN of the Lightship" shows that DHifin"i"^'e .Was. no d0«^SM about (hi. paiticulor air show, it was a cat and mouse game, with unarmed men against bombs and machine-gun bullets, which ended when seven men were washed *ip on to an east coast beach. They were dead through exhaustion, cold, and wounds.

This 2,300ft film is worth half a dozen films of the calibre of "The Lion Ha.i Wings." There Is no romance-no Werie Oberon in a becoming Red Cross uni-form. But there Is the humanity which is sometimes, but not. very often, re-vealed on the screen. "Men of the Light-ship" brings1 out (he pitifulness of plans and dreams cancelled out by a nincliln»gun bullet or by the accidents of fog .nd

cold.

No1 Running Commentary.

T^HERE is no running commentai"/

throughout the film. Words are not uspd to underline the heavy wink ircm the youngster of the crow when hr puts over the story that the pet tortoise vas inst seen climbing (he mast. Nor HT I hey needed when bullets shatter the light-ship's light and splinter the deckin?: nor ¡when fog comes down and the «'omine'' men try to reach the roast, with only tlic wash of the waves and the captains I dulled "Keep rowin', men," lo heal.cn

|thThi distributors are justified in .hoir

belief that this film will hr shown >

two thousand cinemas in England orlore

'""Men of the Lightship" will be rW*

In Sydney shortly through the pew .

ment of Information. Other special D llhh aims which will a so br r^d ' :. £ Department Include "Men Behindin Guns," a film about the R.A.A.F Sunn

lands on the job. and »*"?"'£

feature giving n speech from Wilson Churchill to Australia.