''The Siege of Pinchgut'' (released in the US as ''Four Desperate Men'') is a 1959 British
thriller filmed on location in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Australia, and directed by
Harry Watt
Harry Watt (18 October 19062 April 1987) was a Scottish documentary and feature film director, who began his career working for John Grierson and Robert Flaherty.
His 1959 film ''The Siege of Pinchgut'' was entered into the 9th Berlin Inter ...
. It was the last film produced by
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 ...
, and was entered into the
9th Berlin International Film Festival
The 9th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 26 June – 7 July 1959. The festival welcomed the cinematic movement known as the New Wave and screened the work of directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda and Françoi ...
where it was nominated for the Golden Bear Award.
Plot
An ambulance drives through Sydney, having been hijacked by escaped convict Matt Kirk and his three accomplices, Matt's brother Johnny, Italian Luke and Bert. The four men manage to avoid detection at
Sydney Hospital, and head out through
Sydney Harbour
Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...
in a purchased vessel, intending to go north. However the boat breaks down before they can get through Sydney Heads and the men decide to take refuge in
Fort Denison
Fort Denison, part of the Sydney Harbour National Park, is a protected national park that is a heritage-listed former penal site and defensive facility occupying a small island located north-east of the Royal Botanic Garden and approximat ...
(also known as Pinchgut), unaware it is occupied by caretaker Pat Fulton, his wife and daughter Ann.
Kirk and the others take the Fultons hostage and decide to wait until the following night before leaving again. A boatload of tourists arrives but Pat Fulton manages to act as if everything is normal. However, when a police officer, Constable Macey, visits the fort bringing some milk, Ann Fulton screams for help and the authorities are alerted to the kidnappers' presence.
A siege situation results, with the police led by Superintendent Hanna. Matt Kirby is initially reluctant to hurt anyone, but becomes less stable after his brother Johnny is shot and injured by Constable Macey. Bert, who is an ex-naval gunner, realises the gun on Fort Denison could be fired at a nearby munitions ship in the harbour and cause tremendous damage similar to the
Bombay Explosion of 1944. However, shells for the gun are locked behind three heavy doors at the bottom of the fort, which need to be laboriously prised open. Kirby demands a retrial for his conviction in exchange for not firing the gun.
The police order an evacuation of harbourside suburbs and the stealthy unloading of the munitions boat. They position snipers around the fort as they try to negotiate a peaceful surrender. The injured Johnny starts to develop feelings towards Ann Fulton and suggests they surrender, but Matt refuses. Luke is shot dead by police snipers, and a sailor on the munitions ship is trapped under some crates. Bert and Matt manage to retrieve the ammunition and are in the process of transferring it to the gun when Bert is shot and killed. Matt loads the gun and prepares to fire when Johnny reveals that he has disabled the firing pin. A furious Matt tries to kill Johnny. Hanna leads a squad of police as they raid the island and Matt is killed. Johnny is arrested and taken away, but not before Pat Fulton promises to speak up for him.
Cast
*
Aldo Ray
Aldo Ray (born Aldo Da Re; September 25, 1926 – March 27, 1991) was an American actor of film and television. He began his career as a contract player for Columbia Studios before achieving stardom through his roles in '' The Marrying Kind ...
as Matt Kirk
*
Heather Sears
Heather Christine Sears (28 September 1935 – 3 January 1994) was a British stage and screen actress.
Early life
Sears was the daughter of distinguished London doctor William Gordon Sears by his marriage to Eileen Gould."SEARS, Heather, actre ...
as Ann Fulton
*
Neil McCallum as Johnny Kirk
*
Victor Maddern
Victor Jack Maddern (16 March 1928 – 22 June 1993) was an English actor. He was described by ''The Telegraph'' as having "one of the most distinctive and eloquent faces in post-war British cinema."
