''The Pioneers'' is a 1926 Australian

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, 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) ...

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 ...

. The script had been written 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 ...

but she had died by the time filming started. It was 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 ...

but some surviving footage from it has recently emerged.

Synopsis

The story of a Scottish settler and his wife, Donald and Mary Cameron, who live in the

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...

bush, with their son David. They adopt the daughter of an ex-convict and raise him as their own. The daughter and David Cameron fall in love, but she marries another man.

Cast

*Virginia Beresford *William Thornton as David Cameron *Robert Purdie as Donald Cameron *Connie Martyn as Mary Cameron *

Augustus Neville Augustus Neville was a New Zealand-born actor who appeared in a number of the early films for director Raymond Longford but was best known for his stage career in Australia, particularly in works by William Shakespeare. He worked for many years wit ...

*George Chalmers *W. Dummitt *'Big' Bill Wilson *Sydney Hackett *Phyllis Culbert

Production

Katharine Susannah Prichard's novel had won a £1,000 prize in 1915 and had previously been filmed by

Franklyn Barrett Walter Franklyn Barrett (1873 – 16 July 1964), better known as Franklyn Barrett, was an Australian film director and cinematographer. He worked for a number of years for West's Pictures. It was later written of the filmmaker that "Barrett's visu ...

in 1916. It was directed by

who in September 1925 had accepted a position of director of productions at Australasian Films. He worked on several films for them but the association ended badly. The director complained that the cast of ''The Pioneers'' was forced upon him. Filming took place on location near Gosford and at Australasian's studios in Bondi Junction in early 1926. During the shooting of one sequence, William Thornton was thrown from his horse and was seriously injured. Because they were so far from a town, first aid was performed by Longford himself, who had had medical training. Longford sewed four stitches into Thornton's head.

Reception

The critic for 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 i ...

'' wrote that:

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 ...
's latest Australian production... is a distinct advance on his last picture, "
The Bushwhackers The Bushwhackers are a professional wrestling tag team who competed first as the New Zealand Kiwis and then as The Sheepherders during their 36-year career as a tag team. They wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation, Jim Crockett Promotions, ...
". Its photography and settings are equal to the best American, and a vein of natural sincerity runs right through its acting. The story, too, is more definite. In fact, from the state of having practically no story at all, Mr. Longford has run to the other extreme and tried to bring in too much story, so that after one has been looking at the picture for nearly two hours new issues are still coming in, which would need still another half hour for their adequate solution... Mr. Longford himself seems to have realised that his spectators' patience must be at an end here; for he has suddenly brought the play to a close and left all sorts of important things unexplained... If only ''The Pioneers'' could be wound up about half-way or two-thirds of the way through, so as to obviate all this trite melodrama, which has been put in obviously as a sap to the populace, it would stand as a landmark In the history of Australian motion pictures.

''Table Talk'' said the film "presents a vivid story of the old Colonial days in Victoria."

Proposed remake

In 1932

Cinesound Productions Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company, established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union Theatres, that covered all facets of the film process, from produ ...

announced plans to make a sound version of the novel but no film resulted.

References

External links

*
''The Pioneers''
at National Film and Sound Archive
''The Pioneers''
at AustLit * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pioneers, The Films from Australasian Films 1926 films Australian drama films Australian silent feature films Australian black-and-white films Films directed by Raymond Longford 1926 drama films Silent drama films 1920s English-language films