Under the Southern Cross | |
---|---|
Directed by | Lew Collins |
Produced by | Lew Collins |
Edited by | Hugh Hoffmann |
Music by | Bathie Stuart |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 5579 ft US silent 5606 then 6279 ft UK 6642 ft US sound |
Languages | Sound (Part-Talkie) English Intertitles |
Under the Southern Cross also known as The Devil's Pit or Taranga, is a 1929 American sound part-talkie drama film set in New Zealand, directed and produced by Lew Collins for Universal Studios, who also wrote the screenplay. Originally titled Taranga by the original director Alexander Markey, the film was completed by Collins and released as Under the Southern Cross in 1929. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score, singing and sound effects along with English intertitles. The film was retitled as The Devil’s Pit in 1930. The film was shot on White Island, which has an active volcano.
It is one of four films (with Down on the Farm , Hei Tiki and On the Friendly Road ) which claim to be the first "New Zealand talkie", although dubious as the sound was added for the 1930 release in the United States.
For many years the film was believed to be lost until in 1980 the silent version of the 1930 part-talkie sound version was discovered by British film historian Kevin Brownlow under the title Dragon’s Pit. This 1929 film has no connection with the 1927 British film of the same name, directed by Gustav Pauli.
The original director Alexander Marky was replaced a few weeks into filming. [1]
In pre-European New Zealand there are two hostile Māori tribes. The chief of one tribe proposes to marry his daughter Miro into the other tribe, the Waiti. But a contest, The Challenge of the Spear, must be held, with the victor to marry Miro. Rangi, a vicious warrior wins by trickery. Miro is by tapu forbidden from seeing her true love Patiti. But Patiti rows across the lake to see her nightly, until the suspicious Rangi finds them. In a deadly struggle on the edge of the volcano, Patiti forces Rangi into the volcano. War resumes, but love brings a compromise and Miro and Patiti marry.
The Broadway Melody, also known as The Broadway Melody of 1929, is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the early musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, which sparked the trend of color being used in a flurry of musicals that would hit the screens in 1929–1930.
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before sound motion pictures became commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, and amplification and recording quality were also inadequate. Innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923. Before sound-on-film technology became viable, soundtracks for films were commonly played live with organs or pianos.
Coquette is a 1929 American pre-Code drama film, starring Mary Pickford. The film was a box office success. For her role, Pickford won the second Academy Award for Best Actress.
The Phantom of the Opera is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel of the same name directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney in the title role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star. The film remains most famous for Chaney's ghastly, self-devised make-up, which was kept a studio secret until the film's premiere. The picture also features Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis and Snitz Edwards. The last surviving cast member was Carla Laemmle (1909–2014), niece of producer Carl Laemmle, who played a small role as a "prima ballerina" in the film when she was about 15 years old. The first cut of the film was previewed in Los Angeles on January 26, 1925. The film was released on September 6, 1925, premiering at the Astor Theatre in New York.
Mary Brian was an American actress who made the transition from silent films to sound films.
The Patriot is a 1928 semi-biographical sound film (Part-Talkie) directed by Ernst Lubitsch and released by Paramount Pictures. It features synchronized music and sound effects, with some talking sequences, depicting the story of Emperor Paul I of Russia. The plot revolves around Count Pahlen's plot to remove the mad Tsar from the throne, eventually leading to the Tsar's death. The film stars Emil Jannings, Florence Vidor, and Lewis Stone.
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A part-talkie is a sound film that includes at least some "talking sequences" or sections with audible dialogue. The remainder of the film is provided with a synchronized musical score with sound effects. These films more often than not contain a main theme song that is played during key scenes in the film and is often sung offscreen on the musical soundtrack. During the portion without audible dialogue, speaking parts are presented as intertitles—printed text briefly filling the screen—and the soundtrack is used only to supply musical accompaniment and sound effects.
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4 Devils is a lost 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed by German director F. W. Murnau and starring Janet Gaynor. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.
City Girl is a 1930 American part-talkie sound film directed by F. W. Murnau, and starring Charles Farrell and Mary Duncan. It is based upon the play "The Mud Turtle" by Elliot Lester. Though shot as a silent feature, the film was refitted with some sound elements and released in 1930 as a sound film due to the public apathy to silent films. While the film has a few talking sequences, the majority of the film featured a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film is credited as being the primary inspiration for Terrence Malick's film Days of Heaven (1978).
Alias Jimmy Valentine is a 1928 American sound part-talkie crime drama film directed by Jack Conway and starring William Haines, Leila Hyams, Lionel Barrymore, and Karl Dane. The film features talking sequences along with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film is based on the 1909 play Alias Jimmy Valentine by Paul Armstrong, which itself was based on an O. Henry short story. The play toured in travelling production companies making it extremely popular. It was revived on Broadway in 1921. Two previous film adaptations had been produced at the old Metro Studios. A 1915 film version was directed by Maurice Tourneur and a 1920 version starring Bert Lytell was directed by Edmund Mortimer and Arthur Ripley.
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Hardboiled Rose is a 1929 American sound part-talkie romantic drama film directed by F. Harmon Weight and released by Warner Bros. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. The film starred Myrna Loy, William Collier, Jr., and John Miljan.
Kitty is a 1929 sound part-talkie British drama film directed by Victor Saville and starring Estelle Brody and John Stuart. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The film was adapted from the 1927 novel of the same name by Warwick Deeping and marked the third co-star billing of Brody and Stuart, who had previously proved a very popular screen pairing in Mademoiselle from Armentieres (1926) and Hindle Wakes (1927).
Alexander Alexandrovich Murski was a Saint Petersburg, Russian-born German actor. Murski died in 1943 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France.
International Sound Version is a term for a film in which all dialogue is replaced with music and foreign inter-titles. It was a method used by movie studios during the early talkie period (1928-1931) to make sound films for foreign markets. This method was much cheaper than the alternative, the "Foreign Language Version", in which the entire film was re-shot with a cast that was fluent in the appropriate language.
Roy Pomeroy was an American special effects artist and film director. One of the only three technicians that founded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he was awarded the Academy Award for Engineering Effects for the film Wings at the 1st Academy Awards.
Hei Tiki, also known as Primitive Passions and Hei Tiki: A Saga of the Maoris, is a 1935 American mock documentary film made in New Zealand by the eccentric Alexander Markey and released in America. The film gained notoriety in America for having scenes of nudity cut in various states.
RangiTaranga is a 2015 Indian Kannada-language mystery thriller film written and directed by Anup Bhandari in his debut, and produced by H. K. Prakash, under Shree Devi Entertainers. It features debutantes Nirup Bhandari, Radhika Chetan and Avantika Shetty in the lead roles, along with veteran actor, Saikumar.