Life and career
Born in Seven Kings, ...
as Bert
*
Carlo Giustini
Carlo Giustini (born 4 May 1923), sometimes credited as Carlo Justini, is an Italian retired actor.
Life and career
Born in Viterbo, the son of a railway employee, Giustini debuted at twenty years old in ''The Materassi Sisters'', after having ...
as Luke (as Carlo Justini)
*
Alan Tilvern
Alan Tilvern (5 November 1918 – 17 December 2003) was an English actor. He was known for usually playing "tough-guy" roles.
Life
Tilvern was born 5 November 1918 in Whitechapel, in the East End of London, to Jewish-Lithuanian parents, who c ...
as Superintendent Hanna
*
Barbara Mullen
Barbara Mullen (9 June 19149 March 1979) was an American born actress well known in the UK for playing the part of Janet McPherson, the housekeeper in ''Dr. Finlay's Casebook''. Although the role of Janet brought her fame in later years, she alre ...
as Mrs Fulton
*
Gerry Duggan as Pat Fulton
*
Kenneth J. Warren
Kenneth John Warren (25 September 1929 – 27 August 1973) was an Australian actor.
Bald and heavily built, Warren went to North Sydney Boys High School. He started acting in 1949.
He emigrated to the UK in the late 1950s, after appearing in t ...
as Police Commissioner (as Kenneth Warren)
*
Grant Taylor as Constable Macey
* Deryck Barnes as Sergeant Drake (as Derek Barnes)
*
Richard Vernon
Richard Evelyn Vernon (7 March 1925 – 4 December 1997) was a British actor. He appeared in many feature films and television programmes, often in aristocratic or supercilious roles. Prematurely balding and greying, Vernon settled into playi ...
as Under Secretary
* Ewan MacDuff as Naval Captain
*
Martin Boddey
Albert Martin Boddey (16 April 1907 – 24 October 1975) was a British film and television actor.
He was a founder member of the Lord's Taverners charity. Boddey started acting when he was nearly 40, often portraying irritable authority fig ...
as Brigadier
*
Barry Foster as Charlie Patterson (uncredited)
*
Glyn Houston
Glyn Houston (23 October 1925 – 30 June 2019) was a Welsh actor best known for his television work. He was the younger brother of film actor Donald Houston.
Early life
Glyndwr Desmond Houston was born at 10 Thomas Street, Tonypandy, Glamorgan ...
as Navy Rating (uncredited)
*
George Woodbridge as Newspaper Editor (uncredited)
''Saturday to Monday''
The story was written by Australian filmmaker
Lee Robinson and British editor
Inman Hunter in 1949 when both were working in Sydney at
the Film Division of the Department of the Interior. The original idea began with Hunter, who saw
Fort Denison
Fort Denison, part of the Sydney Harbour National Park, is a protected national park that is a heritage-listed former penal site and defensive facility occupying a small island located north-east of the Royal Botanic Garden and approximat ...
while travelling on the Sydney ferry shortly after arriving in Australia, and thought it would make a perfect location for a film. Lee Robinson had worked as an anti-aircraft gunner on Denison in the early days of the war, and together they developed a story about two German POWs who escape during World War II and take over Fort Denison, then hold Sydney to ransom by threatening to fire a gun there on a munitions ship.
In 1950 Robinson and Hunter announced the film would go into production the following year under the name ''Saturday to Monday'', with both intending to direct. The following year it was announced the film would be the first of three made by a new company, One World Film Productions. The story would be about two escaping prisoners who board a tourist launch at Fort Macquarie and inspect Pinchgut. They remain behind after other tourists have gone and imprison a soldier who is there to guard some army equipment left behind after the war. They commence a siege, threatening to fire an anti-aircraft gun at the city. The second film would be about the pearling industry and the third would be set in
Kosciusko National Park.
However although they secured some backing they were unable to get the necessary finance, and their script was sold to
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 ...
.
