The Picture Show Annual (1937)

to the rigours of the Arctic winter. Rescue work was immediately oiganised, but the hazards and obstacles were tremendous, and in April the party were still marooned and a blizzard destroyed the little encampment. The film record of the voyage, and the rescue work that was nothing short of miraculous and resulted in every living being—including the dogs—being saved, will be an everlasting tribute to human courage and endurance. At the Bottom of the World " was a record of Admiral Byrds second Antarctic Expedition. We saw the South Pole reached by aeroplane from his base, “ Little America ” ; the dramatic and dangerous rescue of the gallant leader by his equally gallant men from the advance post he had established to take meteorological observations during the seven months of the fierce Antarctic winter. We have also seen the re-creation of the life of another pioneer—Cecil Rhodes, that man of vision who dreamed of a united South Africa. And we A scene from “ Rescue," which showed the dramatic rescue of the marooned explorers in the “ Chelyuskin," which was trapped in Arctic ice wastes. are not limited to seeing the persons, as we should be by the stage—there is the veldt with its waving grasses and scrubs and outcrops of stone : the actual scenes of Rhodes’ work and the place where his body now lies. A film that embraces a subject even vaster is “ Conquest of the Air.” Ever since man began to think, he has been chafing against the bonds that held him to the earth and trying to emulate the birds. “Conquest of the Air” gives us glimpses of the most famous attempts recorded through the ages— attempts ranging from that of Simon the Magician, in A.D. 57, which was watched by Nero, to the mechanical marvels of to-day. Then there are the travel films. Cherry Kearton has a wonderful record of his life of adventure in his films. He has given us many, the most recent and most enthralling being “ The Big Game of Life,” which reconstructed his life. Frank Buck has had twenty-five years of capturing rare animals, birds and reptiles for zoos and circuses. “Wild Cargo" was the film record of his expedition into the Asiatic jungles. " Beyond Shanghai " took us to the deserted city of Angkor —unknown to the present civilisation until two generations ago. Through swamps and deserts, windswept plateaux and stifling, humid tropical jungles, frozen Arctic wastes—and even beneath the sea—there is no limit to the places to which the cinema can take us. A.R.S.D. Errol Flynn receives the offer of the King's pardon from Henry Stephenson in “ Captain Blood.” men whose names will figure in history for the wonder of generations still to come. We have had thrills of both the North and the South Poles. Centuries ago. seamen set out to discover a North- West Passage. In July, 1933, the Russian ship Chelyuskin, with ninety-two men, ten women and three children aboard, set out to discover a North-East passage. In the ice-bound Arctic sea the Chelyuskin was frozen fast, and the icefield enclosing the ship began drifting towards the North Pole. In the following February the pressure of the ice crushed the ship. The Chelyuskin sank, leaving men, women and children marooned on the ice in the Behring Sea, exposed " At the Bottom of the World " was the record of the second Byrd Antarctic Ex- pedition. Above is a rescue scene, when one of the members has fallen down a crevasse, and on the left, in circle, is the leader himself — Rear - Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd. 151