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Cinesound
Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company, established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union Theatres, that covered all facets of the film process, from production, to distribution and exhibition. Cinesound Productions established a film studio as a subsidiary of Greater Union Theatres Pty Ltd based on the Hollywood model. The first production was ''On Our Selection'' (1932), which was an enormous financial success. Establishment Stuart F. Doyle and Ken G. Hall were the major figures involved in the establishment of Cinesound in 1931.UNESCO HONOURS CINESOUND MOVIETONE PRODUCTIONS – Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (Australia Section) Stuart Doyle was the Managing Director of Great ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dad Rudd, MP
''Dad Rudd, M.P.'' is a 1940 comedy that was the last of four films made by Ken G. Hall starring Bert Bailey as Dad Rudd. It was the last feature film directed by Hall prior to the war and the last made by Cinesound Productions, Bert Bailey and Frank Harvey. Synopsis Dad Rudd wants the size of a local dam increased for the benefit of local farmers but faces opposition from a wealthy grazier, Henry Webster. When the local Member of Parliament dies, Webster runs for his seat, and Rudd decides to oppose him. Webster and his team use dirty tricks to defeat Rudd, so he calls in his old friend from the city, Entwistle to help. Matters are complicated by the fact that Rudd's daughter Ann falls in love with Webster's son Jim. On polling day, a fierce storm causes the dam to collapse. A major flood traps workers on the wrong side of the dam and the Rudds and Jim Webster team up to save the day. Dad Rudd is elected to parliament, where he gives a rousing speech. Cast Production Scrip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strike Me Lucky
''Strike Me Lucky'' is a 1934 Australian comedy musical film starring popular stage comic Roy Rene in his first and only film. It was the fourth feature film from Cinesound Productions but proved a box office disappointment. Director Ken G. Hall says it was the only one of his features not to go into profit within a few years of release, although he says it eventually covered costs. Synopsis 'Mo' McIsaac and his sidekick Donald try to find work to support a young orphan girl he finds dancing for pennies in the street, Miriam, unaware she is really the missing daughter of rich aristocrat, Major Burnett. Gangster Al Baloney and Mae West impersonator Kate kidnap the girl and Mo is blamed for her disappearance. Mo and Donald take off into the bush looking for a gold mine (a storyline inspired by the 1930 expedition to find Lasseter's Reef), where they are attacked by a tribe of aboriginal cannibals before discovering their names are cleared. Other plots include a young couple, Margot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tall Timbers (1937 Film)
''Tall Timbers'' is a 1937 action melodrama set in the timber industry directed by Ken G. Hall and starring Frank Leighton and Shirley Ann Richards. Synopsis The film opens at Palm Beach, where life guard Jim Thornton, a former jackeroo, has just graduated from forestry school and is about to look for work in the timber industry. He saves a young woman, Joan Burbridge, from drowning. She is at the beach with Charles Blake, who wants to marry Joan and works for Joan's adopted father Stephen, a timber merchant. Blake is secretly plotting with a treacherous businessman, Ludwig Rich, to take over Burbridge's company. They enlist one of Burbridge's employees, the foreman Darley, to help in their schemes. Thornton asks Blake for a job but is turned down. Thornton approaches Stephen Burbridge, who gives him a job as ranger on one of his properties, Boundary Ridge. Burbirdge explains that Joan is his adopted daughter; her biological father was Lloyd, who is now dead. Burbridge is in bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dad And Dave Come To Town
''Dad and Dave Come to Town'' is a 1938 Australian comedy film directed by Ken G. Hall, the third in the 'Dad and Dave' comedy series starring Bert Bailey. It was the feature film debut of Peter Finch and is one of the best known Australian films of the 1930s. Synopsis Life is busy on the Rudd farm: Dave keeps inventing things, Joe has a tooth ache, Billy Ryan wants to marry Sarah Rudd but Dad is feuding with Billy's father, Old Man Ryan, who wants to buy Dad's bottom paddock. Dad receives news that his brother, Alfred, whom he has not seen for 20 years, has died and left Dad a house in the city, Bellavista, along with a shop that sells women's clothes called Cecille's. Dad moves to the city with Dave, Mum and daughter Jill. He discovers that the store is struggling, and is unaware that the store's manager, Rawlins, is secretly in league with a rival shop owner, Pierre, who wants to take over Cecille's. Dad puts Jill in charge and she starts rejuvenating the store, impressing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grandad Rudd
''Grandad Rudd'' is a 1935 comedy featuring the Dad and Dave characters created by Steele Rudd and based on a play by Rudd. It was a sequel to ''On Our Selection (1932 film), On Our Selection'', and was later followed by ''Dad and Dave Come to Town'' and ''Dad Rudd, MP''. Plot The movie's plot is similar to that of the play: Dad Rudd (Bert Bailey) has become a successful father but is very tight with his money and oppresses his sons Dave (Fred MacDonald), Joe (William McGowan) and Dan (George Lloyd). The sons eventually stand up to their father and manage to persuade him to give them a wage increase – but he increases their rent by an equal amount. As in the play, there is a serious subplot about Dad's grandchild Betty (Elaine Hamill) who becomes engaged to a corrupt neighbour, Henry Cook (John D’Arcy), despite the true love of another farmer, Tom Dalley (John Cameron). The climax involves a comic cricket game involving the Rudds. Cast * Bert Bailey as Dad Rudd * Fred MacDon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It Isn't Done
''It Isn't Done'' is a 1937 Australian comedy film about a grazier (Cecil Kellaway) who inherits a barony in England. Synopsis Hubert Blaydon, an Australian farmer, inherits a baronial estate and moves to England with his wife and daughter Patricia to collect it. He finds it difficult to adapt to upper class customs and faces snobbishness from Lord Denvee and difficulties with his butler Jarms. Patricia falls for a writer, Peter Ashton, who is next in line for the title and the estate. Hubert misses Australia. He eventually contrives evidence that Peter is the legal heir and bonds with Lord Denvee over the fact that both their sons died on the same day in World War I. Hubert and his wife return to Australia with Jarms while Patricia and Peter are married. Cast *Cecil Kellaway as Hubert Blaydon *Shirley Ann Richards as Patricia Blaydon *John Longden as Peter Ashton * Frank Harvey as Lord Denvee *Harvey Adams as Jarms *Nellie Ferguson as Mrs Blaydon *Campbell Copelin as Ronald Dud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Let George Do It (1938 Film)
''Let George Do It'' is a 1938 comedy starring popular stage comedian George Wallace. It was the first of two films Wallace made for Ken G. Hall at Cinesound Productions, the other one being '' Gone to the Dogs'' (1939). Hall later called Wallace "in my opinion, easily the best comedian that this country has produced." Synopsis The plot concerns a man, Joe Blake, who works as a stage hand in a vaudeville theatre headlined by Mysto the magician. When he finds out that the girl he is in love with, Molly, is getting married, he gets drunk with his friend Happy Morgan and decides to commit suicide. Joe offers to leave all his possessions to a gangster, Zilch, if Zilch will arrange a painless death for Joe. The next day Joe finds out he has received an inheritance and wants to live, but Zilch and his men, including Unk, abduct Joe and demand half his money. Joe escapes with the help of Clara, a woman who has a crush on him, resulting in a wild speedboat chase across Sydney harbour. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
On Our Selection (1932 Film)
''On Our Selection'' (titled in the UK as Down On the Farm) is a 1932 comedy based on the Dad and Dave stories by Steele Rudd. These had been turned into a popular play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan in 1912, which formed the basis for the screenplay. Bailey repeats his stage role as Dad Rudd. He also wrote the script with director Ken G. Hall. The movie was one of the most popular Australian films of all time. Plot The movie opens with the title card "bushland symphony", followed by sounds and vision of the Australian bush. The subsequent action involves a series of various subplots centered around a "selection" in South West Queensland owned by Dad Rudd: he owes some money to his rich neighbour, old Carey, who is determined to break Dad financially; his educated daughter Kate is pursued by two men, the poor but devoted Sandy and Carey's villainous son, Jim; one of his workers, Cranky Jack, has a mysterious background; comic visits from a parson and country dentist who remo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thoroughbred (film)