Ealing Studios
The film was eventually directed by Harry Watt, who had previously made two feature films in Australia for Ealing. He had resigned from the company in 1955 to work for Granada Television, but had not enjoyed the experience and asked to return after eighteen months. Watt came across the script and became enthusiastic about its possibilities. It was the only one of Watt's three Australian films made without a historical basis and was a deliberate attempt on the director's part to create a commercially successful film.
Watt went to Australia in February 1958 to begin pre production on the project, then called ''The Siege''. Watt said that month he had a 60 page treatment which he wanted to spend the next two-three months turning into a full script. "I largely walk around, listening to how people talk, and learning how Australians should behave and feel," he said.
Watt said the Robinson-Hunter story "was a hell of a good idea. But it now has a completely different set of characters."
he story so it was no longer about a German POW, but an escaped convict fighting to prove his innocence to an uncaring judicial system.
Watt said the story "is basically a character study of a man, an escaped convict with a persecution complex. But it is also an action picture.. a thriller. I have always wanted to make a film of this modern city. But it has to appeal to the world; otherwise it goes on the shelf, and I feel ''The Siege'' will appeal to America and Britain and Europe."
Watt travelled out to Fort Denison and was "delighted with it. It's a wonderful location, from every angle you turn."
Watt felt that Sydney had not changed too much in the 12 years he was last in the city. He felt the people had become friendlier and less insular, and that the city was "spreading all over the place... like lave" and "I am still enormously struck by the number of good looking girls."
He then returned to Britain but returned months later to begin the film.
The script was assigned to British writer
Alexander Baron
Alexander Baron ( – ) was a British author and screenwriter. He is best known for his highly acclaimed novel about D-Day, ''From the City, from The Plough'' (1948), and his London novel ''The Lowlife'' (1963).
Early life
Baron's father was B ...
, who brought in his friend, Australian novelist
Jon Cleary
Jon Stephen Cleary (22 November 191719 July 2010) was an Australian writer and novelist. He wrote numerous books, including '' The Sundowners'' (1951), a portrait of a rural family in the 1920s as they move from one job to the next, and '' The ...
, to help him with the dialogue. This was done despite reservations of
Michael Balcon
Sir Michael Elias Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in West London from 1938 to 1955. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film ...
who worried that Cleary's involvement would make the script "too Australian".
Reportedly, Baron's contribution to the movie was minimal and the screenplay was done by Watt in collaboration with Cleary.
Casting
Associated British insisted on casting a name actor in the lead role of Matt Kirk, and American
Aldo Ray
Aldo Ray (born Aldo Da Re; September 25, 1926 – March 27, 1991) was an American actor of film and television. He began his career as a contract player for Columbia Studios before achieving stardom through his roles in '' The Marrying Kind ...
was selected. This meant the nationality of Matt and his brother Johnny was changed to American. The rest of the key cast were imported, with only supporting roles given to Australians.
Heather Sears and Barbara Mullins came from England; Jerry Duggan was an Irishman who had recently settled in Australia. Neil McCallum was Canadian and Carlo Justini came from Italy. Watt said "I'm making it a sort of international cast because I think that is right now for Australia."
It was reported that more than 30 Australians would have speaking parts.
(In January 1959
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper (born Elda Furry; May 2, 1885February 1, 1966) was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, her readership was 35 million. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committ ...
reported that
Stewart Granger turned down $200,000 to make ''The Siege'' in Australia because his mother was visiting from England.)
Filming
Filming began on 30 November 1958 under the title ''The Siege'' at Fort Denison. The Maritime Services Board picked that day to start repairs on the Martello round tower on the fort, causing "a real mess up" according to the ''Sydney Morning Herald''. Shooting took place on the fort for three weeks.
Over sixty technicians were imported from Britain to make the movie, although production facilities were provided by a local company,
Southern International Productions Southern International Productions was an Australian film production company established in the 1950s by Lee Robinson and Chips Rafferty. For a few years it was the most prolific film production company in Australia, pioneering international co-pro ...
