''The Intimate Stranger'' was a proposed Australian feature film from director

Roy Darling Roy Darling (1898, Budapest, Hungary –1956, Australia) was an English-Australian film director and producer who worked in the silent era. Before moving to Australia, he made several films in South Africa, and directed a documentary in India ca ...

. The film was never completed although some scenes were shot and the cast included some of the country's finest actors. It was billed as a "psychological drama".

Cast

John Saul John Saul (born February 25, 1942) is an American author of suspense and horror novels. Most of his books have appeared on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller List. . Biography Born in Pasadena, Saul grew up in Whittier, California, and grad ...

as Paul Garner *Lesley Pope *

Georgie Sterling Georgie Sterling was an Australian actress, noted for her work in radio and television, especially in TV films and serials, although she also appeared in theatre. She started her career in the late 1950s and appeared in a TV movie version of H ...

as Kitty *

Lloyd Lamble Lloyd Nelson Lamble (8 February 1914 – 17 March 2008) was an Australian actor who worked in theatre, television, radio and film. He lived and worked for most of his life in the United Kingdom. Biography Personal life Lloyd Lamble was born in M ...

*Margo Lee *

Kerry Norton Kerry Norton (born 11 October 1972 in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, England) is a British actress and singer. Early life Kerry was born and brought up in her hometown of Sunbury-on-Thames. Education Kerry was educated at Sunbury Manor School, a ...

*John Nugent-Hayward *Sydney Wheeler

Production

The movie was financed by Endeavour Film Productions Ltd, created by a group of businessmen, with the intention to produce one feature and four shorts a year. It was based on a novel by William Lynch and was advertised as:

Completely unlike anything attempted before... the most interesting film project yet undertaken in this country... the characters are real people, with the authentic ring of the present day. The story unfolds against a background of the more Bohemian, sections of Kings Cross and the idyllic seclusion of the Pacific coast near Palm Beach.

Leading radio actor

was to play the lead, Paul Garner, "a strangely complex personality" who gets involved with an "alluring model", Kitty (

). The rest of the cast was mostly taken from popular radio actors, including Sydney Wheeler and

. Screen tests for young actors were done at Supreme Sound Studios in February 1947.

June Dally-Watkins June Marie Dally-Watkins (; 13 June 1927 – 22 February 2020) was an Australian businesswoman and fashion model, recognised by the Australian honours system as an entrepreneur. In 1950 she started a personal-development school in Sydney to ...

also worked on the movie doing make up. The movie was made during a time of industrial turmoil in the Australian film industry, with

Actors Equity The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American trade union, labor union representing those who work in live theater, live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage ...

fighting Ealing Studios, Columbia Pictures and Charles Chauvel over minimum weekly wages for actors. The union sought to increase this from £18 a week to £20. Producers of ''The Intimate Stranger'' had their pay rates approved by Equity. Members of the cast were allowed to continue with stage and/or radio work provided it did not interfere with the film's production schedule. Filming began in April 1947 in North Sydney, with William Constable as art designer. However the movie ran out of money and was never completed. Endeavour Films was soon wound up.

References

External links

Photo from film
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 ...

''Intimate Stranger'' (original novel)
at

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Intimate Stranger, The Australian drama films 1940s unfinished films 1940s English-language films