Jedda, released in the UK as Jedda the Uncivilised, is a 1955 Australian film written, produced and directed by Charles Chauvel. His last film, it is notable for being the first to star two Aboriginal actors, Robert Tudawali and Ngarla Kunoth (later known as Rosalie Kunoth-Monks) in the leading roles. It was also the first Australian feature film to be shot in colour.[2]
Jedda is seen by some [who?] as an influential film in the development of Australian cinema and setting a new standard for future Australian films. It won more international attention than previous Australian films during a time when Hollywood films were dominating Australian cinema. Chauvel was nominated for the Golden Palm Award at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival[3] but lost to Delbert Mann for Marty.
Plot
Robert Tudawali appeared as Marbuck in Jedda
Jedda is an Aboriginal girl born on a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. After her mother dies giving birth to her, the child is brought to Sarah McMann, the wife of the station boss. Sarah has recently lost her own newborn to illness. She at first intends to give the baby to one of the Aboriginal women who work on the station, but then raises Jedda as her own, teaching her European ways and separating her from other Aboriginal people.
Jedda wants to learn about her own culture, but is forbidden by Sarah. When Jedda grows into a young woman, she becomes curious about an Aboriginal man from the bush named Marbuck. This tall stranger arouses strong feelings in her. She is lured to his camp one night by a song. Marbuck abducts her and sets off back to his tribal land, through crocodile-infested swamps.
Joe, a half-castestockman in love with Jedda, tracks the two for several days. They travel across high, rocky country, and down a river until Marbuck reaches his tribe. The tribal council declares that Marbuck has committed a serious crime by bringing Jedda to them, because she is not of the right skin group. They sing his death song as punishment. Marbuck defies the elders and takes Jedda into an area of steep cliffs and canyons, taboo lands.
Driven insane by the death song, he pulls Jedda with him over a tall cliff, and both perish. Joe, the narrator, says her spirit has joined "the great mother of the world, in the dreaming time of tomorrow".
Hugh Wason Byers as Felix Romeo (credited as Wason Byers)
Willie Farrar as Little Joe
Margaret Dingle as Little Jedda
Development
Charles Chauvel said the original inspiration for the film came from a meeting he had in Hollywood in early 1950 with Merian C. Cooper. Cooper encouraged the director to make a film exploiting Australian locations. Chauvel was further encouraged along these lines by Bess Meredyth, who had made a number of films in Australia in the 1920s.[5]
Chauvel decided to make the project in the Northern Territory. With his wife Elsa he made an extensive survey of the Territory later that year with the assistance of the Commonwealth government. He undertook colour tests, intending to make Australia's first colour movie.[6][7] The Chauvels then wrote a screenplay, originally entitled The Northern Territory Story.
The lead Aboriginal character was reportedly inspired by the warrior Nemarluk, who killed three Japanese pearlers in the 1930s and died in prison.[8][9]
In 1951 Chauvel formed Chauvel Productions Ltd to make the film, with a notional capital of £500,000.[10][11] It went public in August 1951, offering 240,000 shares.[12]
Chauvel later stated that he turned down an American offer of $100,000 (£44,000) to finance the film because it was conditional upon Linda Darnell being cast in the lead.[13] Chauvel's regular backers Universal Pictures did not want to invest in the movie but Chauvel managed to secure finance from various businessmen, including Mainguard Australia Ltd.[14] It took the Chauvels 18 months to find a suitable filming location.
Production
Robert Tudawali with Bill Harney and Charles Chauvel prior to the filming of Jedda.
Filming started in May 1952, when the unit left Sydney for Darwin. By this stage the lead role of Jedda had still yet to be cast, but filming acting sequences did not begin until July.[15] Robert Tudawali was a full-blooded Aboriginal man from Melville Island,[16] the largest island in the Tiwi Islands group. Ngarla Kunoth (Rosalie Kunoth-Monks) was an Arrernte and Anmatyerre woman, born at Utopia cattle station, north east of Alice Springs;[17] she was selected over seven other actors screen tested, and was cast by July.[18][19]
The production process was laborious, as the colour technique used, Gevacolor, could only be processed in England. The film stock was fragile and heat-sensitive, which was a problem in the tropical climate of the Northern Territory. During production, the film was stored in cool caves to protect it from deteriorating. By mid 1952 the film had incurred expenses of £24,673.[20]
The last roll of negative was destroyed in a plane crash on its way for developing in England. Chauvel re-shot these lost scenes at Kanangra Walls in the Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves west of Sydney. Cave scenes were filmed in the River Cave, Diamond Cave, Imperial Cave, and Mud Tunnels at Jenolan.[21] Editing and sound recording were completed in London.
The music was written by Isador Goodman. Elsa Chauvel, the director's wife, replaced large parts of Goodman's score with old-fashioned commercial "mood" music.[citation needed]
The Chauvels celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary during filming.[22] Wason Byers, who had a small role, was arrested for stealing over £1,000 worth of cattle.[23]
Reception
Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, speaking at the Darwin premiere of Jedda at the Star Theatre in Darwin, Northern Territory in 1955.
