Thoroughbred (film)

Last updated

Thoroughbred
Helen Twelvetrees during filming of "Thoroughbred", Sydney, 1936 Sam Hood.jpg
Helen Twelvetrees during filming of Thoroughbred
Directed by Ken G. Hall
Written by Edmond Seward
Produced by Ken G. Hall
Starring Helen Twelvetrees
Frank Leighton
John Longden
Cinematography George Heath
Edited byWilliam Shepherd
Music by Hamilton Webber
Production
company
Distributed byBritish Empire Films
Release dates
May 1936 (Australia)
July 1936 (UK)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Budget£25,000 [1] or £21,000 [2] [3]
Box office£25,000 [4]

Thoroughbred is a 1936 Australian race-horse drama film directed by Ken G. Hall, partly based on the life and career of Phar Lap. Hollywood star Helen Twelvetrees was imported to Australia to appear in the film. The film also stars Frank Leighton and John Longden.

Contents

Plot summary

A Canadian horse trainer, Joan, is the adopted daughter of horse trainer and breeder Ma Dawson. She buys an unwanted thoroughbred colt named Stormalong. Joan nurses the horse back to health with the help of Ma's son Tommy, and Stormalong starts to win races. He becomes the favourite to win the Melbourne Cup which attracts the interest of a gambling syndicate who try to dope the horse and kill it in a stable fire. They then kidnap Tommy prior to the race.

Stormalong manages to participate in the Cup, and although is mortally wounded by a sniper, lives long enough to come first place. Tommy escapes and helps the police capture the gangsters.

Cast

Production

The film was the first made by Cinesound after the studio ceased production in 1935 enabling Hall to visit Hollywood for a number of months. While in Hollywood there he signed contracts with American star Helen Twelvetrees and writer Edmond Seward to work on the film. (Sally Blane and Norman Foster had been originally considered). [6]

He also purchased a rear-projection unit which was used extensively in the film. [7] The budget was originally announced as £25,000. [8]

Twelvetrees was paid £1,000 a week, reportedly the highest salary ever paid by the Australian film industry to an actor. [9] (Another source said £200 a week. [10] )

Her co-stars would be Australian leading man Frank Leighton and English actor John Longden who was having an extended stay in Australia. According to Ken G. Hall, Twelvetrees and Leighton had an affair during filming, despite the actress having been accompanied to Australia by her husband and baby. Her husband found out and threatened to kill Leighton. Hall told Stuart F. Doyle who arranged for some detective friends to force Twelvetrees' husband to leave Australia. [11]

This was the first movie with Cinesound for actor Ron Whelan, who joined the company as assistant director and also worked as an actor in several films. [12]

Australia's Prime Minister Joseph Lyons visited the set during filming. [13]

The horses races were shot in part by a camera man being towed on a sled. [14]

The climax is similar to the 1934 Frank Capra film, Broadway Bill . Hall claimed he was unaware of this and blamed it on Seward. [15]

Release

The film was popular [16] although reviews were mixed, with some criticism of the script. [17] According to one account the film's box office "was a drop from the big figures of earlier days, but was still satisfactory, considering that an American programme picture will make only from £3,000 to £4,000 in Australia, a special feature up to £lO,OOO, and a super-feature from £20,000 to £25,000, and American pictures cost four or five times as much to produce, compared with Australian. " [4]

The film received a release in the UK, but was subject to cuts from the censor on the grounds of scenes depicting cruelty to animals, in particular the stable fire. [18] The movie was not a success at the English box office. [16]

A novelised version of the screenplay sold out within three days, at a rate of 1,000 copies a day. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken G. Hall</span> Australian film producer and director (1901–1994)

Kenneth George Hall was an Australian film producer and director, considered one of the most important figures in the history of the Australian film industry. He was the first Australian to win an Academy Award.

<i>Smithy</i> (1946 film) 1946 Australian adventure film

Smithy is a 1946 Australian adventure film about pioneering Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith directed by Ken G. Hall starring Ron Randell. It was Hall's last feature film as a director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinesound Productions</span> Australian film production company

Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company. Established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union Theatres that covered all facets of the film process, from production to distribution and exhibition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Richards (actress)</span> Australian actress (1917–2006)

Shirley Ann Richards was an Australian actress and author who achieved notability in a series of 1930s Australian films for Ken G. Hall before moving to the United States, where she continued her career as a film actress, mainly as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starlet. Her best known performances were in It Isn't Done (1937), Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938), An American Romance (1944), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). In the 1930s, she was the only Australian actor under a long-term contract to a film studio, Cinesound Productions. She subsequently became a lecturer and poet.

<i>Mr. Chedworth Steps Out</i> 1939 Australian film

Mr. Chedworth Steps Out is a 1939 Australian comedy film directed by Ken G. Hall starring Cecil Kellaway. Kellaway returned to Australia from Hollywood to make the film, which features an early screen appearance by Peter Finch.

