THE MELANCHOLY SPECTACLES A STUDY OF THC AUSTRALIAN FILM INDUSTRY Jujian Craft

One of the problems in talking about the Australian film industry is that it is an industry. One has to forget about the lofty ideals of art and recognise that like any other industry it must be efficient and progressive. If it is not and it can't compete with overseas products then it must be protected. For the government to reach this decision it must feel that the film industry is of vital national importance, or that imports of foreign films place too great a strain on our overseas reserves. It is possible that once a viable Australian feature film industry exists the Australian experience might produce an article which is unique and, as such, valuable in international markets. Thus an import loss might become an export gain. These prosaic considerations are unfortunately the only facts which will influence a reticent government to take direct action to support the film industry. At the moment the government is not particularly concerned about the cultural aspects of a national film industry, and possibly this is a good thing as the encouragement of feature films which would be distinctly Australian would 'lead to the gross perversiOnS of excessive nationalism which have bedevilled so much of Australia's artistic expression. The main concern at the moment should be to put the film industry on a firm economic foundation. 4.5

At -the present time the film industry is in a very precarious position. Since 1960 when legislation was passed to prohibit the importation of foreign television commercials the industry has been dependent on advertising contracts. Other sections of the industry make a very insecure living out of prestige documentaries commissioned by large organizations like C.S.R., Qantas, and B.H.P. Thus in times of minor economic recession the film industry is the hardest hit. The very real element of insecurity in their profession has caused many highly skilled technicians to leave the industry for lower salaries but greater continuity of employ- ment. This is particularly true of young people who enter the industry with high ambitions but leave it for more mundane but secure professions. In highly specialised branches of the feature film industry like lighting cameramen and sound recordists, a technician can only expect highly paid employ- ment when foreign companies come to Australia to make feature films. Recently when Michael Powell was here to make "They're a Wierd Mob" these technicians enjoyed very good salaries for six to ten weeks, then they were forced to seek employment in freelance capacities in the television and documentary film industries. The frustration and insecurity that these people experience is indicative of the hardship suffered by members of the industry since the first World War. When the Senate Select Committee, set up under the chairmanship of Senator Vincent in November 1962 to investigate the state of the television and film industries in Australia, made its report in October 19631 the committee glumly concluded that 'The rise and fall of the Australian film industry is a melancholy spectacle for contemplation by Australians.' 2 Unhappily the Vincent Report was only echoing what had been very evident to the Commissioners of the Royl Commission into the Moving Picture Industry 35 years before. 3 The depressing fact was that at one stage, up to about 1920, Australia had one of the most energetic film industries in the world. Between 1908 and 1928, 152 feature films had been made in Australia. The 46 majority of these were made between 1910 and 1920. From 1929 and the introduction of sound to 1963 the industry was instrumental in producing 95 features. Very few of the films that were produced on local capital were successes, but those that were ("40,000 Horsemen", "Sons of Matthew", and "") grossed more in Australia than "Gone With the Wind". It is generally held that the first film to be shot and exhibited in Australia was produced by Maurice Sestier and Walter Barnett in September 1896, only twelve months after the first projected film show in Paris in 1895. Sestier was a cameraman with the Lumieres who had been responsible for this first showing of motion pictures in the world. Sestier and Barnett took short 60 feet gazettes of movement at the Manly wharf area and other sights of Sydney. In November of the same year they filmed the arrival of dignitaries at the Melbourne Cup. The Melbourne Cup has been filmed each year since then. It is rather unfortunate that the dedication with which this task has been approached has not been evident in other aspects of film making. The most justifiably famous man in early Australian film making is Joseph Henry Perry. Perry acquired a motion picture camera in 1897 and with considerable insight decided to use it for propaganda purposes. The War Cry, 21 August 1897, reported that Perry, a member of the Melbourne Salvation Army, has a first-class Cinematograph camera... that he is now hard at work.., and soon War Cry readers everywhere will shortly have the opportunity of seeing for themselves all the marvels of this scientific fashion of spreading salvation. 