The Church and the Woman

Last updated

The Church and the Woman
Directed by Raymond Longford
Written by Raymond Longford
Based onthe novel 'A Priest's Secret' by Edmund Finn
Produced by Humbert Pugliese
Starring Lottie Lyell
Cinematography Ernest Higgins
Edited byErnest Higgins
Production
company
Longford-Pugliese [1]
Distributed byC.F. Pugliese
Release date
13 October 1917
Running time
7,000 feet
CountryAustralia
Languages

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.

Contents

Synopsis

Eileen Shannon falls in love with Dr Burton. However he is a Protestant and her strongly Catholic father John refuses to give his consent to marriage between them.

Eileen pleads to her brother Darcy, a Catholic priest, for his help, but he does not support mixed marriages either.

John is murdered and Dr Burton is arrested for the crime and sentenced to death. The real murderer confesses to Darcy in the confessional. Unable to break the confidence of the confessional, Darcy admits to the murder and Dr Burton is freed. The murderer eventually confesses and Eileen marries Dr Burton. [2]

Cast

Production

The movie was the first of three financed by exhibitor Humbert Pugliese and his mother Caroline. Shooting began in March 1917 with location filming at the Sacred Heart Church, Darlinghurst, Catholic Riverview College, Sydney, and Wentworth House, Vaucluse. A scene depicting a Catholic mass was filmed not by Protestant Longford but by his Catholic assistant, Pat McGrath. [3]

Lawsuits

The production and distribution of the film was notable for the large number of lawsuits associated with it.

The Monk and the Woman

The producer of the film The Monk and the Woman sued Humbert Pugliese for copyright infringement. This was resolved when Pugliese agreed not to advertise The Church and the Woman in the press or on noticeboards without adding the words: "The film must not be confused with the film of the play entitled The Monk and the Woman." [4]

A Priest's Secret

Later on the writer Edmund Finn succeeded in getting an injunction stopping the film being distributed on the grounds it was adapted from his novel, The Priest's Secret. [5] [6] Pugliese denied he had ever read the novel but Justice Street in the Equity Court of New South Wales found that there were too many similarities and ordered that Finn was entitled to an injunction, an account of profits, and an order for the delivering up of negatives. [7]

Pugliese appealed this decision in the Supreme Court but was unsuccessful. The court held that after comparing the film's script with the novel, it was clear the former had been adapted from the latter – the main incidents of the plot were the same, long passages in the script were taken verbatim from the novel, and there was one passage on page seven of the script where Longford used the name "Martin" when speaking of the character in his scenario, "Mike Feeny", who was obviously taken from the character, "Martin Sullivan", in the novel. [8] [9]

The film was re-released with Edmund Finn credited as the author of the original novel. [10]

The Church and the Nun

Pugliese and his Brisbane exhibitors sued a company for exhibiting a film under the title of The Church and the Nun. The court ruled in their favour, deciding that the other film had to make clear in advertising it was a different movie from The Church and the Woman. [11]

Ernest Higgins

The cinematographer of the film, Ernest Higgins, sued Pugliese for unpaid wages of almost £700, mostly for work on this film, and the jury found in his favour. [12]

Reception

Despite its legal troubles, the film was a popular success at the box office. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Sentimental Bloke</i> 1918 Australian film

The Sentimental Bloke is a 1918 Australian silent film based on the 1915 verse novel The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C. J. Dennis. Produced and directed by Raymond Longford, the film stars Arthur Tauchert, Gilbert Emery, and Lottie Lyell, who also co-wrote the film with Longford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moonta, South Australia</span> Town in South Australia

Moonta is a town on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia, 165 km (103 mi) north-northwest of the state capital of Adelaide. It is one of three towns known as the Copper Coast or "Little Cornwall" for their shared copper mining history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Parsons (politician)</span> Australian politician

Walter Langdon Parsons was an Australian politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lottie Lyell</span> Australian actress and 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 through her collaborations with director and writer Raymond Longford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Longford</span> Australian filmmaker and actor (1878–1959)

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 AFI Raymond Longford Award, inaugurated in 1968, to be named in his honour.

<i>The Hayseeds Come to Sydney</i> 1917 Australian film

The Hayseeds Come to Sydney is a 1917 Australian rural comedy from director Beaumont Smith.

