The Shepherd of the Southern Cross

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The Shepherd of the Southern Cross
Directed byAlexander Butler
Written by Nell Shipman [1]
Produced byStanley Twist
Starring Arthur Shirley
Vera Pearce
Cinematography Ernest Higgins
Production
company
Release date
  • 13 June 1914 (1914-06-13) [2]
Running time
4,000 feet [3]
CountryAustralia
Languages Silent film
English intertitles

The Shepherd of the Southern Cross is a 1914 Australian silent film about an Englishwoman torn between two men. [4] It was the first feature film produced by Australasian Films. [5]

Contents

It is considered a lost film.

Plot

Lady Helen Reynolds is forced to choose one of her two cousins to be her husband if she wants to inherit a large fortune. She chooses the villainous Ralph Hughes after he discredits the other option, Devon Collins.

Collins goes to Australia and becomes a shepherd. Some years later Lady Helen falls sick and is accompanied by her husband on a trip to Australia. While making the final stages of the journey in a coach they are held up by bushrangers. The husband and wife escape and get lost in the bush.

They wander around for days and become exhausted. Ralph leaves Helen for dead and winds up at the hut of his cousin, where he is taken in and revived by a girl who is actually his own daughter (the daughter of a previous marriage).

Lady Helen is discovered by Collins who takes her to the hut. Ralph admits his flaws and dies. [6]

Cast

Production

Australasian Films were reluctant to enter feature film production but were persuaded to do so by Cosens Spencer. Spencer imported the key creative talent: Stanley Twist and Nell Shipman were from Hollywood and Alexander Butler was established in British cinema. Shipman was only eighteen at the time. [9] Butler had previously worked in Australia directing plays for J. C. Williamsons Ltd. [10] [11] [12] [13]

The actors were well established Australian stage performers. The lead female role was meant to be played by Bobbie Hunt but she was replaced by Vera Pearce in her first film role. [14] [15] Mrs George Lauri was the widow of a comedian who Butler had worked with years before. [16]

Raymond Longford was critical of the amount of time Butler spent filming, and said this caused the budget to increase. [4]

Reception

Critical response was mixed. The critic from The Referee said the film "placed Australian film production on a higher plane". [17]

A critic from a Dubbo newspaper stated that the film:

Has done a deal of harm by representing to the untravelled young Sydneyites that the interior of the State is a vast, barren wilderness, where dust storms rage which bury man and beast, and have all the stifling and suffocating and poisonous effects of the African Simoom. But great as is the harm done by exhibiting this picture to Sydney youth, that harm is as a mere nothing compared to the false and harmful impressions that that would be created abroad. This film should be rigorously censored by the Government before it is released from Australia. Otherwise, it should be burnt by the common hangman. [18]

The film was a financial failure, returning under £100 to Australasian Films. This led to them abandoning feature film production and Spencer resigned from the company he had helped establish.

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References

  1. ↑ "Production of Moving Pictures — in America and Australia". Australian Town and Country Journal . Vol. XCVIII, no. 2555. New South Wales, Australia. 18 December 1918. p. 20. Retrieved 21 November 2023– via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ ""The Shepherd of the Southern Cross"". The Sydney Morning Herald . 13 June 1914. p. 23. Retrieved 4 September 2013– via National Library of Australia.
  3. ↑ "Princess Theatre". The Examiner . Launceston, Tasmania. 18 June 1914. p. 3. Retrieved 4 February 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  4. 1 2 Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p 50
  5. ↑ "The Shepherd of the Southern Cross" The Sydney Morning Herald 13 Jun 1914: 23. Retrieved 31 December 2011
  6. ↑ ""Shepherd of the Southern Cross"". The Sunday Times . Sydney. 14 June 1914. p. 6. Retrieved 4 September 2013– via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "The Stage". The Mail . Adelaide. 4 July 1914. p. 10. Retrieved 4 September 2013– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "Mrs George Lauri in Pictures". The Barrier Miner . Broken Hill, NSW. 29 June 1914. p. 8. Retrieved 4 September 2013– via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ Jeannette Delamoir review of Kay Armatage, The girl from God's country: Nell Shipman and the silent cinema. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003, Screening the Past
  10. ↑ "Vera Pearce on the Screen". The Sunday Times . Sydney. 31 May 1914. p. 27. Retrieved 4 September 2013– via National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ "Australian Film Plays Industry". The Referee . Sydney. 24 December 1913. p. 1. Retrieved 1 July 2015– via National Library of Australia.
  12. ↑ "Won Over By a Film". The Referee . Sydney. 7 January 1914. p. 13. Retrieved 1 July 2015– via National Library of Australia.
  13. ↑ "Manufacture of the Movie". The Sunday Times . Sydney. 11 January 1914. p. 6. Retrieved 1 July 2015– via National Library of Australia.
  14. ↑ "From Day to Day in Sydney". The Sydney Morning Herald . 23 October 1936. p. 5. Retrieved 4 February 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  15. ↑ "The Stage". The Mail . Adelaide. 4 July 1914. p. 10. Retrieved 4 February 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  16. ↑ "Mrs George Lauri in Pictures". The Barrier Miner . Broken Hill, NSW. 29 June 1914. p. 8. Retrieved 4 February 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  17. ↑ "Moving Pictures". The Referee . Sydney. 24 June 1914. p. 15. Retrieved 4 September 2013– via National Library of Australia.
  18. ↑ "Libelling the State". The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate . NSW. 25 September 1914. p. 2. Retrieved 4 February 2012– via National Library of Australia.
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