4 The results of his labours were two films "The Early Christian Martyrs" and "The Soldiers of the Cross." The dates at which these films were first screened seems to be difficult to determine, but the important fact is that they were commenced in 1899 and that they were story films. it is generally thought that the first 4? story film was not made until 1902 when George Melies made "A Trip to the Moon" or 1903 when an American company made "The Great Train Robbery." It seems most likely that Perry's films predated both the French and the American attempts to evolve a narrative structure from discrete pieces of film. His innovation is made even more remarkable by the magnitude of his undertaking: there were scenes in which 600 actors took part and a multitude of trick effects. In his history of the camera in Australia Jack Cato makes no distinction between the two films. 5 He refers only to one film, "The Soldiers of the Cross", which was shown in Melbourne in September 1900. Perry's son, however, makes a distinction between the two films and states that they were filmed at two different locations: "The Early Christian Martyrs" at the Salvation Army Home for girls in Murrumbeena and "The Soldiers of the Cross" at Wildwood outside Melbourne. 6 Whatever form the films took Cato has demonstrated beyond doubt that one of Perry's films was shown in 1900, and because of this he must be credited with.being the first person ever to assemble a narrative film. In the ten years that followed Perry's attempts at salvation through film, a large number of less charitable gentlemen used the narrative motion picture to make some quick money. Their choice of subject was obviously based on puhiic demand, for the titles of this period indicate a rather depressing conformity "Captain Midnight, the Bush King", 1909/10, Spencer's; "Captain Starlight". 1909/10, Spencer's; ", ", 1909/10, Spencer's: "The Life of Frank ardiner", 1909, Australian Artists' Pictures; "", 1907, Jim McMahon and E.J. Carroll; "The Story of ", 1906, Johnson and Gibson and J. and N. Tait; and "Thunderbolt", 1907, John F. Gavin Productions. As well there was the obverse of the problem of the bushranger: "Besieged in Port Arthur", 1906, Bland Holt; "For the Term of his Natural Life", 1907, Osborne and Jordan; and "RUfUS Dawes", 1909/10, Spencer's. At this 48 stage of the film's development feature films conid be made very cheaply. It was pointed out in the 1928 Royal Commission that films of this period could be made for a few hundred pounds, by 1928 the amount of capital needed to produce a feature film was between $60,000 and $100,000. 7 Before World War I all films were shot in natural light and although this was a tedious business it did mean that capital Costs in the form of studios-with Sophisticated artifical lighting were negligible. That is why the Australian climate was a distinct advantage in the Cost structures of early films. After the introduction of artificial lighting this advantage was minimal but even now well meaning supporters of the film industry seem to believe that our climate will give us an advantage over the industries of Europe and the United States. This might be true of some types of films, but with the increasing amount of studio work that synchronised Sound shooting demands the emphasis is more on the amount of modern studio space a country can provide, not the amount of sunlight per week. The pre-Worid War I Australian film industry was technically well equipped. It had modern cameras, inventive and imaginative technicians, flexible actors and plenty of sunshine. What it did lack was an ability to capitalise on the advances made by Perry. In the United States film makers were quick to see and utjlise the innovations that D.W. Griffith had made in film making and the writers were equally quick to realise the potential of Griffith's way of making a film. With enthusiastic and experimental directors and eager writers the Anerican film industry developed rapidly. This development was also evident in Europe after the War, but in Australia where the lead had been given by Perry 14 years before Griffith started shooting "The Birth of a Nation" there were neither directors nor writers capable of exploiting this lead. Instead the local industry concentrated on bushranging epics of pure action and little else, and cheap melodrama like Edwin Cole's "A Maiden's Distress, or Saved in the Nick of Time." 1904, or the Longford- Raelton production of "A Maori Maid's Love," 1909/10.

