On Our Selection | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ken G. Hall |
Written by | Bert Bailey Ken G. Hall |
Based on | play by Bert Bailey & Edmund Duggan based on the stories of Steele Rudd |
Produced by | Bert Bailey |
Starring | Bert Bailey Fred MacDonald Dick Fair |
Cinematography | Walter Sully |
Edited by | George Malcolm |
Production company | |
Distributed by | British Empire Films (Australia) Universal (UK) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 99 minutes (Australia) |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Budget | £8,000 [2] [3] or £6,000 [4] |
Box office | £60,000 (end 1953) [5] £2,000 (UK) [6] |
On Our Selection (titled in the UK as Down On the Farm) is a 1932 comedy based on the Dad and Dave stories by Steele Rudd. These had been turned into a popular play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan in 1912, which formed the basis for the screenplay. Bailey repeats his stage role as Dad Rudd. He also wrote the script with director Ken G. Hall.
The movie was one of the most popular Australian films of all time. [6]
The movie opens with the title card "bushland symphony", followed by sounds and vision of the Australian bush. The subsequent action involves a series of various subplots centered around a "selection" in South West Queensland owned by Dad Rudd: he owes some money to his rich neighbour, old Carey, who is determined to break Dad financially; his educated daughter, Kate, is pursued by two men, the poor but devoted Sandy and Carey's villainous son, Jim; one of his workers, Cranky Jack, has a mysterious background; comic visits from a parson and country dentist who removes Dad's tooth; his dim son Dave proposes to his girlfriend, Lily; his other son, Joe, causes slapstick havoc; Dave gets married and moves out with his wife and tries to borrow money from his father; Dad's daughter Sarah is pursued by the high-voiced Billy, who Dad doesn't like; Dad Rudd runs for parliament opposite Carey; and his horse wins a race.
The main story concerns a murder mystery. Jim Carey attempts to blackmail Kate into being with him by lying about what she did in the city, and Sandy knocks him out. Carey later turns up dead and Sandy is suspected of the murder. The Rudds hold a dance and a police officer turns up to arrest Sandy when Cranky Jack confesses he killed Carey because the dead man stole his wife. The film ends with Dad and Mum happily watching the sun come up.
The film was the first full-length feature from Cinesound Productions. Ken G. Hall was reluctant to make the film as he thought it was old fashioned but the play had been enormously popular and Stuart Doyle thought an adaptation would be well received. [7]
Most of the cast had appeared in the stage version. Although Bert Bailey was clean shaven and generally wore a fake beard for his stage performances, Hall insisted he grow a real beard for the film version; Bailey did and ended up wearing a beard for the rest of his life. [8]
Bailey was paid £400 and received 60% of the profits. [3]
Shooting took place in mid 1931, partly in a makeshift studio at an ice skating rink in Bondi Junction, with location filming in Castlereagh, Penrith. Crucial to the movie's success was a sound recording system invented by Tasmanian engineer Arthur Smith, which enabled the film to be made without having to hire sound equipment from Hollywood. (The equipment cost £2,000 – to have imported it would have cost ten times that. [9] ) Hall later said Smith's contribution was so important "there would have been no Cinesound without him". [10]
The cinematographer, Walter Sully, was a newsreel cameraman for Cinesound. It was the only feature he made for that company as he soon left to go work for their competitor, Fox Movietone.
On Our Selection was an enormous success at the box office, being among the top four most popular films in Australian cinemas in 1932 [11] had earned earning £46,000 in Australia and New Zealand by the end of 1933. [6] By the end of 1934 the film had made an estimated profit of £23,200 and Bailey had earned an estimate £14,000. [2] [3] This was a record for Australian films. [12]
On Our Selection was continually revived over the next two decades and by 1953 had earned an estimated £60,000. The profits were split 50-50 between Cinesound Productions and the theatrical partnership of Bert Bailey and James Grant. [5] (In 1938 Hall estimated that 70% of the film's income had been earned in country regions. [13] )
The movie was bought for release in the UK by Universal for £1,000 and was retitled Down on the Farm on the grounds that the British would not know what a "selection" was. [14] Critical response was poor, the Era claiming that "Australia's idea of what constitutes good comedy an obvious caricature of a typical bush homestead, is only likely to please an unsophisticated audience over here." [15] It achieved 500 bookings throughout the country. [16]
The movie launched Hall's career as a director and led to three sequels, starting with Grandad Rudd (1935). All the sequels featured Bert Bailey as Dad and Fred MacDonald as Dave, but a variety of actors would play Mum and their other children.
Steele Rudd was the pen name of Arthur Hoey Davis an Australian author, best known for his short story collection On Our Selection.
