AustLit

'The Hon. Hubert Montmorency Ralston("Monty") is a "good for nothing" son of an English lord, who packs him off with his valet, Thompson, on a steamer bound for Australia. This proves a judicious move, for the young Englishman has good in him and Australia is thc place to bring it out. His father has made arrangements for the Rev. Arthur Stanhope to meet him on the wharf. Monty, however, is determined that the parson will not see him if he sees the parson first. By a strange coincidence he meets and builds up a friendship with the McBrides, a typical Australian bush family, in Syd-ney for thc Sheep Show, and great friends of the Rev. Arthur Stanhope himself. The "Flying Padre'' as the latter is called, makes an immediate appeal to the two Englishmen and they become intensely interested in his ambitious plans for entering a self-constructed plane in the forthcoming Centenary Air Race. Thompson is a particularly capable mechanic, and he works hard alongside Stanhope in building the "Koala," as the All-Australian plane is to be named. "Monty" succeeds in getting his father to finance the project, and soon everything is ready for the race. "Monty" and Thompson are the co-pilots, the "flying parson" not being able to leave his far flung parishioners.

'lt would be unfair to divulge further the plot of this exciting screen production for the interest is brilliantly sustained right up to the final smashing climax.'

Source:

'Splendid Fellows', Morning Bulletin, 11 July 1936, p.11.

'The story opens on "Dad's" farm, when a crowd of hikers enter his pastures and disturb his cattle, on a Sunday. After "roaring" them up, Dad strikes up a friendship with "Pa" Townleigh, who before leaving invites Dad and the family to spend a holiday with them in Sydney. Joe and Pansy get married, and the whole family come to town with them on their honeymoon, and then the fun becomes fast and furious. Dad is amazed that such a "bonzer" grazing paddock as Hyde Park is not fenced off, and that such a grand G.P.O. is built "just by selling penny stamps." The picture is complete with music and elaborate settings in bush and city, and is really first-class entertainment.'

Source:

'Alpha Theatre', Queensland Times, 9 March 1934, p.4.

A series of films written and directed by Beaumont Smith and featuring 'The Hayseeds', a rural family. The films range from rural comedy to science fiction.

The films were very much marketed as a series in the early days, with newspapers identifying each new film by their number in the series.

After the first four films, there was a pause of some years before the next two 'Hayseed' films were released. The comparative lack of box-office success of these two led to another hiatus, before the release of the comedy-musical The Hayseeds (essentially a re-boot of the series, and the only 'talkie' among them) in 1933.

The House That Jack Built was the fourth Frank Dix pantomine to be staged in Australia following his arrival in 1912 to produce Puss in Boots for J. C. Williamson's - the others being The Forty Thieves (1914) and Cinderella (1915). As with the earlier productions Dix collaborated with local or locally-based practitioners, in this instance with music director/composer Victor Champion and writer Harry Taylor. The libretto was also produced with the help of English actor George M. Slater.

Although the critics were mostly impressed with the three hour extravaganza, staged with some 140 juveniles, most of the praise was lavished on the, scenic art, choreography and performances - especially the six actors who were making their Australian debuts. In its review of the opening night the Argus critic wrote:

The nursery rhyme of Jack's simple architectural essay and those who took advantage of it is told directly the curtain rises by pencillings on a huge slate and school children's chorus which follows each item as it is figured. Thereafter all is brilliant extravaganza burlesque ballets, and turns (26 December 1916, p.3).

On the same day the Age review records:

The pantomime season, with all its revelry of color and jest, and its care-free atmosphere of fairyland, is once more with us, and was triumphantly and gorgeously ushered in at Her Majesty's Theatre on Saturday night, when a very large audience gave the heartiest of welcomes to the story of The House that Jack Built. To tell the truth, as is the case with most pantomimes, the story of Jack and of his house was rather obscure. It was almost lost in a maze of rainbow color and a flood of light-hearted music. But that mattered nothing, for the fun was fast and furious and the pantomime went with a swing from start to finish without any trace of first-night stiffness out it, and with its succession of glowing pageants, its bewildering variety of dresses, its novel ballets and stage effects it is probably one of the most successful from a spectacular point of view that has yet been staged for Melbourne audiences (26 December 1916, p.7).