After 1910 the Creative side of the film industry showed little improvement. The same disnal procession of bush- ranger heroes stalked acre. s the screen in such fi ts hail and His Gang," 1912; "Dan Morgan, the Tcrru of th Australian Bush," 1911; and 'The e1li' (anj," 19!'. the Term of his Natural Li fe" was remade iii 191 7 nd I hecon vict was again the object of debased sentimental i t: in Jehr

F. Gavin s "The Convict's Bride' and "The Herr LeV , " II I 3. The war produced a virulent nationalism that can Lc seri in the stylised reorosentations of Australian pioneer 1ife "A Cooee from Home," 1917; "The Lure of the Rush," 1918; and "'Neath Australian Skies," 1914. Film makers were also quick to see myths in the making and sei2ed on such obvious subiects as "Hero of-the Dardanelles," 1915; "The Martyrdom ofNurse Cavell," 1916; and "How We Beat the Emden," 1918. At this time some films were appearing that would be remade time and time again in the following years. "For the Term of his Natural Life' was remade in 1927,making three versions in twenty years. "The Mutiny on the Bounty" was made for the first time in 1915 by Crick and Jones and the second version of "Robbery Under Arms appeared in 1920, 13 years after the first and 37 years before the Rank Organisation version. "The Squatter's Daughter" (1910) and "The Silence of Dean Maitland" (1914) were both remade by Cinesound in the mid thirties. When one takes into account the small number of Australian feature :ilms that have been made, the distiesin repetition of a succes' u1 story twice and sometimes thrc , o times obviously indicates an alarming lack of creative writinc for feature films. This seems to have plagued the industry from the beginning of the century and even today one can hear unhtppy complaints from members of the industry about the lack of skilful writers for television series and feature films. Although it would be easy to dismiss the entire period of

silent film making from the end of the war to 192 1 ' it is Mt necessary to recognise the achievements of some film makers. The most prolific and most successful director and writer for films was u-idoubtedly . Between 1910 and 1920 Longford produced and directed 19 feature films. Among these probably the best silent film to be made in Australia, "The Sentimental I3loko," 1919. Longford wro:e the script himself, adapting it from Dennis's poem, and directed the film. It was a tour-do-force for one man and its success in England seemed to indicate that Long ford had made some impression on the international market. However, the brilliance that Longford displayed in ThC Sentimental Bloke" and the fine actors that he collected for his films (for example Lottie Lyall, Arthur Trauchert and Gilbert Emery) were pathetic- ally small counters to the aggressive film industry that was developing in the United States throughout the 1920's. Like the rest of the Australian industry they were not equipped to resist the great flood of American film that was being forced on Australia by the film companies and cinema chains. By the middle of the 1920's the R.S.L. became alarmed at the flood of American films entering the country and the consequent danger to the 'Australian way of life.' As a result of the R.S.L.'s pressure a Royal Commission was set up in 1928. The Commissioner was Walter Moffit Marks and his terms of reference were: The importation, production, distribution, and exhibition of moving picture films. Th,r incidence and effect of the Customs tariff upon the importation of such films and the sufficiency or otherwise of existing duties of Customs. The sufficiency or otherwise of the existing income tax law of the Commonwealth in relation to persons, firms and companies engaged in the industry; and 151

d) In connexion with any or all of the foregoing matters, the incomes, profits, expenditure and losses of such persons, firms and companies derived from, or incurred in connexion with, the industry, and the amount of capital invested in the industry. 8 The Commission took the evidence of 233 witnesses in all statcs and presented its report on the 3rd May, 1928. It appeared from the evidence that Australian films had aifficulty in securing overseas distribution and as a result few had been box office successes. It was pointed out, however, that American distributors had made overtures to Australian producers for high quality products of which there was a dearth at that time in the United States. This might have been a red herring of the American distributors, but whatever their motive it was quite evident that the Australian industry was not producing quality films that would compare with the Hollywood product. The quota system in the United' Kingdom did not work against the Australian film industry, that system was developed to help the British industry in the face of American production, but the British distributors were only willing to take films that were well scripted, directed, and acted. Again the Australian industry was at a disadvantage. The Comniissior un- happily concluded that the only way to save the film industry was to force or encourage it to make products of higher quality. It recognised that modern films must aim at the international market as their expenses were far greater than the meagre £2,000 to £4,000 return one could expect from Australian 'distribution. The Australian cinema chain operators, the villains in the eyes of the film producers, were exonerated from charges of discrimination against Australian films, but the Commission did not press for the introduction of a quota system to help the distribution of Australian films. The recommendations that the Commission made were only concerned with financial awards for higher quality films. With delight- ful idealism they recommended that: 62

