''The Blue Mountains Mystery'' is a lost 1921 Australian

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

directed by

Raymond Longford Raymond Longford (born John Walter Hollis Longford, 23 September 18782 April 1959) was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer and actor during the silent era. Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australian ...

and co-directed by

Lottie Lyell Lottie Lyell (born Charlotte Edith Cox, 23 February 1890 – 21 December 1925) was an Australian actress, screenwriter, editor and filmmaker. She is regarded as Australia's first film star, and also contributed to the local industry during the ...

. The film was derived from the 1919 novel '' The Mount Marunga Mystery'' by

Harrison Owen Albert John "Harrison" Owen (24 June 1890 – 30 May 1966) was an Australian playwright, novelist, poet, and journalist. Career Owen became a prolific contributor of poetry and local news articles to '' The Bulletin'' from 1912 to 1919. From ...

. 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

''The Blue Mountains Mystery'' involves the alleged murder of a wealthy businessman, Henry Tracey, and the eventual discovery that the victim was an underworld look-alike impersonator. The main suspects are Tracey's ward, Pauline, Mrs Tracey, and Pauline's boyfriend, Hector, and his rival, Richard Maxim. Eventually the supposedly dead Henry Tracey reappears and announces that he had been kidnapped. The corpse was Stephen Rodder, a man with a strong resemblance to Tracey.

Cast

*Marjorie Osborne as Mrs Tracey *John Faulkner as Henry Tracey/Stephen Rodder *Vivian Edwards as Hector Blunt * Bernice Vere as Pauline Tracey *Billy Williams as Richard Maxim *Redmond Barry as detective *John de Lacey as Captain Banks *Ivy Shilling as dancer

Production

The movie was mostly filmed in Katoomba, the Blue Mountains and

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 ...

, with some studio work at the Carrolls' Palmerston studio in Sydney. The Carrington Hotel and Hydro-Majestic Hotel were featured. Shooting took an unusually long time to complete, in part because of the location work involved. Marjorie Osborne was a fashion consultant to the Sydney store of Farmer's, and wife of a wealthy land-owner, Henry Hill Osborne. She unsuccessfully attempted a Hollywood career after making this film. It was Longford's third production for E.J. Carroll and the first in which Lyell received a formal co-direction credit. According to the book ''Australian Cinema: The First 80 Years'' by

Graham Shirley Graham Shirley is an Australian author, researcher, curator and filmmaker best known for his work in the area of Australian film history. He was one of the original class of the Australian Film Television and Radio School and is the co-author ...

and Brian Adams, the film cost almost double that of ''

The Sentimental Bloke ''The Sentimental Bloke'' is a 1918 Australian silent film based on the 1915 verse novel ''The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke'' by C. J. Dennis. Produced and directed by Raymond Longford, the film stars Arthur Tauchert, Gilbert Emery, and Lottie Ly ...

'' (1919).

Reception

The film was popular at the box office in Australia.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 110. Although now lost, at the time of its release ''The Blue Mountains Mystery'' fared well in the United Kingdom, South America and the United States upon its initial release. The London ''Bioscope'' wrote of ''The Blue Mountains Mystery'': " …by its restrained acting, shows the force which a story gains in the telling. As a consequence, suspense is held throughout". The reviewer of the ''Los Angeles Times'' said the film "will keep you on the edge of your seat to the last fade out." Actress Marjorie Osborne was admirable of

's contributions for ''The Blue Mountains Mystery''. She said of her: "I like brains in a woman, and she has them. Her work on this picture is more on the directing side than the acting. She assists Mr. Longford, and the two of them have plenty of healthy argument when their ideas about a scene are different." The November 1921 edition of the ''Picture Show'' magazine also praised Lyell as being "enthusiastic, original, possessing charm and common sense" for her writing of the screenplay. Harrison Owen was unimpressed with the film, which he thought poorly made compared to overseas movies. The Carrolls withdrew from production after this film and concentrated on distribution and exhibition.

Resources

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References

External links

Raymond Longford & Lottie Lyell by William M. Drew
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''The Blue Mountains Mystery''
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 ...

''The Mount Marunga Mystery'' full text on archive.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Mountains Mystery, The 1921 films Australian drama films Australian silent feature films Australian black-and-white films Films based on Australian novels Films directed by Raymond Longford Lost Australian films Katoomba, New South Wales 1921 drama films 1921 lost films Lost drama films History of the Blue Mountains (New South Wales) Silent drama films