Southern Cross Feature Film Company

Last updated

Southern Cross Feature Film Company was a short lived film production company that made some of Australia's most famous silent films, mostly directed by Raymond Longford. One of the key figures behind it was Sir David Gordon. [1]

Raymond Longford film director

Raymond Longford 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 cinema. He formed a production team with Lottie Lyell. His contributions to Australian cinema with his ongoing collaborations with Lyell, including The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and The Blue Mountains Mystery (1921), prompted the Australian Film Institute's Longford Lyell Award, inducted in 1968, and named in his and Lyell's honour.

Contents

History

The company was incorporated in Adelaide in 1917 and announced they would make five dramas and three comedies over the next 12 months. [2] Another report said they hoped to make "six or eight five reelers" over twelve months. [3] One hundred shares were offered at £1 a share. [4] Their first picture was to be The Black Opal but this does not seem to have been made. [5]

They offered cash for Australian stories. [6]

According to Raymond Longford, they initially secured the serves of American director, Mr Walter May Plank, but he left Australia and Longford was called in instead. [7] Their first feature was the successful The Woman Suffers (1918). [8] which was followed by The Sentimental Bloke . In 1920 the company paid out a dividend of a shilling per share. [9]

The Woman Suffers is a 1918 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford. It is a melodrama starring Lottie Lyell. Two-thirds of the movie still survives.

<i>The Sentimental Bloke</i> 1919 film by Raymond Longford

The Sentimental Bloke (1919) is an Australian silent film based on the 1915 poem The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C. J. Dennis. It is generally considered the greatest Australian silent film, and one of the best Australian movies of all time.

The company was a subscriber to Carroll-Baker Australian Productions, [10] which made movies starring Snowy Baker, and had a five-twelfths interest in Southern Cross Picture Productions. [11] Southern Cross Picture Productions Ltd was incorporated in 1920 with a value of £37,600 and directors including E. J. Carroll, Snowy Baker and D. Gordon. [12]

Snowy Baker Australian athlete, sports promoter, and actor

Reginald Leslie "Snowy" Baker was an Australian athlete, sports promoter, and actor. Born in Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Baker excelled at a number of sports, winning New South Wales swimming and boxing championships while still a teenager. Playing rugby union for Eastern Suburbs, he played several games for New South Wales against Queensland, and in 1904 represented Australia in two Test matches against Great Britain. At the 1908 London Olympics, Baker represented Australasia in swimming and diving, as well as taking part in the middleweight boxing event, in which he won a silver medal. He also excelled in horsemanship, water polo, running, rowing and cricket. However, "His stature as an athlete depends largely upon the enormous range rather than the outstanding excellence of his activities; it was as an entrepreneur-showman, publicist and businessman that he seems in retrospect to have been most important."

Edward John Carroll (1874-1931), better known as E.J. Carroll, was an Australian theatre and film entrepreneur. He produced several films of Snowy Baker and Raymond Longford and helped establish Birch, Carroll and Coyle. Difficulties in securing international distribution for his films turned him away from production towards exhibition.

The company was at its peak in 1921 with the successful release of The Sentimental Bloke and Ginger Mick . [13]

Ginger Mick is a 1920 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford based on The Moods of Ginger Mick by C. J. Dennis, which had sold over 70,000 copies. It is a sequel to The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and is considered a lost film.

In 1923 there was a trial involving a man who falsely pretended to be from the company to abduct a young woman. [14]

In 1925, E. J. Carroll suggested the company make a film adaptation of C. J. Dennis's The Rose of Spadgers at £1,000-£2,000 but after consideration the company directors elected not to do this. [15] By that stage the company was reporting consistent losses, due in part to its inability to recoup costs incurred in Great Britain and the US. [16] It appears to have wound up shortly afterwards.

Select Filmography

Related Research Articles

<i>The Man from Snowy River</i> (1920 film) 1920 film by Beaumont Smith

The Man from Snowy River is a 1920 film made in Australia. The film was silent and filmed in black and white, and was based on the Banjo Paterson poem of the same name. It is considered a lost film.

Lottie Lyell Australian film director

Lottie Lyell 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 silent era with her collaborations with Raymond Longford.

<i>The Blue Mountains Mystery</i> 1921 film by Lottie Lyell, Raymond Longford

The Blue Mountains Mystery is a lost 1921 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford and co-directed by Lottie Lyell.