1 a) Awards of merit will be made each year for the best films which will build up national sentiment, will be of high moral standard, con- tain humour, but not containing propaganda which might be prejudicial to international relations or likely to promote ill-feeling with other countries. b) The awards will be - 1st £5,000. 2nd £2,500 3rd £l,500. There were also awards for the best film scenario written by a resident Australian and the best film scenario containing Australian sentiment. The year after the Commission made its report the basis of the film industry all over the world was radically changed by the introduction of sound. For the American industry it meant a period of reappraisal, of acute financial strain, and learning new Lechniques. It has been suggested that at this time the Australian film industry was no longer at a disadvantage to the American film industry. 10 As both the American and the Australian industries had to start from scratch it would have seemed that the early thirties would have been the ideal time to redress the imbalance between the home industry and those of overseas. In the early thirties two companies were formed to produce sound films: Cinesound in Sydney and Eftee in Melbourne. These companies enabled smaller firms to be set up by hiring their equipment to independent producers. They were further encouraged by the Cinematograph Films (Australian Quota) Act (1935) of the N.S.W. Parliament. This Act compelled distributors and exhibitors to accept Australian films.to the amount of a certain percentage of imported films. This percentage was to increase each year until 15% of the distributor's stock was Australian film. The exhibitor's quota was 12½% Failure to comply with the Act resulted in a penalty of 100. The two schedules were as follows: 63

Scheclulel Distributor's Quota

1st year 5% 2nd year rd year 10% 4th year 12½% 5th year 15% Schedule 2 Exhibjtors Quota 1st year 4% 2nd year 5% 3rd year 7½% 4th year 10% 5th year 12½% Unfortunately the second World War curtailed this programme but there was intense activity in the industry towards the end of the thirties. Further research will presumably determine how much of this was attributable to the N.S.W. Act. Meanwhile the merit award system set up by the 1928 Royal Commission was having trouble. One contemporary commentator on the first competition in 1930 wrote: The results of the competition for prizes offered by the Federal Government, adjudged earlier this year, have been extremely disappoint- 11 ing. That year only the third prize was awarded, and that was to a totally insignificant film "Fellas. The second Commonwealth award was made in 1934 to a film called 9eritage" which according to contemporary reports was not perfect but met with public approval. At last, six years after the Royal Commission, the judges could find a film that was worth a first prize. It was quite apparent that financial awards were not doing a great deal to encourage better Australian films. One surprising feature of the thirties was the ability of the industry to survive the depression. Cinesound, in particular, thrived during and after this period. Under the direction of Ken Hall Cinesound produced 18 features between £4

1932 and 1940. This was an incredible feat for a small unit working in relatively primitive conditions. The speed with which the company worked was equally amazing; in 1938 alone they produced six features. The quality of their product might be questioned but there was no doubt about the popularity of the changes they rang on an always popular ub3ect, pad and Dave. "On Our Selection" appeared in 1932 to be followed by "Grandad Rudd" 1935, "Dad and Dave Come to Town" 1938, and "Dad Rudd, M.P." 1940. Some of their films capitalised on well known stage identities ("Let George Do It" 1938, and "Strike Me Lucky" 1934) others utilised internationally famous stars like John Longden and Helen Twelvetrees. Whatever one night think of the films that Cinesound and Eftee produced in this period before the second World War, it must be recognised that the Australian film industry has never since been as energetic and as vital. Unhappily the war stopped the growth of these two càmpanies and the units were disbanded to allow personnel to work with the government. During the war feature film production was very small. Those films that did emerge reflected the concerns of the day: Chauvels "40,000 Horsemen" 1941, and "The Rats of Tobruk" in 1944. The most important development in the industry during the war was the establishment of a Common- wealth Government film unit within the Deoartment of Information. This Unit became in the immediate post-war years the Department of Interior film unit, and was charged with the duties of disseminating the Government's views and of training young technjcians in the film industry. Another long range result of the war was the free movement of American film technicians through the Autralian industry. Many Australians were seconded to the American forces film Units and learnt and appreciated American techniques of production. Immdiately after the war the film industry in Australia was in adreadful condition. When Harry Watt came to Australia to sho'ót The Overlanders he was appalled at the primitive anddepressed condition of thc industry. After investigating the available equipment in Australia all he could find were two old Mitchell cameras, and one of those was in a bank vault as security for a bad debt. When he finished 'Eureka. Stockade" he wrote: the physical labour involved in making films • in Australia is almost unbelievable compared to • present-day (1949) filming here, and maybe I'm a bit obsessed with it... We have started to put Australian films on the screens of the world. We've raised the pay of both technicians and actors in Australia by about 100 per cent. And we've given creative work to a lot of people who otherwise were smothering with frustration. And it looks as though they're going to get a bit of continuity of • employment now. The Government National Films Board, under Stan Fiawes, is doing excellent work, and many of the young people who started with us are working there. Local feature production is on the increase. Most of this, unhappily, is of very poor quality and does more harm than good. But there are immense film potentialities in Australia and a lot of good stories.' 2 It would have seemed that way, as Ealing Studios, for whom Watt worked, had just bought Pagewc'od Studios in Sydney and spent a considerable amount of money refitting it. Yet three years and one film ("Bitter Springs") later Ealing closed Pagewood down and shipped all the new equipment back to Britain. Eric Williams, the manager in Australia for Ealing, stated the official reasons for the closure in an interview in 1952: We have been most disaopointed that, during the five years the studios have been available, no effective move has been made to establish a representative film industry.13 .56

