Unlike many Australian silent movies, it is possible to see the full film today.[4] It was one of the best known early Australian films.[5]
Synopsis
Jack Airlie is a secret agent who has worked for four years abroad. He returns to Australia after four years away and falls for Myree Brew, beautiful daughter of his oldest friend, Mrs Drew. Rich businessman Henry Brasels is also in love with Myree.
Brasels is running a gang of German saboteurs, including radical leader Bill Warne, who is planning to set off a series of bombs. Brasels lures Jack into a trap but he manages to escape with the help of his sidekick, detective Jimmy Cook. Brasels kidnaps Myee and tries to get on board a German ship. however Jack manages to climb down a steep cliff and rescue her, as the Coastal Patrol capture Warne and Warne.
The story was by Roland Stavely, a stage director for J. C. Williamson Ltd.[6] Franklyn Barrett turned it into a scenario and produced with Rock Phillips.[7]
The story was partly inspired by the real-life raid of the SMS Wolf in the Pacific during World War I, and the sinking of the Cumberland off Gabo Island.[8][9] The villains were based on the Industrial Workers of the World, and shown to be operating in Sydney high society, although allusion to the IWW was indirect.[10]
The filmmakers had trouble getting hold of a male lead until they approacher Snowy Baker. Stavley raised the finance and directed.[7]
Filming started in December 1917. The film featured plenty of action sequences to demonstrate Baker's physical prowess, including climbing down a 300-foot cliff, leaping from a moving car, diving 80-foot into Sydney harbour at Coogee Bay and hand-to-hand fighting.[11][12][13]
The part of Snowy Baker's assistant was played by Sandy McVea, an aboriginal boxer.[14] It has been called the first significant performance by an Aboriginal actor in an Australian film.[7]
A fight scene was reportedly shot for twenty minutes, causing injury to several participants.[15]
Female lead Lily Molloy had started her career aged fifteen and wsa a stage comedienne. She had worked in America.[16][17]
The film was previewed at the Theatre Royal in Sydney on 28 February 1918. The film launched officially on 13 March at the Strand. The film was specifically advertised as "not a war picture but a thrilling drama of a special agent's fight against spies in Australia".[19]
The Daily Telegraph praised the photography but said the film "though far and away ahead of previous Australian productions, the chief detriment of the latter - the lack of sufficient plots and indifferent acting - are present int his production."[20]
The Evening News praised the "degree of exciting inciden, good acting and excellent phtotography."[21]
The Sunday Times called it "another upward step in the local film industry, for the producer has got away from the backblocks or early settlers' tales that, usually represent Australia on the screen. This is a drama of city life, meant to show the working of a spy system. So skil fully are the facts of the Gabo mines and the Cumberland loss minglcu with the mass of fiction that the whole bears the color of truth." The reviewer said there were "plenty" of faults - "It is too long, for instance, and the secret meeting-house is ridiculous. Its hidden entrances, and walls with mysterious trap doors, are as out of place, at least in Australia, as the slinking walk of the conspirators. Yet everything considered, the picture looks like the beginning of better and more ambitious local productions."[22]
The Mirror also thought the film had flaws. "It is too long, and some of the incidents and' players have .no connection with the story. Then, too, there is excessive mystery and ' melodrama- in the? meeting house of the criminals... However, these weaknesses are easy to overlook when the picture holds so much that is pleasing."[23]
The Sydney Sun felt "Under more experienced and critical directorship" the movie "might have been an excellent one. Much of the plot material is good, and some of it is very well handled, especially In tho outdoor scenes, but generally It lacks that certainty of touch with which the export gives precision and finish to his handiwork. The strength of "The Enemy Within" lies in action rather than characterisation and intrigue."[10]
The Bulletin said "The opening scenes are much too slow; but when “Snowy” Baker' begins his Douglas Fair-banks stunts the tempo quickens."[24]
The film was a hit and led to a number of action movies starring Baker.[25] It enjoyed a successful run in New Zealand.[26]
A novelised version of the script was published in 1919.
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↑ "THE STRAND". The Sydney Morning Herald. No.25, 015. New South Wales, Australia. 9 March 1918. p.14. Retrieved 20 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
↑ Australian Geographical Society; Australian National Publicity Association; Australian National Travel Association (1 July 1973), "Vault of Dreams", Walkabout., Melbourne: Australian National Travel Association, nla.obj-755099478, retrieved 20 April 2024– via Trove
↑ "Snowy Baker, Movie Actor". Referee. No.1627. New South Wales, Australia. 6 March 1918. p.14. Retrieved 20 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "Lily Molloy Dies At 51". The Daily News. Vol.LXIX, no.23, 657. Western Australia. 7 February 1951. p.1 (FINAL). Retrieved 20 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "AMUSEMENTS". The Daily Telegraph. No.12107. New South Wales, Australia. 1 March 1918. p.6. Retrieved 20 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
↑ ""THE ENEMY WITHIN."". Evening News. No.15, 824. New South Wales, Australia. 1 March 1918. p.2. Retrieved 20 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "BIG FILMS IN REVIEW". Sunday Times. No.1677. New South Wales, Australia. 10 March 1918. p.23. Retrieved 20 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "THE FILM REVIEW". The Mirror. No.38. New South Wales, Australia. 15 March 1918. p.14. Retrieved 20 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "SUNDRY SHOWS.", The Bulletin., John Ryan Comic Collection (Specific issues)., Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 14 March 1918, nla.obj-668724802, retrieved 20 April 2024– via Trove
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