''Thoroughbred'' is a 1936 Australian race-horse drama film directed by Ken G. Hall, partly based on the life and career of Phar Lap. Hollywood star Helen Twelvetrees was imported to Australia to appear in the film. The film also stars Frank Leighton and John Longden. Plot summary A Canadian horse trainer, Joan, is the adopted daughter of horse trainer and breeder Ma Dawson. She buys an unwanted thoroughbred colt named Stormalong. Joan nurses the horse back to health with the help of Ma's son Tommy, and Stormalong starts to win races. He becomes the favourite to win the Melbourne Cup which attracts the interest of a gambling syndicate who try to dope the horse and kill it in a stable fire. They then kidnap Tommy prior to the race. Stormalong manages to participate in the Cup, and although is mortally wounded by a sniper, lives long enough to come first place. Tommy escapes and helps the police capture the gangsters. Cast *Helen Twelvetrees as Joan *Frank Leighton as Tommy Dawson ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grant Taylor (actor)
Ronald Grant Taylor (6 December 1917 – 1971) was an English-Australian actor best known as the abrasive General Henderson in the Gerry Anderson science fiction series ''UFO'' and for his lead role in ''Forty Thousand Horsemen'' (1940). Early life Taylor was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in England, but moved to Australia with his parents as a child. For a time he worked as a professional boxer in Melbourne under the name of Lance Matheson. According to a later newspaper report, he had 70 bouts, lost eight and drew 11. He reportedly also served in the merchant marine. Acting debut Cinesound Productions were looking for someone with wrestling skills to play the part of a gorilla in '' Gone to the Dogs'' (1939), so Taylor auditioned. He did not get the part but met Alec Kellaway who persuaded him to join Cinesound's Talent School. Ken G. Hall said that one of the problems of the Australian industry of this time was they "were consistently short of trained juveniles and ingenues" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australasian Films
Australasian Films, full name Union Theatres and Australasian Films, was an Australian film distribution and production company formed in 1913 that was wound up in the 1930s to merge into Greater Union. The Union Theatres and Australasian Films dominated cinema in Australia in the 1910s and 1920s. Origins In 1912, West's Pictures merged into Amalgamated Pictures, and then Amalgamated Pictures merged with Spencer's Pictures to create the General Film Company of Australasia. The following year this company combined with the Greater JD Williams Amusement Co, a large exhibition and film supply outfit, to create Union Theatres and Australasian Films. The company had a capital of £300,000; its first directors included William Gibson and Charles Cozens Spencer. Feature Production Spencer encouraged Australasian to enter feature production with the 1914 silent film ''The Shepherd of the Southern Cross'' but the film was not a success at the box office and Spencer was forced out of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Squatter's Daughter (1933 Film)
''The Squatter's Daughter'' is a 1933 Australian melodrama directed by Ken G. Hall and starring Jocelyn Howarth. One of the most popular Australian films of the 1930s, it is based on a 1907 play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan which had been previously adapted to the screen in 1910. It has been described as "part of an Australian subgenre, the outdoors colonial melodrama... stories set on outback stations featuring unscrupulous farmers, heroic foremen, upper class twits visiting from England, family secrets and feisty horse-rising heroines. The latter formed the "squatter’s daughter" archetype – the brave, beautiful farm girl who galloped away from bushfires – and meant female starring roles were often stronger in Australian rather than American westerns. " Plot Joan Enderby runs her family sheep station but is about to lose it because she can't afford to buy the lease from the Sherringtons, who run the neighbouring station, Waratah. While Ironbark Sherrington has b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
