The Kid Stakes | |
---|---|
Directed by | Tal Ordell |
Written by | Tal Ordell |
Based on | comic strip characters created by Syd Nicholls |
Produced by | Tal Ordell Virgil Coyle |
Starring | Robin 'Pop' Ordell Eileen Alexander Frank Boyd Leonard Durell Syd Nicholls Tad Ordell |
Cinematography | Arthur Higgins |
Production company | Ordell-Coyle Productions |
Release date |
|
Running time | 76 minutes |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Budget | £4,000 [2] |
The Kid Stakes is a 1927 Australian silent black and white comedy film written and directed by Tal Ordell. [3]
The screenplay is based on characters created by Syd Nicholls [3] in his comic strip, Fatty Finn .
Fatty Finn (Robin 'Pop' Ordell) is the six-year-old leader of a gang of kids in Woolloomooloo. They enter Fatty's pet goat Hector in the annual goat derby, but his rival Bruiser Murphy (Frank Boyd) lets the goat loose before the race. After a series of adventures, Fatty finds the runaway goat and persuades a friendly aviator to fly him to the race-track in time for the main event. [4]
The majority of the shooting locations for The Kid Stakes were in Woolloomooloo and Potts Point in Sydney.
The film's finale, the goat race, however was filmed in Rockhampton, Queensland, because goat racing was illegal in New South Wales. [7] [8]
The role of Fatty Finn was played by Tal Ordell's six-year-old son Robin, known as 'Pop' Ordell. [2]
The film premiered at the Wintergarden Theatre in Brisbane on 9 June 1927. [9] The now defunct weekly magazine, Pix, in its review states "Kid Stakes brings back the Sydney of the 1920s. They were all on parade; the ragged urchins, the brawling and the free-fisted characters of the waterfront." [10]
Ordell sold the remake rights to England and had discussions to make a talking version in 1930. However this did not eventuate and Ordell never directed another feature. [11]
Robin Ordell went on to become a star of Sydney radio in the 1930s. He then joined the Royal Australian Air Force and won a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). He was killed over the Netherlands in 1945 at about the age of 24.
The movie was thought lost until rediscovered in 1952. [12] It was re-released two years later. [13]
The Kid Stakes was remade as Fatty Finn in 1980.
Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the population of Rockhampton was 79,293.
Smiley is a 1956 USA-British co-production comedy film directed by Anthony Kimmins and starring Colin Petersen. It was based on the 1945 novel of the same name by Moore Raymond who co-wrote the film with Kimmins. It tells the story of a young Australian boy who is determined to buy a bicycle for four pounds, and along the way he gets into many misadventures.
Fatty Finn is a 1980 Australian film, directed by Maurice Murphy and starring Ben Oxenbould with Rebecca Rigg. It is based on the 1930s cartoon-strip character, Fatty Finn, created by Syd Nicholls and is loosely based on the 1927 silent film, The Kid Stakes.
The Hayseeds Come to Sydney is a 1917 Australian rural comedy from director Beaumont Smith.
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The Romance of Runnibede is a 1928 Australian silent film based on an incident in a book by Steele Rudd. Unlike many Australian silent movies, a copy of it exists today.
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.
What Women Suffer is a 1911 Australian silent film directed by Alfred Rolfe. It is a Victorian melodrama, complete with a climax where a little child is placed on a moving saw bench and is considered a lost film.
The Cup Winner is a 1911 Australian silent film directed by Alfred Rolfe. It is set against a backdrop of horseracing and the finale involves real footage from the 1911 Melbourne Cup.
Caloola, or The Adventures of a Jackeroo is a 1911 Australian silent film directed by Alfred Rolfe based on a novel published the previous year by Clement Pratt.
Sydney 'Syd' Wentworth Nicholls was an Australian cartoonist and commercial artist, best known for the long-running comic strip Fatty Finn.
Fatty Finn was a popular long-run Australian comic strip series, created in 1923 by Syd Nicholls. It ran in syndication until the creator's death in 1977.
Howard Henry Nolan was an Australian Methodist minister. From 1908 until 1911 he was Conference Secretary of Foreign Missions and in 1928 and 1929 was elected as Secretary of the New South Wales Conference of Methodist Church of Australasia.
The Kid from Texas is a 1939 Western sports comedy film.
Richard William "Fatty" Lamb was an Australian racing cyclist who competed on both road and track, as was typical of Australian cyclists of the era such as Hubert Opperman. Throughout his career, Lamb was associated with Malvern Star Bicycles and Bruce Small.
The Bush Brotherhood was a group of Anglican religious orders providing itinerant priests to minister to sparsely-settled rural districts in Australia. They were described as a "band of men" who could "preach like Apostles" and "ride like cowboys".
Sydney Bevan Davis (1829–1884) was a pastoralist and politician in Queensland, Australia. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.
Limerick was a brown or black New Zealand Thoroughbred gelding who raced in Australia. He raced from a two-year-old to a seven-year-old, recording 29 wins from 6 furlongs to 2¼ miles, with regular jockey Maurice McCarten winning 22 races. McCarten migrated from New Zealand in 1923, a renowned master of race tactics, and won many major races.
Robin "Pop" Ordell was an Australian actor and radio announcer. He acted as a child in his father Tal's film The Kid Stakes, later working with the radio station 2GB as a teenager and adult. He was killed in the Second World War.