40,000 Horsemen
''Forty Thousand Horsemen'' (aka ''40,000 Horsemen'') is a 1940 Australian war film directed by Charles Chauvel. The film tells the story of the Australian Light Horse (mounted rifleman as distinct from cavalry) which operated in the desert at the Sinai and Palestine campaign during World War I. It follows the adventures of three rowdy heroes in fighting and romance. The film culminates at the Battle of Beersheba which is reputedly "the last successful cavalry charge in history". The film was clearly a propaganda weapon, to aid in recruitment and lift the pride of Australians at home during World War II. It was one of the most successful Australian movies of its day.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 192. It was later remade in 1987 as '' The Lighthorsemen''. From the Prologue to the movie When Germany stretched greedy hands towards the Middle East in the war or 1914–1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Charles Chauvel (filmmaker)
Charles Edward Chauvel OBE (7 October 1897 – 11 November 1959) was an Australian filmmaker, producer and screenwriter and nephew of Australian army General Sir Harry Chauvel. He is noted for writing and directing the films '' Forty Thousand Horsemen'' in 1940 and ''Jedda'' in 1955. His wife, Elsa Chauvel, was a frequent collaborator on his filmmaking projects. Early life Family Charles Edward Chauvel was born on 7 October 1897 in Warwick, Queensland, the son of James Allan Chauvel and his wife Susan Isabella (née Barnes), pioneer farmers in the Mutdapilly area. He was the nephew of General Sir Harry Chauvel, Commander of the Australian Light Horse and later the Desert Mounted Corps in Palestine during World War I. His father, a grazier, at 53 also enlisted to serve in Palestine and Sinai in World War I. The Chauvels were descended from a French Huguenot family who fled France for England in 1685, and soon established a tradition of serving in the British army. The Austral ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harry Chauvel
General Sir Henry George Chauvel, (16 April 1865 – 4 March 1945) was a senior officer of the Australian Imperial Force who fought at Gallipoli and during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of the First World War. He was the first Australian to attain the rank of lieutenant general and later general, and the first to lead a corps. As commander of the Desert Mounted Corps, he was responsible for one of the most decisive victories and fastest pursuits in military history. The son of a grazier, Chauvel was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Upper Clarence Light Horse, a unit organised by his father, in 1886. After the family moved to Queensland he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Queensland Mounted Infantry in 1890, and saw service during the 1891 Australian shearers' strike. He became a regular officer in 1896, and went to the United Kingdom as part of the Queensland contingent for the 1897 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Pate
Michael Pate OAM (born Edward John Pate; 26 February 1920 – 1 September 2008) was an Australian actor, writer, director, and producer, who also worked in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. Biography Early life Pate was born in Drummoyne, New South Wales, and attended Fort Street High School. Initially interested in becoming a medical missionary, but unable to afford the university fees due to the Depression, he worked in Sydney before 1938, when he became a writer and broadcaster for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, collaborating with George Ivan Smith on ''Youth Speaks''. For the remainder of the 1930s, he worked primarily in radio drama. He also published theatrical and literary criticism and enjoyed brief success as an author of short stories, publishing works in both Australia and the United States. World War II During World War II, Pate served in the Australian Army in the South West Pacific Area. He was transferred to the 1st Australian Army Amenities ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kenneth Brampton
Kenneth Brampton (died 21 June 1942) was an Australian actor, writer and director. He was an actor in England before coming to Australia. He later ran an acting school. Filmography *''Robbery Under Arms'' (1920) – actor, director *'' The Dingo'' (1923) – director, writer *'' The Hayseeds'' (1933) – actor *'' Splendid Fellows'' (1934) – writer *'' Uncivilised'' (1936) – actor *'' Typhoon Treasure'' (1938) – actor References External linksKenneth Bramptonat National Film and Sound ArchiveKenneth Brampton Australian theatre creditsat AusStage AusStage: The Australian Live Performance Database is an online database which records information about live performances in Australia, providing records of productions from the first recorded performance in Australia (1789, by convicts) up unt ... Australian male film actors Australian male stage actors Australian film directors Year of birth missing 1942 deaths {{Australia-film-actor-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Joe Valli
Joseph George McParlane (also spelled McFarlane and McPharlane; 13 August 1885 – 29 May 1967), known as Joe Valli, was a Scottish-Australian actor who worked in vaudeville and films. He had a long-running vaudeville partnership with Pat Hanna as "Chic and Joe". Valli was born in Glasgow, the son of engineer Joseph McParlane and Agnes Gill. He worked as an builder and engineer before working in entertainment. He died in Waterloo, New South Wales, of myocardial degeneration . Selected filmography * ''Diggers'' (1931) * ''Waltzing Matilda'' (1933) * '' Diggers in Blighty'' (1933) * ''Heritage'' (1935) * '' The Flying Doctor'' (1936) * '' Orphan of the Wilderness'' (1936) * '' Tall Timbers'' (1937) * '' Let George Do It'' (1938) * '' Typhoon Treasure'' (1938) * ''Dad Rudd, MP'' (1940) * '' Forty Thousand Horsemen'' (1940) * '' Racing Luck'' (1941) * ''The Power and the Glory ''The Power and the Glory'' is a 1940 novel by British author Graham Greene. The title is an allusion ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Betty Bryant
