'OVERLANDERS'

Evening Star, Issue 25678, 29 December 1945, Page 9

'OVERLANDERS'

BRITISH-MADE AUSTRALIAN FILM

■ The first film made in Australia by a British company, ' Overlanders ' is more than an Australian picture. It is a film made in- Australia for the world's markets.

Mr R. P. