''Bitter Springs'' is a 1950 Australian–British film directed by

Ralph Smart Ralph Foster Smart (27 August 1908 – 12 February 2001) was a film and television producer, director, and writer, born in England to Australian parents. Biography Smart found work in Britain with Anthony Asquith and later alongside the film dir ...

. An Australian pioneer family leases a piece of land from the government in the Australian outback in 1900 and hires two inexperienced British men as drovers. Problems with local Aboriginal people arise over the possession of a waterhole. Much of the film was shot on location in the

Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabit ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

Plot

In the early 1900s, Wally King travels 600 miles to outback South Australia to occupy land he has leased from the government. He is accompanied by his wife Ma, children Emma and John, and friends Tommy and Mac. Despite warnings from a local trooper, the bigoted King clashes with an Aboriginal tribe who depend on water located on what has become the family's property. Relations with the local Aboriginal people deteriorate to the point where John King is speared. The Kings are in danger of being killed by a raiding party but they are rescued by the trooper and his men. A compromise is reached where the Kings agree to work with the Aboriginal people running a sheep station.

Cast

* Tommy Trinder as Tommy *

Chips Rafferty John William Pilbean Goffage MBE (26 March 190927 May 1971), known professionally as Chips Rafferty, was an Australian actor. Called "the living symbol of the typical Australian", Rafferty's career stretched from the late 1930s until his death ...

as Wally King * Gordon Jackson as Mac * Jean Blue as Ma King *

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 Drum ...

as Trooper *

Charles 'Bud' Tingwell Charles William Tingwell AM (3 January 1923 – 15 May 2009), known professionally as Bud Tingwell or Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, was an Australian film, television, theatre and radio actor. One of the veterans of Australian film, he acted in his ...

as John King * Nonnie Piper as Emma King * Nicky Yardley as Charlie *

Henry Murdoch Henry Murdoch (17 September 1920 - 24 April 1987), born as George Henry Murdock, was an Australian aboriginal actor and stockman who appeared in Australian films of the 1940s and 1950s. He was working as stockman in Rockhampton when discovered by ...

as Blackjack

Development

''Pepper Trees''

Following the success of ''The Overlanders'', Ealing Studios decided to make a series of movies in Australia. The first one was ''Eureka Stockade''. In October 1948 Ealing announced they would follow ''Stockade'' with ''Pepper Trees'', a comedy about new immigrants to Australia. It would be written and directed by Ralph Smart, who had made ''Bush Christmas'', and star Chips Rafferty and Tommy Trinder. Filming would begin in March 1949. They hoped to cast Gordon Jackson as the third lead and an Australian girl in the female lead part. It was intended to follow ''Pepper Springs'' with ''Robbery Under Arms''. In November 1948 a columnist for the ''ABC Weekly'' said he had "read the story of ''Pepper Trees''" and that it "Should be an amusing vehicle for Trinder, Rafferty, Gordon Jackson, and an unchosen girl. But I'm betting Tommy and Chips will want their parts built up. In the rough, the girl could steal the picture." By December there was some doubt if Trinder would make the movie. In January 1949 Ealing announced that instead of ''Pepper Trees'', Rafferty and Tommy Trinder would appear in a "light comedy" called ''Bitter Springs''.

''Bitter Springs''

The film was the idea of Ralph Smart and roughly based on an apparently true story. This was the third movie

Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever s ...

made in Australia following the success of '' The Overlanders'' (1946). It was originally announced as a comedy starring Rafferty and Trinder, and was meant to be followed by a version of ''

Robbery Under Arms ''Robbery Under Arms'' is a bushranger novel by Thomas Alexander Browne, published under his pen name Rolf Boldrewood. It was first published in serialised form by ''The Sydney Mail'' between July 1882 and August 1883, then in three volumes i ...

''. Tommy Trinder's part was created especially for him to ensure the movie had some comic relief. Nick Yardley had previously appeared in Ralph Smart's ''Bush Christmas''. Nonnie Piper was a 19-year-old model. The original script ended with the massacre of Aboriginal people at the hands of the white settlers, but this was changed at the insistence of Ealing Studios. Ralph Smart scouted around Australia for locations and at one stage it seemed that the film would be made in

Murgon Murgon is a rural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Murgon had a population of 2,378 people. Geography Murgon is in the region of Queensland known as the South Burnett, the southern ...

, Queensland but eventually it was decided to make it in South Australia. Writer Dave Moore flew out to Australia to help with the script.

Shooting

Filming started in May 1949. Location shooting was completed in November, nearly two months behind schedule due to rain delays, and was followed by two weeks at

Pagewood Studios Pagewood Studios was a film studio in Sydney, Australia, that was used to make Australian, British and Hollywood films for twenty years. Creation The studio was built in 1935 for National Productions by National Studios Ltd, it was originally know ...

in Sydney. 130 Aboriginal people were used as extras. They had nowhere to stay when they arrived due to an administrative oversight and their treatment on set was criticised. Ealing wanted to pay Aboriginal actor

the same as white actors but the Department of Native Affairs refused, only granting him a regular allowance. During filming a man went around Adelaide pretending to be a talent scout for the film offering women the chance to appear in it. Leslie Norman is credited as associate producer. He later recalled "I went out o Australiaas a sort of hatchet man. It was a shame, but that film was awkward, a bit stiff and staid."Brian McFarlane, ''An Autobiography of British Cinema'', Metheun 1997 p440

Release

The film had its world premiere in Adelaide, which was attended by Don Bradman. Although reviews were generally respectful the film was a

box office disappointment A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

on release and Ealing abandoned its plans to make further movies in Australia. (During filming, in June 1949, Ealing said that Ralph Smart would make ''Robbery Under Arms'' afterwards.) It sold off

in 1952.Philip Kemp, 'On the Slide: Harry Watt and Ealing's Australian Adventure', ''Second Take: Australian Filmmakers Talk'', Ed Geoff Burton and Raffaele Caputo, Allen & Unwin 1999 p 145-164 ''Filmink'' magazine said "It's weird that Ealing Films thought this movie would be commercial… maybe they had visions of something like ''Cimarron'', only there's hardly any female characters in it... In the filmmakers' defence, their hearts were in the right place and at least the film tries to tackle head on some of the issues of Australian settlement. And I actually think it could have found an audience had the filmmakers told the story from the point of view of female characters, like the later '' We of the Never Never''. But Ealing, for all their progressive politics, were lousy at making films with female protagonists."

References

External links

*
''Bitter Springs''
at

Australian Screen Online The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national c ...

''Bitter Springs''
at BFI Screenonline
Article on ''Bitter Springs''
at Senses of Cinema
BFI film info

''Bitter Springs''
at Oz Movies
Review of film
at ''Variety'' {{Ralph Smart 1950s Australian films 1950 films 1950s historical films Australian black-and-white films British black-and-white films British historical films Ealing Studios films 1950s English-language films Films directed by Ralph Smart Films set in 1900 Films set in South Australia Films shot in Flinders Ranges Films about Aboriginal Australians 1950s British films