Arthur Embery Higgins was a pioneering Australian cinematographer known for his use of trick photography during the silent era. His ongoing collaborations with director Raymond Longford include The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and The Blue Mountains Mystery (1921). He briefly turned to directing with Odds On (1928) however returned to cinematography in 1931 for the remainder of his career.

Arthur Shirley Australian actor

Arthur Shirley was an Australian actor, writer, producer and director of theatre and film. He was one of the first Australians to enjoy success as a film actor in Hollywood.

Frank Beaumont "Beau" Smith, was an Australian film director, producer and exhibitor, best known for making low-budget comedies.

The Sentimental Bloke is a 1932 Australian film directed by F. W. Thring and starring Cecil Scott and Ray Fisher. It is an adaptation of Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C. J. Dennis, which had previously been filmed in 1919.

The Church and the Woman is a 1917 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford set against the background of sectarianism in Australia. It is considered a lost film.

On Our Selection is a 1920 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford based on the Dad and Dave stories by Steele Rudd.

Rudd's New Selection is a 1921 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford based on the Dad and Dave stories by Steele Rudd. It is a sequel to On Our Selection (1920). The plot concerns the marriage of Dave Rudd and introduces a sister, Nell.

The Dinkum Bloke is a 1923 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford. Despite the title and the presence of Arthur Tauchert and Lottie Lyell in the cast, the film is not a direct sequel to The Sentimental Bloke (1919) or Ginger Mick (1920).

The Jackeroo of Coolabong is a 1920 Australian silent film starring renowned Australian sportsman Snowy Baker. It was the last of three films he made with the husband and wife team of director Wilfred Lucas and writer Bess Meredyth, both of whom had been imported from Hollywood.

Talone Ordell (1880–1948), better known as Tal Ordel, was an Australian actor, writer and director. Ordell was probably born in Calcutta, India, seventh child of Victorian-born parents William Odell Raymond Buntine, drover, and his wife Susanna, née Mawley. He worked extensively on stage and screen as an actor in the 1910s and 1920s, playing Dad Rudd twice for Raymond Longford and Dad Hayseed – a similar role – three times for Beaumont Smith. He was the original "Ginger Mick" in the stage version of The Sentimental Bloke. He toured Australia with Marie Tempest.

Charles Villiers was an Australian actor and occasional director who appeared in many silent films. According to a contemporary report, "there is probably no actor in Australia that has done more consistent picture work than Mr. Yilliers, both as heavy lead, and director." He was particularly well known for playing villains.

Gilbert Charles Warren Emery is an Australian actor best known for his performances as Ginger Mick in the silent films The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and Ginger Mick (1920). These were directed by Raymond Longford with whom Emery had acted on stage in The Fatal Wedding.

References

  1. ↑ Southern Cross Feature Film Company at AustLit
  2. ↑ "MOTION PICTURES MANUFACTURED IN S.A." The Mail . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 2 June 1917. p. 5. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ "Advertising". The Advertiser . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 3 September 1917. p. 12. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  5. ↑ "SEEN ON THE SCREEN". The Sunday Times . Perth: National Library of Australia. 10 June 1917. p. 14 Section: First Section. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  6. ↑ "Advertising". The Barrier Miner . Broken Hill, NSW: National Library of Australia. 11 June 1917. p. 3. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  7. ↑ Merv Wasson, "The Woman Suffers: Why Ever Was She Banned?", Cinema Papers, July 1984 p158-160
  8. ↑ "THE WOMAN SUFFERS". The Advertiser . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 25 March 1918. p. 9. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  9. ↑ "Advertising". The Register . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 19 August 1920. p. 2. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  10. ↑ "AUSTRALIAN FILM MAKERS". The Barrier Miner . Broken Hill, NSW: National Library of Australia. 9 June 1920. p. 4. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  11. ↑ "SOUTHERN CROSS FEATURE FILM COMPANY, LIMITED". The Register . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 23 December 1921. p. 5. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
  12. ↑ "COMPANY NEWS". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 31 December 1920. p. 8. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  13. ↑ "SOUTHERN CROSS FEATURE FILM COMPANY, LIMITED". The Register . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 25 June 1921. p. 6. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  14. ↑ "ALLEGED ABDUCTION". The Register . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 2 October 1923. p. 9. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  15. ↑ "SOUTHERN CROSS FEATURE". The Register . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 13 June 1925. p. 14. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  16. ↑ "HIDES". The Advertiser . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 13 June 1925. p. 19. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.