The film had its world premiere on 3 January 1955 at the Star Theatre in Darwin.[24][25] The theatre's manager Tom Harris arranged for a member of the Warhiti tribe "to sing songs and burn sticks to prevent any unwanted rainfalls during the screening. He decorated the theatre for the opening with pandanus, grass mats and Aboriginal artefacts. Large crowds gathered along Smith Street to catch a glimpse of the film's stars Ngarla Kunoth and Robert Tudawali were permitted to sit in the balcony with the Northern Territory Administrator Frank Wise and his wife.[26]
The film then opened in Sydney in May. Its commercial reception was solid rather than sensational: Charles Chauvel Productions Ltd received £17,915 from the film in May and June 1955. The company's name was changed to Jedda Ltd to help exploit the film.[27] In December 1956 Jedda Ltd reported a profit of £50,454 for the year to 30 June, reducing the debit balance in the production account to £69,697. The film had been successful in Australia but performed disappointingly overseas.[28]
The film was released in the UK as Jedda the Uncivilised.[29]
Some time after the film was completed and released in locations around the world, the film in Gevacolor was found to have faded from ageing. In 1972 the film was reproduced from original tri-separations found in London.
This was Charles Chauvel's last feature film. He had intended to adapt Kay Glasson Taylor's novel The Wars of the Outer March,[30] but was hired by the BBC to make the TV series Walkabout. Before he could resume work on his feature projects he died on 11 November 1959.[31]
Charles Edward Chauvel OBE was an Australian filmmaker, producer and screenwriter and nephew of Australian army General Sir Harry Chauvel. He is noted for writing and directing the films Forty Thousand Horsemen in 1940 and Jedda in 1955. His wife, Elsa Chauvel, was a frequent collaborator on his filmmaking projects.
Robert Tudawali, also known as Bobby Wilson and Bob Wilson, was an Australian actor and Indigenous activist. He is known for his leading role in the 1955 Australian film Jedda, which made him the first Indigenous Australian film star, and also his position as Vice-President of the Northern Territory Council for Aboriginal Rights.
The Alyawarre, also spelt Alyawarr and also known as the Iliaura, are an Aboriginal Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. The Alyawarre are made up of roughly 1,200 associated peoples and actively engage in local traditions such as awelye painting.
Ronald Grant Taylor was an English-Australian actor best known as the abrasive General Henderson in the Gerry Anderson science fiction series UFO and for his lead role in Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940).
Nemarluk was an Aboriginal warrior who lived around present-day Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. He fought strongly against both white and Japanese intruders who had come, into his people's tribal lands.
Rosalie Lynette Kunoth-Monks, also known as Ngarla Kunoth, was an Australian film actress, Aboriginal activist and politician.
The Rats of Tobruk is a 1944 Australian film directed by Charles Chauvel. An abridged version was released in the United States in 1951 as The Fighting Rats of Tobruk. The film follows three drover friends who enlist in the Australian Army together during World War II. Their story is based on the siege of the Libyan city of Tobruk in North Africa by Rommel's Afrika Korps. The partly Australian defenders held the city for 250 days before being relieved by British forces.
Oriel Holland Bennett known by pen name Oriel Gray, was an Australian dramatist, playwright and screenwriter who wrote from the 1940s to 1990s. The major themes of her work were gender equality and "social and political issues such as the environment, Aborigines, assimilation and bush life".
Sons of Matthew is a 1949 Australian film directed and produced and co-written by Charles Chauvel. The film was shot in 1947 on location in Queensland, Australia, and the studio sequences in Sydney. Sons of Matthew took 18 months to complete, but it was a great success with Australian audiences when it finally opened in December 1949.
Uncivilised is a 1936 Australian film directed by Charles Chauvel. It was an attempt by Chauvel to make a more obviously commercial film, and was clearly influenced by Tarzan.
Elsa Chauvel, was an Australian filmmaker and actress, and the wife and collaborator of film director Charles Chauvel. Elsa Chauvel was a pioneer in Australian film making, best known for her contributions to films such as Greenhide, In the Wake of the Bounty, and Jedda. Her legacy in Australian film was celebrated with the creation of the Chauvel Award, dedicated to the work of Elsa and Charles Chauvel, which honours Australian excellence in film.
Dust in the Sun is a 1958 Australian mystery film adapted from the 1955 novel Justin Bayard by Jon Cleary and produced by the team of Lee Robinson and Chips Rafferty. The film stars British actress Jill Adams and an Indigenous Australian actor Robert Tudawali as Emu Foot.
Captain Thunderbolt is a 1953 Australian action film from director Cecil Holmes about the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt. It was one of the few all-Australian films of the 1950s.
Justin Bayard is a 1955 novel by Australian author Jon Cleary about a policeman working in the Kimberley region. It was Cleary's sixth novel.
Coolibah Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Burst of Summer is a 1959 play by Oriel Gray. It won the 1959 J. C. Williamson's Little Theatre Guild Award, and was later adapted for radio and TV. It was Gray's last produced play.
The Star Theatre was the first purpose-built cinema in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. Destroyed during Cyclone Tracy, it was the centre of Darwin's social life between the 1930s and 1960s.
St. Mary's Hostel, formerly Mount Blatherskite Hostel (1946–47), commonly known simply as St Mary's, was an Australian Board of Missions hostel in Alice Springs from 1947 to 1972. Its residents were mostly Aboriginal children, including some who were taken as wards of the state because they were half-caste. In 1972, coming under new management, it was renamed St Mary's Children's Village (1972–1980).
Amelia Kunoth née Pavey was an Aboriginal Australian woman who developed well-known cattle stations in Central Australia, including Utopia, Bond Springs, Hamilton Downs and Tempe Downs.
Burst of Summer is a 1961 Australian television play based on the stage play Burst of Summer. Filmink called it "a genuine landmark of Australian television" because it was:
The first Australian TV drama with not one, not two, but three major Aboriginal characters. The first with a sizeable role for a male and female Aboriginal actor. The first in a modern setting to have a scene between two Aboriginal characters without any white people in it. The last dramatic appearance from the legendary actor Robert Tudawali. And the sole acting performance from singer Georgia Lee.
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