''Hullo Marmaduke'' is a 1924 Australian film comedy drama from director

Beaumont Smith Frank Beaumont "Beau" Smith (15 August 1885 – 2 January 1950), was an Australian film director, producer and exhibitor, best known for making low-budget comedies. Smith made his first film in 1917, '' Our Friends, the Hayseeds''. He went on ...

about a naive Englishman (

Claude Dampier Claude Dampier (born Claud Conolly Cowan; 23 November 1878 – 1 January 1955) was an English film actor and popular character comedian in the early 20th century. Life He was born in Clapham, South London as Claud Conolly Cowan.Richard Anthony ...

) who comes to Australia as a

remittance man In British history, a remittance man was an emigrant, often from Britain to a British colony, supported by regular payments from home on the expectation that he stay away. In this sense, remittance means the opposite of what it does now, i.e. mo ...

. It is considered a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

Plot

Marmaduke (

) is the youngest son of a noble English family who is sent out to Australia on the RMS Osterley with his faithful valet Huggett (Jimmy Taylor). At

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

he is swindled by two card sharps out of most of his money. He then goes to

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and makes his way to the gold fields. On the voyage he meets up with barmaid Mrs Mary Morton (Constance Graham) and her young daughter Margie who are looking for Mary's husband Mike (Mayne Lynton). Mrs Morton is killed by some burglars, including her husband, and with her dying breath asks Maramduke to look after her daughter. Marmaduke makes a fortune prospecting, spends the money on Margie and falls in love with her as Margie grows up (Lucille Lisle). Margie is taken prisoner by a lunatic who puts her on board a ship and threatens to blow her up. Marmaduke comes to the rescue, then sees her marry a wealthy suitor.

Cast

as Marmaduke * Mayne Lynton as Mike Morton *Jimmy Taylor as Huggett *Constance Graham as Mary Morton *Grafton Williáms as Squid Squires *Fernande Butler *Lucille Lisle as Margie

Production

This was the first film of

, a popular stage and vaudeville comedian. The climax featured the scuttling of the battlecruiser outside Sydney heads in April 1924. Actual production on the film did not begin until September, however. Interior shooting took place at Australasian Films' studio at Rushcutter's Bay with exterior filming undertaken at Sydney's Domain, The Spit, Newport, Cockatoo Island, the Wentworth Hotel, Potts Point, Balgowlah and the Woolloomooloo wharves among other Sydney locations. Some scenes were also shot aboard the Osterley. Location filming continued into October. Two of the principal cast members, Jimmy Taylor and Grafton Williams had previous film experience in South Africa. Taylor was also a member of Dampier's Trump Cards Revue Company.

Reception

The film was well promoted and proved popular with the public.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 124. Smith and Dampier later made '' The Adventures of Algy'' (1925) together.

References

External links

Marmaduke''
in the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

''Hullo Marmaduke''
at the

National Film and Sound Archive 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 co ...

1924 films Lost Australian films Films directed by Beaumont Smith Remittance men Australian silent feature films Australian black-and-white films Australian comedy-drama films 1924 comedy-drama films Silent comedy-drama films 1924 lost films {{Australia-silent-film-stub