The critic appears to have been largely unimpressed with Victor Champion's score, however, noting that although tuneful, it was "not all that good."

Not surprisingly The House That Jack Built introduced a good deal of patriotic material - notably in songs such as 'Anzac' (presented amidst a khaki attired chorus bearing in their haversacks cleverly devised lighted letters forming the title of the song) and 'Our Boys,' set to a scena revealing the Sphinx, behind which was the deck of a battleship with guns and searchlights in action. 'Our Own Dear Flag' was staged with a chorus of allied flags with the Union Jack and Commonwealth flags unfurled over the footlights, while 'The Dance of Emotions,' portrayed purity, death and the triumph of love.

An author makes a bet that he can complete a novel in twenty-four hours, and isolates himself in a mountain resort in order to write. But he is interrupted by a series of visitors.

For the Honour of Australia was made for British audiences, by compiling footage from two films (For Australia and How We Beat the Emden) and constructing a new over-arching narrative that presented the protagonists of the two entirely separate films as brothers, living out asynchronous war experiences that only briefly overlap.

Australian Screen Online (see link below) points out that the two films were made by rival companies (J.C. Williamson's and Australasian Films), and there is no current information on who spliced the two films into this new release.

'From the opening scene, showing the meeting in an English garden of a Belgian officer, and a ward of an old clergyman friend of Edith Cavell, until her execution for innocent errings on a cold October morning, the story is faithfully portrayed.'

Source:

'Star Pictures', Daily Herald [Adelaide], 29 March 1916, p.2.

A sequel to W.J. Lincoln's Nurse Cavell, this film follows the vengeance sought by Edith Cavell's friends not only on her behalf but on behalf of Belgium and the Belgians generally.

A contemporary report notes:

Messrs. W. J. Lincoln and F. D. Kehoe, the authors, take up the story where the Nurse Cavell picture left off, and by retaining the chief characters already used and introducing new ones, round it off. after a series of dramatic incidents, by avenging the death of the nurse. Many thrilling scenes are gone through, and a strong light is thrown upon the brutal acts which marked the occupation of Belgium by German soldiery.'

Source:

'La Revanche: Dramatic Sequel to the Nurse Cavell Infamy', The Mail [Adelaide], 6 May 1916, p.6.

A contemporary advertisement offers a more details synopsis, which doubles as propaganda:

Whilst the world stood aghast and amazed at the Hun's barbarous and atrocious murder of Nurse Cavell, in the quiet Belgian village of Noue, a Belgian officer and his wife are weighed down with grief, for was it not that noble woman who delivered them from the hands of the worst barbarians the world has ever known. He has much food for thought–and with thought action, and come what may the avengance of Nurse Cavell's death should be his, and his alone.

How events happen which bring him within reach of that scum of humanity who effected that dastardly crime provides many thrills; it also portrays the humiliation, the crimes, and savagery meted out to the civil population of suffering Belgium. The man who ommitted to salute a Hun officer in the street and was flogged to death; an old man who objected to the Hun treatment of young Belgian girls, and the boy who tried to defend him, shot in cold blood. Whilst on the other hand is seen the Kaiser awarding his now famous Iron Cross to the man who murdered a good woman and jeered at the dying cries of an old man.

Then you follow the footsteps of a brave Belgian officer, with one thought, one path, the revenge for the woman's life so ruthlessly taken, the devastation of his country and his people–the achievement–its cost.

When you have seen this picture you will say, Can such things be? The answer is–Yes, there are worse.

Are these despoilers and barbarians to live and dominate the world's peace? The answer is again,

YES, IF YOU STILL STAY AT HOME.

Source:

'La Revanche', The Independent, 15 April 1916, p.6.