The Silence of Dean Maitland is a 1914 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford. It is an adaptation of the 1886 novel of the same name by Maxwell Gray which was later filmed by Ken G. Hall in 1934. It is considered a lost film.

A Maori Maid's Love is a 1916 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford about an interracial romance between a white man and a Māori girl. It is considered a lost film as there are no known copies.

The Mutiny of the Bounty is a 1916 Australian-New Zealand silent film directed by Raymond Longford about the mutiny aboard HMS Bounty. It is the first known cinematic dramatisation of this story and is considered a lost film.

<i>Captain Midnight, the Bush King</i> 1911 film

Captain Midnight, the Bush King is a 1911 Australian silent Western film about the fictitious bushranger Captain Midnight. It was the directorial debut of actor Alfred Rolfe. The film is based on the play of same name by W. J. Lincoln and Alfred Dampier. Captain Midnight, the Bush King is now considered lost.

The Monk and the Woman is a 1917 Australian silent film directed by Franklyn Barrett. It is considered to be lost.

Humbert Pugliese (1884–1955) was an Australian film exhibitor and producer. A chain of cinemas had been established by his father Antonio and wife Caroline and Humbert became general manager when his father died in 1916. His chain was often supportive of Australian films and Humbert produced three features.

Jerusalem is a suburb of the town of Kadina on the Yorke Peninsula. It is located in the Copper Coast Council. The boundaries were formally gazetted in January, 1999, although the name had long been in use for the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wallaroo Mines, South Australia</span> Suburb of Kadina, South Australia

Wallaroo Mines is a suburb of the inland town of Kadina on the Yorke Peninsula in the Copper Coast Council area. It was named for the land division in which it was established in 1860, the Hundred of Wallaroo, as was the nearby coastal town of Wallaroo. The boundaries were formally gazetted in January 1999 for "the long established name".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Pedler</span> Australian politician

John Nicholas Pedler was an Australian politician. He was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1918 to 1938, representing the electorate of Wallaroo.

John Albert Southwood was an Australian politician, newspaperman and trade unionist. He represented the South Australian House of Assembly multi-member seats of Wallaroo from 1912 to 1915 and East Torrens from 1915 to 1921. He was a member of the United Labor Party until 1917, when he joined the National Party after the 1917 Labor split, but sat as an independent from 1920 until his retirement in 1921.

The District Council of Bute was a local government area in South Australia from 1885 to 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corporate Town of Wallaroo</span> Local government area in South Australia

The Corporate Town of Wallaroo was a local government area in South Australia from 1874 to 1997, centred on the town of Wallaroo.

The District Council of Kadina was a local government area in South Australia from 1888 to 1984.

The Plain Dealer was a weekly Saturday newspaper in Kadina, South Australia, operating from 1894 until 1926 as a smaller competitor to the Kadina and Wallaroo Times.

References

  1. ↑ "Raymond Longford", Cinema Papers, January 1974 p51
  2. ↑ "Kadina & Wallaroo Times". Kadina and Wallaroo Times . SA: National Library of Australia. 17 November 1917. p. 2. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  3. 1 2 Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 73.
  4. ↑ "IN EQUITY". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 13 October 1917. p. 9. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  5. ↑ "A PICTURE FILM AFFAIR". The West Australian . Perth: National Library of Australia. 12 March 1918. p. 4. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  6. ↑ 'Finn, Edmund (1819–1898)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, Retrieved 8 January 2012
  7. ↑ "IN EQUITY". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 5 July 1918. p. 4. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  8. ↑ "A PICTURE FILM CASE". The Barrier Miner . Broken Hill, NSW: National Library of Australia. 30 September 1918. p. 1. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  9. ↑ "Moving Picture World (Nov - Dec 1918)". New York, Chalmers Publishing Company. 1918.
  10. ↑ "THE CHURCH AND THE WOMAN.". The Argus . Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 30 August 1921. p. 9. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  11. ↑ "LAW REPORT. Wednesday, February 6". The Brisbane Courier . National Library of Australia. 7 February 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  12. ↑ "LAW REPORT". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 20 March 1920. p. 9. Retrieved 8 January 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.