We should like to congratulate Gaumonts on their enterprise and skill in having secured this record, which is in two parts. The first shows Latham mounting his aeroplane, rising into the empyrean, flying over the Channel for a number of miles, and then being conveyed into Calais on a French ship, accompanied by his dismantled aeroplane, defeated in his laudable attempt. Then we have a view of Bleriot preparing his aeroplane, soaring into the sky and skimming over the waters of the Channel for several miles, looking assured of victory, as indeed he was. Of course, it was impossible for the moving picture camera to follow him on the whole of his adventurous journey, and so it was dramatically fitting that he should be depicted, escorted back to France as a triumphant conqueror and photographed in the company of his wife, his child, and friends in a convenient automobile. When looking at this picture and seeing the aeroplane floating in the sky, a mere speck, we experienced much about the same sensation as when we saw Baldwin, the parachutist, make his first descent many years ago. This was a mixed feeling of wonderment and weird uncanniness at the extraordinary spectacle of man establishing his dominion over the air. This film will no doubt attract very great attention wherever it is shown, and we think Gaumonts are deserving of every congratulation in the skill and enterprise they showed in what must have been somewhat difficult circumstances in securing a unique record of a unique event. - The Moving Picture World, September 18, 1909
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