Elizabeth Bryant Silverstein (; 27 June 19203 October 2005), better known as Betty Bryant, was a British-born Australian actress known for playing the lead character in ''Forty Thousand Horsemen''. Early life Bryant was born on 27 June 1920 in Bristol, South West England. At age four, her father died and she emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, with her mother, who was a professional singer. In 1932, the family relocated to Sydney after Bryant's mother remarried. As a teenager, Bryant was featured on the local radio show ''The Youth Show''. Career Bryant began her career as an actress playing minor characters in film as '' The Broken Melody'' (1938) and '' Gone to the Dogs'' (1939). Her film breakthrough came when she played the lead character in ''Forty Thousand Horsemen'' (1940), which was the "first Australian film to win international success". Reportedly discovered by screenwriter Elsie Blake-Wilkins, she was described by the film's director Charles Chauvel as "the most imp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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First Battle Of Gaza
The First Battle of Gaza was fought on 26 March 1917 during the first attempt by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), which was a British Empire military formation, formed on 10 March 1916 under the command of General Archibald Murray from the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and the Force in Egypt (1914–15), at the beginning of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. Fighting took place in and around the town of Gaza on the Mediterranean coast when infantry and mounted infantry from the Desert Column, a component of the Eastern Force, attacked the town. Late in the afternoon, on the verge of capturing Gaza, the Desert Column was withdrawn due to concerns about the approaching darkness and large Ottoman reinforcements. This British defeat was followed a few weeks later by the even more emphatic defeat of the Eastern Force at the Second Battle of Gaza in April 1917. In August 1916, the EEF victory at Romani ended the possibility of land-based attacks on th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of Romani
The Battle of Romani was the last ground attack of the Central Powers on the Suez Canal at the beginning of the Sinai and Palestine campaign during the First World War. The battle was fought between 3 and 5 August 1916 near the Egyptian town of Romani and the site of ancient Pelusium on the Sinai Peninsula, east of the Suez Canal. This victory by the 52nd (Lowland) Division and the Anzac Mounted Division of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) over a joint Ottoman Empire, Ottoman and German Empire, German force, which had marched across the Sinai, marked the end of the Defence of the Suez Canal campaign, also known as the ''Offensive zur Eroberung des Suezkanals'' and the ''İkinci Kanal Harekâtı'', which had begun on 26 January 1915. This British Empire victory ensured the safety of the Suez Canal from ground attacks and ended the Central Powers' plans to disrupt traffic through the canal by gaining control of the strategically important northern approaches to it. The pur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in wars involving the Commonwealth of Australia and some conflicts involving personnel from the Australian colonies prior to Federation. Opened in 1941, the memorial includes an extensive national military museum. The memorial is located in Australia's capital, Canberra, in the suburb of . The Australian War Memorial forms the north terminus of the city's ceremonial land axis, which stretches from Parliament House on Capital Hill along a line passing through the summit of the cone-shaped Mount Ainslie to the northeast. No continuous roadway links the two points, but there is a clear line of sight from the front balcony of Parliament House to the war memorial, and from the front steps of the war memorial back to Parliament House. The Australian War Memorial consists of three parts: the Commemorative Area (shrine) i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Two-up
Two-up is a traditional Australian gambling game, involving a designated "spinner" throwing two coins or pennies into the air. Players bet on whether the coins will fall with both heads (obverse) up, both tails (reverse) up, or with one coin a head and one a tail (known as "Ewan"). It is traditionally played on Anzac Day in pubs and clubs throughout Australia, in part to mark a shared experience with Diggers through the ages. The game is traditionally played with pennies – their weight, size, and surface design make them ideal for the game. Weight and size make them stable on the "kip" and easy to spin in the air. Decimal coins are generally considered to be too small and light and they do not fly as well. The design of pre-1939 pennies had the sovereign's head on the obverse (front) and the reverse was totally covered in writing, making the result very easy and quick to see. Pennies now are marked with a white cross on the reverse (Tails) side. Pennies can often be observ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |