Wid's Filmdom (1920)

a ee TN a a Sunday, January 4, 1920 if DAILW 23 A Genuine Record of the Destruction Wrought by a German U-Boat “THE EXPLOITS OF A GERMAN SUBMARINE —U-35” C. B. Price Co., Inc. IRC LOR Ge, oo. 35 Former German Government POUEETIGUR ye: Wen. 2%..< Former Admiral Von Tirpitz CAMERAMAN ...... Official German photographer AS A WHOLE......: Ghastly closeup of horror of sea warfare. SS AGP TOY Pac fee. SS The sinking of allied ships PHOTOGRAPHY ...... Wonderful considering the circumstances under which the various scenes were photographed. LIGHTINGS... -. .. Sufficient to catch all the horrible 3 details. CAMERA WORK...... Marvelously close views of giant ships sinking beneath the water. RT RM yt... ee Blas c's War SPOR il... Commander and crew of the U-35 CSI S2 GT 4S a All open sea shots PRRs en eee... .)s), ok Pom eeds oi None REL L325. 5 2 Includes demonstration of how the U-boats worked during war. CHARACTER OF PRODUCTION........ Terrible but it will surely attract. iia er ORs PRODUCTION «02... nen 1,800 feet These pictures, photographed by an official cameraman of the former German government during the war and intended only for the eyes of the German public, are the most gruesomely fascinating that have ever been shown on the screen. The two reels show the sinking of about six British merchant ships carrying supplies to the allied armies in France, having put out to sea from various allied ports. The sinkings were photographed from the deck of the U-35, the undersea craft which accounted for a hundred allied ships on one trip alone. The sinkings are all approximately the same. Each sequence begins showing the U-boat on the ocean’s surface, the giant vessel having already surrendered. A boat puts out from the submarine to take off available supplies of food and water and a bomb is placed in the hold. From the deck of the submarine the camera clicks off the moments until the bomb done its deadly work and then the ship settles. It seems slow but in reality the entire bombing and sinking of the ship is done with miraculous rapidity. When the bombs fail on their mission of destruction the submarine’s deck gun is trained on the helpless craft at the water line and a few shots into the boilers complete its destruction. ‘Torpedoes are not often used on a ship as helpless as these. They are too has expensive. Intermingled with shots of these half-dozen sinkings are intimate views of the submarine’s crew. It was under the command of Lieutenant Arnauld-de le Perre. The views include close-ups of the lieutenant and his aides crossing off the names of the ships thev have destroyed from Lloyd’s sea register and also scenes of the captured British captains airing themselves on deck. It is ghastly to think that from all the hundred ships sunk on the U-35’s trip, only five prisoners were taken! Considering this the scenes of the German crew disporting themselves in the water on a calm day strike one as rather satirical. The camera work in the sinking scenes is remarkable. The water is always calm and there is no rocking of the submarine. At times the camera seems so close to the doomed vessels that it would seem that the photographer could have reached out and touched their sides. The character of the photography, too, is clear and none of the morbid details of each sinking is lost to the spectator. The subtitling of the two reels was done by Terry Ramsaye and his wording of the inserts is appropriate indeed. These Will Certainly Draw and Hold Crowds Breathless Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor These pictures will certainly draw the people. They will come for curiosity’s sake if for no other. They will probably enter the theater with the idea that you are trying to put a fake over on them. But they will go out knowing that the scenes are as real as night and day. They are so unusual that it is not probable that any exhibitor will receive public censure for showing them. But they certainly don’t make one feel at all happy. In fact they sort of sicken the spectator. But at the same time everyone is going to consider himself privileged at having seen them no matter how ghastly they are or how ghastly their effect is. Be sure to state in your advertising that the pictures are genuine, that they were taken only for German eyes, and that they were brought to this country quite by chance.