One of three films based on the Broadway play by Augustin MacHugh, but the only one made in Australia: the 1914 and the 1920 films by the same name were made in the US.

Like Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, whose production preceded this film's, Officer 666 was made to take advantage of the presence in Australia of American actor-director Fred Niblo.

The film's plot followed a wealthy man who, catching wind of a plot to rob his house while he was holidaying, remains in the district disguised as a policeman.

The first of a number of films based on American writer George Randolph Chester's fictional conman, but the only one made in Australia: the 1921 film Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford and the 1931 film New Adventures of Get Rich Quick Wallingford were both made in the US.

Set in Iowa, the film follows the adventures of two conmen, who sweep into a small town determined to make quick money through a fake carpet-tack factory and a falsfied real-estate boom, but who end up marrying local girls and settling down.

'Miss Muriel Starr, the popular American actress who is undoubtedly one of the best actresses ever witnessed in Australia is seen in the picture in her famous character, Mary Turner, the poor girl who was wrongfully imprisoned, and who, after serving her three years in prison, was continually hounded down by the police until in desperation she became a "crook," and set out to beat the police at their own game by working "Within the Law." No drama ever stirred the emotions of an audience more than this heart-touching subject, and when Mary Turner eventually secures her revenge on the proprietor of the store who had her imprisoned by marrying his only son, one cannot help but feel pleased at her success and admire her for her grit and determination in beating the police, with all their hateful "third degree" and other methods for keeping a poor individual down once they have had them in their clutches.'

Source:

'Within the Law', Warrnambool Standard, 12 February 1916, p.2.

'For Australia, directed for JC Williamson’s by Monte Luke, is a melodrama about a newspaper reporter captured by a German spy ring and taken to a secret island, where he is saved by a native girl and the Sydney.'

Source: Australian Screen. (Sighted: 9/7/2014)

'It tells a highly dramatic story of the war, and depicts in a tense and gripping manner the heoric part played by our boys in storming the heights of Gallipoli. Designed, primarily, to waken the nation to a vivid realisation of the German spy peril, the film has succeeded far beyond the most sanguine hopes of the producers.'

Source:

'Within Our Gates', Warrnambool Standard, 2 November 1915, p.2.

Revue.

Australia's first-ever revue, Come Over Here was adapted for local audiences by Frank Dix and his production from the original by British writer Max Pemberton and American writer W. Mizner, with the intent being to present a satirical and topical entertainment spectacular based on the popular culture theatre trend currently finding appeal in America, Britain and Europe, but which had social relevance to Australians. The Sydney Morning Herald notes in this regard : '[The] elements of gaiety form the dominating constituents of Come Over Here. This Parisian manner of glancing at the current events of life's passing show, now first brought forward in Australia by the J. C. WilliamsonJ. C. Williamson direction, closely resembles a variety entertainment which becomes less account than the magnificence of its background. Remodelled to local conditions by Mr Frank Dix, the revue was practically a new piece' (22 December 1913, p3).

Further localisation was also specifically incorporated into the Sydney and Melbourne seasons. The Sydney season, for example, saw scenic artist W. Little illustrate a number of local settings (set variously in the past, present and future), including: 'The Farmers' Roof Garden' (with glimpses of Her Majesty's Theatre, St Mary's Cathedral and other familiar objects); 'A Venetian Fete at Manly in 1999'; 'The Aboriginals" (which presented a view of Circular Quay in its virgin state in 1700); 'The First Settlers' (1801); 'The Gold Rush' (1849); and the vestibule of the Hotel Australia, followed by a view of the Winter Garden, looking stately in festival array. For the 1914 Melbourne production some of these scenes were changed to incorporate Victorian settings. One notable change was the 'Venetian Fete', which became 'Henley-on-Yarra' in 1999. A scene from Flemington ('Under the Elms') was also presented, with performers impersonating well-known figures from the state. Other local settings were : scenes of Collins Street (in 1830, 1857 and 1914) ; the Melbourne Exhibition of 1880; 'The Birth of Melbourne' (set to music especially composed by Andrew MacCunn), Yarra Bend Station and Kosciusko (Argus 30 March 1914, p.13).

