The Hayseeds Come to Sydney | |
---|---|
Directed by | Beaumont Smith |
Written by | Beaumont Smith |
Produced by | Beaumont Smith |
Starring | Tal Ordell Fred MacDonald |
Cinematography | A. O. Segerberg |
Production company | Beaumont Smith Productions |
Release date |
|
Running time | 4,000 feet [1] |
Country | Australia |
Language | silent |
The Hayseeds Come to Sydney (also known as The Hayseeds Come to Town) is a 1917 Australian rural comedy from director Beaumont Smith.
The second in the Hayseeds series of movies, is considered a lost film.
In Stoney Creek, Dad Hayseed (Tal Ordell) wins £5,000 in the lottery and decides to take his family to Sydney. The group includes him, Mum, Sam, Jim (Fred MacDonald), Poppy, Molly, Bubs, Peter, Peter and Cousin Harold. They visit shops, theatres, the gardens, Town Hall, Taronga Zoo and White City. Someone tells them to walk in the middle of the road so none of the footpads that are supposed to wait around the corners could sandbag them. Dad goes surfing at Manly Beach and needs to be rescued.
The family meet Norah, a country girl who has gone to work at a low-class Woolloomooloo pub. Dad rescues Norah from the hands of some bad characters. Later on, Dad is enticed to the pub buy two spielers on the pretense that Norah needs him, and is drugged. Norah discovers the plot and tells Jim Hayseed and the rest of the boys, who arrive just in time to save Dad after a brawl. Dad then gets a letter from Tom announcing that old Spotty the cow has got a calf and that Mum's eggs are hatching. This makes them get homesick and they go home. [2] [3]
After Our Friends, the Hayseeds , Smith was able to pre-sell this sequel to forty Sydney theatres by the end of that month. [4]
This was the first film made by stage actor Fred MacDonald who played Dave Rudd on stage and in several films, notably for Ken G. Hall. The part of Jim Hayseed was similar to Dave Rudd.
The movie was filmed in and around Sydney in May 1917, with plenty of scenes of local landmarks such as Taronga Zoo and White City. It was claimed 100,000 people saw the movie being shot. [5] During filming the sequence at Manly Beach, Tal Ordell almost drowned and had to be rescued by the cameraman. [6]
The film was retitled The Hayseeds Come to Town in markets outside Sydney. It was followed by The Hayseeds' Back-blocks Show .
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.
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.
On Our Selection 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.
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.
Frank Beaumont "Beau" Smith, was an Australian film director, producer and exhibitor, best known for making low-budget comedies.
The Hayseeds is a 1933 Australian musical comedy from Beaumont Smith. It centres on the rural family, the Hayseeds, about whom Smith had previously made six silent films, starting with Our Friends, the Hayseeds (1917). He retired from directing in 1925 but decided to revive the series in the wake of the box office success of On Our Selection (1932). It was the first starring role in a movie for stage actor Cecil Kellaway.
Our Friends, the Hayseeds is a 1917 Australian rural comedy from director Beaumont Smith. It centers on the rural family, the Hayseeds, and their rivalry with a neighbouring family, the Duggans.
The Hayseeds' Back-blocks Show is a 1917 Australian rural comedy from director Beaumont Smith. It was the third in his series about the rural family, the Hayseeds.
The Hayseeds' Melbourne Cup is a 1918 Australian rural comedy from director Beaumont Smith. It was the fourth in his series about the rural family, the Hayseeds, and centers on Dad Hayseed entering his horse in the Melbourne Cup.
While the Billy Boils is a 1921 Australian film from director Beaumont Smith based on Smith's stage play adaptation of several stories from Henry Lawson.
The Gentleman Bushranger is a 1921 Australian film melodrama from director Beaumont Smith. Bushranging films were banned at the time but Smith got around this by making the plot about a man falsely accused of being a bushranger.
Townies and Hayseeds is a 1923 Australian film comedy from director Beaumont Smith. It is the fifth in his series about the rural family the Hayseeds.
Prehistoric Hayseeds is a 1923 Australian film comedy that was written, produced, and directed by Beaumont Smith. It is the sixth in his series about the rural family the Hayseeds and concerns their discovery of a lost tribe.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Constance Elizabeth Martyn was an Australian actress of stage and screen best known for playing Ma Rudd in Dad and Dave Come to Town.