Within the film industry it was felt that the government had caused Ealing's withdrawal. It appeared that the Capital Issues Control Board had refused to approve the raising of capital to make full-length Australian films and had thus forced Baling to close for want of capital. It is ironic that the goernment's own Royal Commission in 1928 had pointed out the necessity of a Continuous flow of capital into the industry to support Continuity of production. While feature film struggled with the problems of finance the government film unit and the Shell film unit were produc- ing a steady flow of documentary films. The Government film unit's "School in a Mailbox" was runner up for an Oscar in 1946 and John Heyer's film for the Shell unit, "Back of Beyond', was the Grand Prix Absolute at Venice in 1954. Un- fortunately the Shell film unit was closed down in the late fifties and no other subsidised documentary Unit of quality has risen in its place. The government film unit is now called The Commonwealth Film Unit and occupies a modern and well equipped Studio in Sydney. For the past ten years or so it was recognised for its conservatism but this seems to be changing as the younger directors get more freedom of expression.

Mter Ealing left, the industry was occasionally enlivened by a visiting foreign film unit, but the hope of permanent employment in a feature film industry was a pretty impossible hope for most Australians. Since television was introduced (1956) the film industry has become more and more orientated towards that medium and the television industry has taken over the problems that beset the film industry for fifty odd years. The Vincent Report has attempted to increase Australian Content of tolevisjon prograrnnes by a system of quotas, but whether this will meet the same fate as the N.S.W. legislation of thirty years before is still a matter of conjecture. Like the commissioners of the 1928 Royal Commission the members of the Senate Committee felt that the basic trouble was a lack of:creative ideas. To change this situation the committee suggested that cash prizes be made available for the best Australian play suitable for television. It is to be hoped that the adjudicators will not have the same problems as their predecessors in the thirties. The depressing thing is that the Australian film industry seems to be in the same state it has been in for 50 years and that the remedies that are being used to help the industry are the sane as those used before. Perhaps this time the national environment might be more conducive to the growth of the film industry, if it isnt then the years ahead will be the same as the melancholy spectacle that has gone before

Report from the Select Committee on the Encouragement of Australian Productions for Television, Canberra, 1963. Ibid., p. 25. Report of t he Royal Commission on the Moving Picture Industry in Australia, Canberra, 1929. Jack Cato, The Story of the Camera in Australia, Georgian Mouse, Melbourne, 1956, p. 119. Ibid., pp. 119-21. R.H. Perry, "Australian Films 50 Years O1d,' The Advertiser, 15 September, 1951.

Report of the Royal Commission, p. 82. ibid., p. 96. Ibid., p. 96. Beatrice Tildesley, "Film Production in Australia," Australian Quartc1, June 1935, p. 41. Beatrice Tjldesley, "The Cinema in Australia," Australian Quarterly, December 1930, p. 100. 58

Uarry Watt, You Start from Scratch in Austra1ia, The Penguin Film Review, 9 May, 1949, p. 16. Eric Williams, The Mail (Adelaide) , 26 January, 1952.