''The Stowaway'' is a 1958 French-Australian film directed by Australian director Lee Robinson and French Lebanese director

Ralph Habib Ralph Habib (Paris, 29 June 1912 – Paris, 27 June 1969) was a French film director of Lebanese origin. He started his film career with Pathé. He later worked as assistant director notably Jean Dréville and Jean-Paul Le Chanois before directin ...

. It was shot on location in

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...

. There are French and English versions of the film. The French version is known as ''Le Passager clandestin''.

Synopsis

A group of adventurers compete with one another to find the missing heir Rene Marechal, thought to be near

. Major Owens, a middle aged Englishman with a shady past, discovers the island on which Marechal lives but is murdered by the criminal Mougins. Mougins sets out for the island with Colette, a night club singer who is Marechal's former mistress. She is rescued by Jean, who had earlier helped Colette stow away on the boat to Tahiti. Jean and Mougins fight and Mougins falls overboard and is eaten by a shark. Jean and Collette decide to give up the search for Marechal and live on the islands.

Cast

* Martine Carol as Colette *

Roger Livesey Roger Livesey (25 June 1906 – 4 February 1976) was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell and Pressburger, Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'', '' ...

as Major Owens *

Arletty Léonie Marie Julie Bathiat (15 May 1898 – 23 July 1992), known professionally as Arletty, was a French actress, singer, and fashion model. As an actress she is particularly known for classics directed by Marcel Carné, including '' Hotel du N ...

as Gabrielle *

Serge Reggiani Serge Reggiani (2 May 1922 – 23 July 2004) was an Italian-French actor and singer. He was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy and moved to France with his parents at the age of eight. After studying acting at the Conservatoire des arts cinématogr ...

as Mougins *

Karlheinz Böhm Karlheinz Böhm (16 March 1928 – 29 May 2014) was an Austrian-German actor and philanthropist. He took part in 45 films and became well known in Austria and Germany for his role as Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in the Sissi film trilogy a ...

as Jean *

Reg Lye Reginald Thomas Lye (14 October 1912 – 23 March 1988), was an Australian actor who worked extensively in Australia and England. He was one of the busiest Australian actors of the 1950s, appearing in the majority of locally shot features at th ...

as Buddington *

James Condon James Thomas Condon (27 September 1923 – 14 February 2014) was an Australian actor of radio and stage, a scriptwriter and voice over, however best known for his numerous television roles in serials and television movies in Australia, particu ...

as the purser * Charley Mauu as Taro * Yvon Chabana as Max * Vahinerii Tauhiro as Vahinerii *

Doris Fitton Dame Doris Alice Lucy Walkden Fitton, (3 November 18972 April 1985) was an Australian actress of stage and film and theatrical director and producer who founded and for 35 years headed The Independent Theatre Ltd. in Sydney, New South Wales. ...

Production

In May 1955 it was announced producer Paul Decharne, best known for ''Manon'' and ''Bluebeard'', would make two films a year in the Pacific. The first two would be co productions with Rafferty and Robinson:, starting with''Walk into Paradise'', which would be shot on location in New Guinea, in English and French versions. The second film would be made in Tahiti with French director Yves Allegret as the principal director and Robinson as director of the English version. This movie would be shot in Cinema-Scope and would hopefully star Gerard Philippe. "I was told that the Pacific was very wide, and its capital was Sydney* so I came here," said Decharne."I also heard that Australians appreciated French films better than any other country outside Europe. 'La Ronde' made more money in Australia than it did in France." At one stage the film was called ''Vahini Tahiti''. The film was shot towards the end of 1957 in

and the

Society Islands The Society Islands (french: Îles de la Société, officially ''Archipel de la Société;'' ty, Tōtaiete mā) are an archipelago located in the South Pacific Ocean. Politically, they are part of French Polynesia, an overseas country of the ...

. Lee Rafferty and Chips Robinson contributed money towards the production via sales from '' Walk into Paradise'' and funds loaned from Herb McIntyre from the superannuation fund of Universal Picture's Australian branch. Dialogue scenes were filmed twice, in English (by Robinson) and French (by Habib). Robinson claimed he didn't like Habib's style of direction.

He was a mad home movies crank and would stand by the camera or even ten feet away from it and be shooting the scene that was his first take. I used to wonder how the hell does he know what is going on there. Often he was on an entirely different angle to the camera. He often seemed more concerned about getting a good scene on his little 16 mm camera. Right from the beginning I found I was in a marvellous position as the second follow-up director because I could see everything that was being done and then rack my brains for some little thing that might spice the scene up a bit.'King of the Coral Sea: Lee Robinson in interview with Albert Moran' ''Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture'' vol. 1 no 1 (1987)
/ref>

Noted Sydney theatre actor

had a supporting role.

Release

The film was released in France but only received a limited release in Australia. It was not as successful as '' Walk into Paradise''.

References

External links

* *
''The Stowaway''
at National Film and Sound Archive
''The Stowaway''
at Oz Movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Stowaway, The 1958 films English-language French films 1958 adventure films Films based on Belgian novels Films based on works by Georges Simenon Films directed by Lee Robinson Films directed by Ralph Habib Films set in French Polynesia 1950s French-language films French multilingual films Australian multilingual films French-Australian culture 1950s multilingual films