While the revue's objective was to target high profile Australian personalities, the Sydney debut found itself heavily criticised for being out of date. Hits at former Prime Minister George Reid (1904-05) were presented as examples of this. In one prominent scene, too, ex-NSW premiers C. G. Wade (1907-10) and the recently deposed James McGowan (1910-1913), impersonated by Fred Leslie and Jack Cannot respectively, waged a heated dispute following a motor car accident. The Bulletin also took a swipe at those responsible, proposing that they seemed to be under the delusion that McGowan was still Premier. The Sydney Morning Herald notes, however, that the same scene had some merit. 'Little Australia, a part cleverly played by Gertrude Cremar', writes the paper's critic, 'slipped in between the disputants and exclaimed, "When you've done calling each other names, perhaps you'll do something for me!" This was one of the most appreciated points in the dialogue, newly localised and brought up to date by Mr Dix'. Stung by the criticism Dix quickly introduced more topical matter. By the time the production premiered in Melbourne hits at the current Prime Minister and leader of the opposition were being featured.

A good deal of ragtime music was introduced into the revue, in addition to arias from recent operas and music to accompany current dance crazes like the Tango. Specialist dancers Fred Leslie and Ivy Shilling also staged their 'movement spectacular' called 'The Spider's Web.' This act saw Shilling (representing a butterfly) trapped in a 'colossal circle of gossamer threads' while Leslie, as the arachnid, circled menacingly (in later years the same act was reinterpreted in Australia by such performers as contortionist Hector 'The Human Spider' Napier and dancer Robert Helpmann). Among the revue's biggest musical hits were the songs performed by comedians Daisy Jerome and Jack Cannot. Jerome's specialties included: 'The Press, the Pulpit and the Petticoat', 'Smart, Smart, Smart', 'Do they all go out to see the Sea', 'Popsy was a Singer,' 'Daisy Dip' and 'Row, Row, Row.' Cannot, who 'seemed to be on the stage all evening' found much success with 'That German Band'. Other songs incorporated into the production included: 'Wedding Glide,' 'My Sumurun Girl,' 'Come Josephine in My Flying Machine' and 'Take Me in Your Arms' (Olive Godwin and Charles Stone); 'On the Missouri' (Edith Boulton and chorus); 'Love's Rose' (Edmund Sherras); 'That Minstrel Show' (Charles Stone), 'Dear Little Muff' (Winnie Volt) and Gertie Cremer's 'Little Australia' (ctd. in 'Love's Rose' by Tom Armstrong).

NB: Unless otherwise cited all quotations are from the Sydney Morning Herald 22 December 1913, p.3.

Although promoted by J. C. Williamson's as "J. Hickory Wood's smart, cleaver and up-to-date pantomime," Aladdin nevertheless included many localisations and Australian settings and references, as well as some new music by Andrew McCunn. The 14 scenes painted by scenic artists Coleman and Upward included, for example Flinders Street railway station, along with views of the Pyramids and Sphinx, Tokyo and several jewel caves. In its review of the opening night the Argus theatre critic also notes:

Australia's beautiful birds was another most carefully thought out, built up, and arranged ballet, wherein black swans, native companions, emus, magpies, laughing jack- asses, parakeets, galahs, sulphur-crested cockatoos, and king parrots, in all the glorious colouring of nature, were most fas- cinating to the eye. Still another ballet of beautiful colouring was the wistaria, the delicate tones of the lovely flower blending in scenery and in the dresses of the grace- ful dancers. The living flag of Australia, pieced together by scouts, who climb ladders and unfold squares of the banner, which were subsequently lit by lamps that repeated the colouring of the flag, the while Miss Lily Iris sings 'Dear Motherland'… England, Japan, Egypt, Australia, and China [also] contribute models for the dresses" (20 December 1909, p.9).