The Seaforth Highlanders' Return to Cairo after the Fall of Omdurman and Khartoum (1898)

Overview

In this brief film, Cairo becomes the stage for Lord Kitchener's celebrations after the fall of Khartoum. Possibly filmed by John 'Mad Jack' Benett-Stanford on behalf of the Warwick Trading Company, it is a forerunner of the military films that would shortly flood the screens of Great Britain with the outbreak of the Boer War. Benett-Stanford, an Etonian turned career serviceman, was on active service in the Sudan and doubled as a war correspondent. According to legend, he was shot while attempting to get a picture of the enemy. It seems, though, that even beside the showmen and chancers of the early film industry, 'Mad Jack' had a gift for exaggeration.