Possum Paddock | |
---|---|
Directed by | Kate Howarde Charles Villiers |
Written by | Kate Howarde Charles Villiers |
Based on | play by Kate Howarde |
Produced by | Kate Howarde |
Starring | John Cosgrove |
Cinematography | Lacey Percival |
Release date |
|
Running time | 6,500 feet |
Country | Australia |
Language | silent |
Possum Paddock is a 1921 Australian film based on a popular play by Kate Howarde. It was the first Australian feature film to be directed by a woman. [2] Only portions of it survive today.
Andrew "Dad" McQuade (John Cosgrove), a tough farmer, faces ruin because of a bank loan he cannot repay. He decides to sell a fifty-acre field called 'Possum Paddock' to his greedy neighbour, Dan Martin (James Martin). However, Hugh Bracken (Jack Kirby), who is dating McQuade's daughter, Nancy (Leslie Adrien), sells his car to pay off the old man's debts. He then discovers that a railway is to go through the paddock and is worth a fortune.
The play premiered in Sydney in 1919 and was a massive hit, touring for the next ten months. It starred John Cosgrove and Howarde herself, along with Fred MacDonald. [3] [4] [5]
The play was revived a number of times over the years.
Howarde made the film in collaboration with actor Charles Villers. The adaptation turned the story into a more serious melodrama rather than a broad comedy.
It was shot at the Rushcutter's Bay studio established by Cosens Spencer. [2] Many of the cast had appeared in the original stage production, including Howarde and her daughter Leslie Adrien, who played the female lead.
New South Wales censors insisted a subplot about an unmarried mother be cut, in particular a scene where she imagines throwing her baby into a river. [6]
Although the film appears to have been commercially successful, Howarde made no further films, preferring to concentrate on her theatre career. [6]
Marcus Andrew Hislop ClarkeFRSA was an English-born Australian novelist, journalist, poet, editor, librarian, and playwright. He is best known for his 1874 novel For the Term of His Natural Life, about the convict system in Australia, and widely regarded as a classic of Australian literature. It has been adapted into many plays, films and a folk opera.
Joseph Theodore Leslie "Squizzy" Taylor was an Australian gangster from Melbourne. He appeared repeatedly and sometimes prominently in Melbourne news media because of suspicions, formal accusations and some convictions related to a 1919 gang war, to his absconding from bail and hiding from the police in 1921–22, and to his involvement in a robbery where a bank manager was murdered in 1923.
The following lists events that happened during 1947 in Australia.
The following lists events that happened during 1948 in Australia.
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Catherine Clarissa Howarde, as stage name Kate Howarde, was an actress, playwright, producer and director. She is best known for her play Possum Paddock (1919). The talented Howarde also played a part in numerous roles as a playwright in over 10 plays from 1914-1938. She was the first Australian woman to direct a feature film.
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