''Silks and Saddles'' is a 1921 Australian silent film set in the world of

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

that was directed by

John K. Wells (July 2, 1886 – December 27, 1953) was an American actor, director, Film producer, producer, and writer of the Silent film#Silent film era, Silent film era. Wells was a -year old actor who earned his first credited role in the 1915 Unive ...

. The film is also known as ''Queen o' Turf'' or ''Queen of the Turf'' in the United States.

Plot summary

On the stud farm of Kangarooie, squatter's daughter Bobbie wants her weak brother Richard to come home for her birthday, but she prefers the charms of the city, in particular the high society adventuress, Mrs Fane. Tubby Dennis O'Hara, who is in love with Bobbie, persuades Richard to come home and he brings Mrs Fane with him. O'Hara gives Bobbie his horse, Alert, as a present. Bobbie enters it in a race and Mrs Fane tries to stop her winning. Bobbie falls in love with a handsome man and rides Alert to victory.

Cast

* Brownie Vernon as Bobbie Morton * Robert MacKinnon as Richard Morton Jr * John Cosgrove as Dennis O'Hara *

John Faulkner John Philip Faulkner (born 12 April 1954) is an Australian former Labor Party politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1989 to 2015. He was a Cabinet Minister in the Keating, Rudd and Gillard Governments. After his election to ...

as Richard Morton Sr *

Tal Ordell Talone Ordell (1880–1948), better known as Tal Ordel, was an Australian actor, writer and director. Ordell was probably born in Calcutta, India, seventh child of Victorian-born parents William Odell Raymond Buntine, drover, and his wife Susanna, ...

as Phillip Droone *Evelyn Johnson as Myra Fane * Raymond Lawrence as Jeffrey Manners * Gerald Harcourt as Toby Makin * Tommy Denman as Dingo *

Kennaquhair (horse) Kennaquhair was an Australian bred Thoroughbred racehorse that won the Sydney Cup (in record time), and the AJC Metropolitan Handicap as well as finishing second in the 1918 Melbourne Cup. Pedigree He was an attractive chestnut stallion, foa ...

as Alert

Production

The film is one of the rare Australian movies to survive today almost in its entirety. It was made by Commonwealth Pictures, a company formed in October 1920 with Eric Griffin as managing director at a value of £10,000. They hired John K. Wells to direct; he was an American who moved to Australia with

Wilfred Lucas Wilfred Van Norman Lucas (January 30, 1871 – December 13, 1940) was a Canadian American stage actor who found success in film as an actor, director, and screenwriter. Early life Lucas was born in Norfolk County, Ontario on January 30, 1871,US ...

to work as an assistant director. The movie was shot in and around Sydney, including at Randwick racecourse and at Camden, with interiors at

E. J. Carroll Edward John Carroll (28 June 1874 - 28 July 1931), better known as E.J. Carroll, was an Australian theatre and film entrepreneur. He produced several films of Snowy Baker and Raymond Longford and helped establish Birch, Carroll and Coyle. Difficu ...

's studio at Palmerston in Waverly. Footage was taken involving an aeroplane, one of the first Australian movies to do so. The champion race horse Kennaquhair appears.

Reception

Le Maistre Walker, who helped set up Commonwealth Pictures, later claimed the film earned £17,000 in Australasia, of which only £3,900 was returned to the company. The UK rights were sold for £3,000 and the American rights for $16,000. Walker says that the US distributors made £30,000 out of the film. However, because of the associated costs, Commonwealth could only return 23/ of every £1 invested, and soon went out of business. The film was the victim of

block booking Block booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Block booking was the prevailing practice among Hollywood's major studios from the turn of the 1930s until it was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in ''Uni ...

in the US so was retitled and edited to make it seem as if it was set in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Wells appears to have never directed another feature film.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 103.

References

External links

* *
''Silks and Saddles''
at

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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silks and Saddles 1921 films American black-and-white films American silent feature films Australian silent films Australian horse racing films 1920s sports films 1920s American films 1920s English-language films Silent sports films