Kenneth George Hall was an Australian film producer and director, considered one of the most important figures in the history of the Australian film industry. He was the first Australian to win an Academy Award.
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 production to distribution and exhibition. Cinesound Productions established a film studio as a subsidiary of Greater Union Theatres Pty Ltd based on the Hollywood model. The first production was On Our Selection (1932), which was an enormous financial success.
Dad and Dave Come to Town is a 1938 Australian comedy film directed by Ken G. Hall, the third in the 'Dad and Dave' comedy series starring Bert Bailey. It was the feature film debut of Peter Finch and is one of the best known Australian films of the 1930s.
Dad and Dave: On Our Selection is an Australian comedy film, based on the characters and writings of author Steele Rudd. It is set in late nineteenth century colonial Queensland, but largely filmed in Braidwood, New South Wales. The stories of the Rudds have been previously adapted for radio, television, and film. Geoffrey Atherden contributed to the screenplay with George Whaley, the latter of whom directed. This film featured numerous well-known Australian actors, such as Noah Taylor, Ray Barrett, Essie Davis, Murray Bartlett, Celia Ireland, Barry Otto, Nicholas Eadie, and future Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush as the titular endearingly blundering son, Dave.
The Squatter's Daughter is a 1933 Australian melodrama directed by Ken G. Hall and starring Jocelyn Howarth. One of the most popular Australian films of the 1930s, it is based on a 1907 play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan which had been previously adapted to the screen in 1910.
The Silence of Dean Maitland is a 1934 Australian film directed by Ken G. Hall, and based on Maxwell Gray's 1886 novel of the same name. It was one of the most popular Australian films of the 1930s.
Strike Me Lucky is a 1934 Australian comedy musical film starring popular stage comic vaudevillian Roy Rene in his first and only film. It was the fourth feature film from Cinesound Productions but proved a box office disappointment. Director Ken G. Hall claimed it was the only one of his features not to go into profit within a few years of release, although the film eventually covered costs.
Grandad Rudd is a 1935 comedy featuring the Dad and Dave characters created by Steele Rudd and based on a play by Rudd. It was a sequel to On Our Selection, and was later followed by Dad and Dave Come to Town and Dad Rudd, MP.
Dad Rudd, M.P. is a 1940 comedy that was the last of four films made by Ken G. Hall starring Bert Bailey as Dad Rudd. It was the last feature film directed by Hall prior to the war and the last made by Cinesound Productions, Bert Bailey and Frank Harvey.
Albert Edward Bailey, better known as Bert Bailey, was a New Zealand-born Australian playwright, theatrical manager and stage and screen actor best known for playing Dad Rudd, in both mediums, the character from the books penned by Steele Rudd.
The Hayseeds Come to Sydney is a 1917 Australian rural comedy from director Beaumont Smith.
On Our Selection is a 1912 Australian play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan based on the stories with the same name by Steele Rudd. Bailey played Dad Rudd in the original production.
On Our Selection is a 1920 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford based on the Dad and Dave stories by Steele Rudd.
Alec Kellaway was a South African–born actor best known for his work in Australian theatre and film, notably playing a number of character roles for director Ken G. Hall. He was the brother of Cecil Kellaway. He also worked as a producer in vaudeville and helped run the Talent School at Cinesound Productions.
Fred MacDonald (1895–1968), was an Australian actor best known for playing Dave Rudd opposite Bert Bailey on stage and screen, starting with the original 1912 production of On Our Selection. He also played a similar role, Jim Hayseed, several times on screen for director Beaumont Smith.
Cinesound Varieties is a 1934 Australian variety short film from director Ken G. Hall made to go out on a double-bill with the full-length feature, The Silence of Dean Maitland (1934). Only 18 minutes of the film survive today.
William Freshman was an Australian-born actor, scriptwriter and director. He moved to England as a child and worked in the British film industry, writing over 20 screenplays and working as an associate producer at British International Pictures. He also wrote the play The Last of the Ladies.
George Heath was an Australian cinematographer best known for his collaboration with Ken G. Hall for whom he shot several features. According to one observer, he fitted into the Cinesound world far more than his predecessor, Frank Harley - "Heath adapted much more easily to studio work and soon developed into a technician of world class. His work on the features was always attuned to the demands of the film and its future audience: his images show few of the pretensions to grandeur which are to be found in the work of Hurley, and instead his photography is clear, expressive and undemanding."
On Our Selection (1899) is a series of stories written by Australian author Steele Rudd, the pen name of Arthur Hoey Davis, in the late 1890s, featuring the characters Dad and Dave Rudd.