| Mates from the Murrumbidgee | |
|---|---|
 Sunday Times 10 Sept 1911 | |
| Directed by | Alfred Rolfe |
| Starring | Charles Villiers |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 3,000 feet [3] |
| Country | Australia |
| Languages | Silent film English intertitles |
Mates from the Murrumbidgee is a 1911 Australian silent movie. It is considered a lost film and was arguably the first Australian war film, being set during the Boer War. [4] [5]
The movie was considered a financial success at the time. [6]
John, James and Mary are school friends, who grow up near the Murrumbidgee River. As they grow up both John and James fall for Mary, but Mary loves John. John and James work as drovers then join the Australian Lighthorse during the Second Boer War, both fighting for the New South Wales Lancers. While fighting with the Boers, John is seriously wounded. [7] James comes back to Australia, says that John is dead, and marries Mary. [8]
Mary ends up poisoning herself and one of the friends shoots the other. [9]
The film includes a charge at Majuba Hill (even though that took place during the First Boer War). This was done "for the sake of the picturesque". [10]
The film was released on a double bill with Fighting Blood, an American Western. [12] It was accompanied by a lecturer who would explain the plot; for many screenings, this was the noted comedian Charles Woods. [3] [13]
The Sun wrote, "The ingenuity displayed in the revelation of this story is remarkable. From a homestead on tho Murrumbldge one is carried to South Africa through some thrilling episodes of tho Boer War, and back again to Sydney." [14] The Colac Herald described the film as "a gem of its kind". [15] Punch said it "met with a tremendous reception, and showed that the locally produced films arc in no way inferior to the imported article. " [16] The Daily Telegraph said it "proved exceedingly popular." [17]
A 1923 article referred to the film being popular. [18]
The following lists events that happened during 1932 in Australia.
Dundas was a historical mining locality, mineral field and railway location on the western foothills of the West Coast Range in Western Tasmania. It is now part of the locality of Zeehan.
Geoffrey Edmund Brown was an Australian tennis player.
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Alfred Rolfe, real name Alfred Roker, was an Australian stage and film director and actor, best known for being the son-in-law of the celebrated actor-manager Alfred Dampier, with whom he appeared frequently on stage, and for his prolific output as a director during Australia's silent era, including Captain Midnight, the Bush King (1911), Captain Starlight, or Gentleman of the Road (1911) and The Hero of the Dardanelles (1915). Only one of his films as director survives today.
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Edward Irham Cole was an Australian theatrical entrepreneur and film director whose productions represented a synthesis of Wild West show and stage melodrama. He managed a theatre company, called the Bohemian Dramatic Company, that performed in semi-permanent and temporary tent theatres. During 1910 and 1911 Cole directed a number of silent films, adapted from his stage plays and using actors from his theatre company.
Wilton Welch was an Australian comic actor and dramatist, husband and collaborator of Louise Carbasse, best known as Louise Lovely.
Gladstone Eyre was an Australian portrait artist and landscape painter around Sydney, New South Wales and Launceston, Tasmania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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