''The Flying Doctor'' is a 1936 Australian-British drama film directed by

Miles Mander Miles Mander (born Lionel Henry Mander; 14 May 1888 – 8 February 1946), was an English character actor of the early Hollywood cinema, also a film director and producer, and a playwright and novelist. He was sometimes credited as Luther Mile ...

and starring

Charles Farrell Charles David Farrell (August 9, 1900 – May 6, 1990) was an American film actor of the 1920s silent era and into the 1930s, and later a television actor. Farrell is probably best recalled for his onscreen romances with actress Janet Gaynor ...

Mary Maguire Mary Maguire (born Hélène Teresa Maguire; 22 February 1919 – 18 May 1974) was an Australian-born actress who briefly became a Hollywood and British film star in the late 1930s. Early life Maguire was born in Melbourne, Australia, to Mich ...

and

James Raglan James Raglan (6 January 1901 – 15 November 1961) was a British stage, film and television actor. In Australia Early in 1935 he was brought out to Australia with the Gabriel Toyne company by J. C. Williamson, playing '' Laburnum Grove'' an ...

. The

Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), commonly known as the Flying Doctor, is an air medical service in Australia. It is a non-profit organisation that provides emergency and primary health care services for those living in rural, remote an ...

operate in the Australian Outback. Noted as Australia's first "sound" feature film, ''The Flying Doctor'' was also the country's first feature-length film based on

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot a ...

Plot

On his wedding night, Sandy Nelson (

) decides to abandon his young bride, Jenny (

) to go work in Sydney as a painter on the Harbour Bridge. He befriends a doctor, John Vaughan (

), who is in love with a married woman. Vaughan decides to acquire his flying license in order to accept a job as flying doctor in the outback. Sandy gets in a brawl at a cricket match, serves time in prison, then heads for the outback and discovers gold. He is shot in a barroom fight and loses his eyesight. He then discovers Vaughan has fallen in love with Jenny, his former bride. When he realises Jenny loves Vaughan, Sandy decides to kill himself, leaving his fortune to the Flying Doctors.

Cast

StateLibQld 2 212216 Actress Mary Maguire being welcomed home at Brisbane, 1936

as Sandy Nelson *

as Jenny Rutherford *

as Doctor John Vaughan *

Joe Valli Joseph George McParlane (also spelled McFarlane and McPharlane; 13 August 1885 – 29 May 1967), known as Joe Valli, was a Scottish-Australian actor who worked in vaudeville and films. He had a long-running vaudeville partnership with Pat Hanna as ...

as Dodger Green *

Margaret Vyner Margaret Leila Vyner, also known by her married name Margaret Williams (3 December 1914 in Armidale, New South Wales – 30 October 1993 in Reading, England) was an Australian-born model and actress who appeared in British films. She collaborated ...

as Betty Webb * Eric Colman as Geoffrey Webb * Tom Lurich as Blotch Burns *

Maudie Edwards Elizabeth Maud Edwards (16 October 1906 – 24 March 1991), professionally known as Maudie Edwards, was a Welsh actress, radio broadcaster, comedian, dancer and singer, best remembered for having spoken the first line of dialogue in soap ...

as Phyllis * Katie Towers as Mrs. O'Toole * Phillip Lytton as Doctor Gordon Rutherford * Andrew Beresford as John Rutherford * Jack Clarke as Pop Schnitzel * Phil Smith as Barman Joe * Donald Bradman as Himself *

William Hartnell William Henry Hartnell (8 January 1908 – 23 April 1975) was an English actor. He is best remembered for his portrayal of the first incarnation of the Doctor in '' Doctor Who'' from 1963 to 1966. In film, Hartnell notably appeared in '' Bri ...

as Abe McKeller

Production

National Productions

''The Flying Doctor'' was the first and only production from National Productions, a new Australian film production company which was formed in the 1930s under the management of Frederick Daniell, a promoter involved with radio and newspaper companies in Sydney. Amongst its directors were Sir Hugh Denison, Sir Samuel Walder and Sir James Murdoch. The company was closely associated with National Studios Ltd, which built a large studio complex in Pagewood, Sydney.Pike and Cooper 1998, p. 172. It was incorporated in September 1935 with capital of £50,000.

Pre-production

National Productions had links to the British company,

Gaumont British The Gaumont-British Picture Corporation produced and distributed films and operated a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. It was established as an offshoot of the Gaumont Film Company of France. Film production Gaumont-British was founded in 18 ...

, which had been interested in making a film in Australia for a long time, with Robert Flaherty intending to shoot one. Gaumont provided technical and financial support for the company. Gaumont British provided several personnel for the film, including the director, writer, cinematographer, unit manager and sound recordist. National Productions also hired Englishman Errol Hinds to be head of the camera department for two years. The British unit arrived in November 1935. In December, American star Charles Farrell was signed to play the lead. He did not arrive until late January 1936.

Shooting

Shooting began in 1936 with bad weather helping the budget increase. The film was shot at National Studio's Pagewood facility. Director Miles Mander left for Hollywood in March 1936, leaving J.O.C. Orton to finish the film.

Reception

lived in Brisbane, so it was decided to hold the film's international premiere there. 20th Century-Fox agreed to distribute the film free of charge. Box office receipts were poor but the release of the film led to a flood of donations to the flying doctors. Reviews were patchy. Aviation film historian Stephen Pendo in ''Aviation in the Cinema'' (1985), described ''The Flying Doctor'' as "lackluster."

decided not to distribute the film in the UK and it was done by

General Film Distributors General Film Distributors (GFD), later known as J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors and Rank Film Distributors Ltd., was a British film distribution company based in London. It was active between 1935 and 1996, and from 1937 it was part of the Rank O ...

. ''The Flying Doctor'' was never released in the USA. National Productions had prior to shooting announced intention to make three more films but none of these were made."Picture Films."
''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', 8 January 1936, p. 12 via National Library of Australia. Retrieved: 12 August 2012.

Preservation status

''The Flying Doctor'' was thought to have been

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

until workmen clearing a building site in the Sydney suburb of

Fig Tree ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending ...

uncovered a film vault. They cut through the steel door using an oxy torch – somehow avoiding igniting the highly flammable

nitrate film Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...

inside – and loaded a truck with the contents to take away for disposal.Edmondson and Pike 1982, p. 38. An office worker saw the truck drive by, loaded with film cans, gave chase in his car, and rescued the film, which included the first eight of nine reels of ''The Flying Doctor''. Two years later, the BFI National Film Archive in London found a copy of the shortened, re-edited British release of the film, also eight reels long, in the possession of a large film company. Despite this print having been "totally rearranged", the last reel was found to take up exactly where the Australian one left off.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Beck, Simon D. ''The Aircraft-Spotter's Film and Television Companion''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2016. . * Edmondson, Ray and Pike, Andrew
''Australia's Lost Films'' (PDF)''.
Parkes, Australia: National Library of Australia, 1982. * Paris, Michael. ''From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema.'' Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. . * Pendo, Stephen. ''Aviation in the Cinema''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. . * Pike, Andrew and Ross Cooper. ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production''. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998. .

External links

''The Flying Doctor''
at National Film and Sound Archive
''The Flying Doctor''
at Oz Movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Flying Doctor, The 1936 films 1936 drama films Australian drama films British drama films Australian aviation films Films directed by Miles Mander Gainsborough Pictures films 1930s rediscovered films Australian black-and-white films Rediscovered British films Rediscovered Australian films 1930s English-language films 1930s British films