National Film & Sound Archive - logo presents
Efftee's Australia
Research by Chris Long
Titles: Frank Thring senior (1883-1936) father of the famous Australian actor, produced our first professional sound films in 1931.
This rare 1925 newsreel shows Thring, soon to be our first 'talkie' producer, meeting W. A. Gibson, the co-producer of Australia's first silent feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)
Thring sold his controlling share in Hoyts Theatres in 1930 to begin sound film production at his Melbourne based "Efftee" studios. He introduced the stars of his first films A Co-Respondents Course (1931), Diggers (1931) and The Sentimental Bloke (1932) in the following speech - July 1931.
Thring's cameraman was Arthur Higgins, whose earlier films included The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and The Kid Stakes (1927). He also shot the first Melbourne talkie travelogue for Thring in mid-1931.
MELBOURNE TODAY (1931)
Thring teamed with the naturalist Noel Monkman to produce two documentary series, The Great Barrier Reef (1931-1932) and the Monkman Marvelogues (1933-34) With camerawork by Monkman and narration by Thring, this short taken in the Carpentaria region was one of the best Monkman Marvelogues.
(Film Credits)
Efftee Film Productions - animated logo
Efftee Film Productions Present
An Australian Marvelogue
Catching Crocodiles Produced by Australian Educational Films
Photography and Description by Noel Monkman
RCA Photophone Recording - logo
The End
Titles:
To support the George Wallace film His Royal Highness (1932), Arthur Higgins shot the first talkie documentary on Ballarat. The hard times of the depression are indicated by unemployed men digging desperately for gold in Ballarat's streets.
Film's titles:
Efftee Film Productions Present:
Provincial Cities of Australia.
BALLARAT VICTORIA.
Direction, F. W. Thring.
Photography, Arthur Higgins. Sound Recording, Alan Mill.
RCA Photophone recording - logo
THE END
Title:
Dr William Maloney (1854-1940) was the illegitimate son of Sir Rupert Clarke, and one of the founders of the Australian Labor Party. On Maloney's 80th birthday, this interview was filmed for a special newsreel which only screened at Thring's Tatler Theatrette in Melbourne. When Maloney died in 1940, a young Arthur Calwell took his place in the Victorian parliament.
Bert Nicholas, just seen with clapperboard, was Thring's assistant cameraman. He teamed with the naturalist David Fleahy to produce this nature series in 1934.
Film's titles:
Efftee Film Magazine Efftee Film Productions - animated logo
World's Largest Bird of Prey The Wedge-Tailed Eagle
Title:
In 1933 Thring began to film Sheepmates, the story of an Englisham (played by Campbell Copelin) who finds adventure in the Australian outback. The opening scenes of the uncompleted film Sheepmates showed Copelin getting work on a British ship to make his way to Australia ….
Sheepmates was suspended by Thring in 1933 pending directorial assistance from abroad, and only these 'rushes' survive. A card game in an outback shepherd's camp features British star Henry Wenman, and is the only surviving footage in which Thring can be heard directing.
The Australian outback was also covered by Thring's collaborator Noel Monkman, who took this clever footage in North Queensland in 1933.
Film's titles:
Efftee Film Productions - animated logo Efftee Film Productions Present An Australian Marvelogue
Nature's Little Jokes Produced by Australian Educational Films
Photography and Description by Noel Monkman
RCA Photophone Recording - logo
The End
Title
A completely different documentary record - the first operatic material on film in Australia. Thring filmed the Italian HMV recording artist Apollo Granforte during J. C. Williamson's 1932 Grand Opera Season.
Film's titles:
Efftee Films Present
Signor Apollo Granforte from La Scala, Milan and Williamson-Imperial Grand Opera Company
Selections from "The Barber of Seville" (Rossini) RCA Photophone Recording - logo
The introduction of this Aria expresses the jovial character of Figaro. In the Aria, Figaro claims that he is the beloved of the Town, and all go to him for every need … The music expresses wonderfully the character of Figaro.
An Efftee Film
The End
Production.