<i>The Broken Melody</i> (1938 film) 1938 Australian film

The Broken Melody is a 1938 Australian drama film directed by Ken G. Hall and starring Lloyd Hughes, based on a best-selling novel by F. J. Thwaites.

Edmond Seward was a Hollywood screenwriter who had originally attended Northwestern University and worked as a journalist, before doing some writing for Disney.

<i>On Our Selection</i> (1932 film) 1932 film

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.

The Squatter's Daughter is a 1933 Australian melodrama directed by Ken G. Hall and starring Jocelyn Howarth. One of the most popular Australian films of the 1930s, it is based on a 1907 play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan which had been previously adapted to the screen in 1910.

The Silence of Dean Maitland is a 1934 Australian film directed by Ken G. Hall, and based on Maxwell Gray's 1886 novel of the same name. It was one of the most popular Australian films of the 1930s.

<i>Strike Me Lucky</i> 1934 Australian film

Strike Me Lucky is a 1934 Australian comedy musical film starring popular stage comic vaudevillian Roy Rene in his first and only film. It was the fourth feature film from Cinesound Productions but proved a box office disappointment. Director Ken G. Hall claimed it was the only one of his features not to go into profit within a few years of release, although the film eventually covered costs.

<i>Grandad Rudd</i> 1935 Australian film

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.

<i>Orphan of the Wilderness</i> 1936 Australian film

Orphan of the Wilderness is a 1936 Australian feature film from director Ken G. Hall about the adventures of a boxing kangaroo. It starred Brian Abbot who disappeared at sea not long after filming completed.

It Isn't Done is a 1937 Australian comedy film about a grazier who inherits a barony in England.

<i>Lovers and Luggers</i> 1937 Australian film

Lovers and Luggers is a 1937 Australian film directed by Ken G. Hall. It is an adventure melodrama about a pianist who goes to Thursday Island to retrieve a valuable pearl.

Tall Timbers is a 1937 action melodrama set in the timber industry directed by Ken G. Hall and starring Frank Leighton and Shirley Ann Richards.

Gone to the Dogs is a 1939 musical comedy vehicle starring George Wallace. It was the second of two films he made for director Ken G. Hall, the first being Let George Do It (1938).

<i>Dad Rudd, M.P.</i> 1940 Australian film

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.

Come Up Smiling is a 1939 Australian comedy film starring popular American stage comedian Will Mahoney and his wife Evie Hayes. It was the only feature from Cinesound Productions not directed by Ken G. Hall.

Frank Leighton (1908–1962) was an Australian actor best known for two leading roles in films for Ken G. Hall, Thoroughbred (1936) and Tall Timbers (1937).

References

  1. ↑ "HELEN TWELVETREES". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 4 December 1935. p. 20. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  2. ↑ Tomholt, Sydney (23 September 1950). "FILMS Cost of Australian Productions". ABC Weekly. p. 30.
  3. ↑ Pike, Andrew Franklin. "The History of an Australian Film Production Company: Cinesound, 1932-70" (PDF). Australian National University. p. 245.
  4. 1 2 "CINESOUND CAVALCADE". The Home : an Australian quarterly. Vol. 18, no. 6. 1 June 1937. p. 60.
  5. ↑ "CINESOUND FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 30 October 1935. p. 17. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  6. ↑ "Prod Starts at Cinemsound". Variety. 27 November 1935.
  7. ↑ "DEMAND FOR LOCAL FILMS". The Examiner . Launceston, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 11 October 1935. p. 9 Edition: DAILY. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  8. ↑ "RACING FILM". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 25 October 1935. p. 11. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  9. ↑ "Notes on the Screen." The Argus (Melbourne) 6 Nov 1935: 10 accessed 15 December 2011
  10. ↑ Pike, Andrew Franklin. "The History of an Australian Film Production Company: Cinesound, 1932-70" (PDF). Australian National University. p. 79.
  11. ↑ Hall p 105-108
  12. ↑ 'Versatile Ronald Whelan', The Mail (Adelaide), Saturday 29 May 1937 p 12
  13. ↑ "CINESOUND FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 14 December 1935. p. 12. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  14. ↑ "AUSTRALIAN INGENUITY MEETS PROBLEM IN MAKING "THOROUGHBRED"". The Mercury . Hobart, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 18 April 1936. p. 17. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  15. ↑ Hall p108
  16. 1 2 Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 172.
  17. ↑ "FILM REVIEWS". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 11 May 1936. p. 4. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  18. ↑ "AUSTRALIAN FILM". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 18 July 1936. p. 17. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  19. ↑ "'Thoroughbred' Novel into Third Edition", Everyones, Wednesday, 25 March 1936, p7

Notes

Hall, Ken G. Directed by Ken G. Hall: Autobiography of an Australian Filmmaker, Lansdowne Press, 1977

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.