, which had been established by Lee Robinson.
"Marvellous setting, this fort" said associate producer Eric Williams. "Ideal for a film - it has a real medieval touch."
The Australian National Line agreed to anchor a freighter in Farm Cove for the filmmakers to depict an ammunition boat.
Scenes were shot in police headquarters in Philip Street, the Town Hall clock, Bondi beach. Watt said in the scenes were the public was warned about the attack "no one takes any notice of it, of course. It's real Sydney."
Ealing Studios were in flux during production. They had just completed six films for
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
– including the Australian-set ''
The Shiralee'' (1957) – before moving over to
Associated British Picture Corporation
Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), originally British International Pictures (BIP), was a British film production, distribution and exhibition company active from 1927 until 1970 when it was absorbed into EMI. ABPC also owned appro ...
at Elstree. The association would prove to be an unhappy one and this film wound up being the last one ever made under the Ealing banner.
[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]
Soon after filming began, Associated British announced they no longer wished to continue Ealing's production programme. Jon Cleary says this hurt morale and that Watt's "heart wasn't in it" when making the movie.
[Jon Cleary Interviewed by Stephen Vagg: Oral History](_blank)
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 ...
Production was also held up when Aldo Ray tore a leg muscle while jumping into a boat.
Reception
The film was entered in the 1959
Berlin Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...
and released in the UK and Australia. Although aged almost 50,
Gerry Duggan was nominated for the
BAFTA Film Award for Newcomer to Leading Film Roles
The British Academy Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles is a discontinued award that was presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts until 1984.
The category had several name changes:
* 1952–1959: Most Promi ...
in 1960 for his role as Pat Fulton.
He lost to the 13-year-old
Hayley Mills in ''
Tiger Bay
Tiger Bay ( cy, Bae Teigr) was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. Following the building of the Cardiff Barrage, which dams the tidal rivers, Ely and Taff, to create a body of water, it is re ...
''.
Critical
In England ''The Guardian'' said it had "a story with depth and real life which sometimes holds up the pace of what must succeed as a thriller."
The film was not released in Australia until July 1960. The ''Sydney Morning Herald'' said "as a thriller, it is not half as bad as has been painted.". The ''Age'' said Watt was "seen at his best and his worst in this piece of tough suspense. His best is the real life location work. His worst is the fictional character studies and their melodrama."
Box office
It was not a success at the box office and turned out to be not only the last movie made by Ealing, but the last adult feature film Watt ever directed.
[Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 228-229]
Later reputation
However, the film's reputation has risen in recent years:
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
screened it at the
Quentin Tarantino Film Festival
The Quentin Tarantino Film Festival, or QT-Fest, was a semi-annual film and multimedia event held by the Austin Film Society in Austin, Texas and attended by film director Quentin Tarantino, where he screened a selection of his favorite films usi ...
in Texas, and in 2006 it was restored by 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 ...
.
'NFSA provides iconic films for Chauvel Cinema Film Feast' AFC Archive 8 Sept 2006
/ref> It has historical value, depicting postwar Sydney, its harbour foreshore and the remains of the Fort Macquarie Tram Depot
Fort Macquarie Tram Depot was part of the Sydney tram network. It opened in 1902 on the site of the old Fort Macquarie and was demolished in 1958 to make way for the construction of the Sydney Opera House.
History
Fort Macquarie Tram Depot was ...
which was being demolished for construction of the Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...
.
References
External links
*
''The Siege'' (the original production)
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 ...
''The Siege of Pinchgut''
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 ...
''The Siege of Pinchgut''
at Oz Movies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siege Of Pinchgut, The
1959 films
1950s adventure thriller films
British adventure thriller films
Films shot at Associated British Studios
British black-and-white films
Films directed by Harry Watt
Ealing Studios films
Films shot in Sydney
Films produced by Michael Balcon
1950s English-language films
1950s British films