AustLit
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Advertisement, Maitland Daily Mercury, 27 September 1907, p.1 (via Trove Australia)
Adaptation of
Robbery Under Arms : A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Goldfields of Australia
1882
single work
novel
Issue Details:
First known date:
1907...
1907
Robbery Under Arms
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Film Details - MacMahon's Exquisite Pictures , 1907
Producers:
Charles MacMahon
Production Companies:
MacMahon's Exquisite Pictures
Director of Photography:
Byers Coates
William Duff
Cast:
Jim Gerald (Warrigal), George Merriman (Warder), Lance Vane (Inspector of Police), William Duff (Trooper), Arthur Guest (Curate), Rhoda Dendron.
Release Dates:
2 November 1907 (Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne - premiere). First screened in Sydney on 9 November 1907 (Oxford Theatre). The film ran for over a month in both capital cities. It was frequently revived over the next few years.
Location:
- Filmed on location in bushland near Sydney and on the NSW Western Plains.
Notes:
1. Jim Gerald and Lance Vane were the sons of director S. A. Fitzgerald.
2. Early screenings of Robbery Under Arms were accompanied by live narration, sound effects, and music. The 1908 Adelaide Town Hall season, for example, had well-known actor Alfred Boothman standing beside the screen narrating the story, accompanied by realistic sound effects by George Rocks and an orchestra of piano and strings (Pike and Cooper p.11).
3. The actors who played Captain Starlight and the two Marston brothers have not yet been identified.
4. While production costs were around £1000 for Robbery Under Arms (a considerably large budget for that time), Charles MacMahon's next film, For the Term of His Natural Life (1908), cost £7000 despite being less than half the length.
5. Further reference: Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper. Australian Film 1900-1977, A Guide to Feature Film Production (1980), p.11.
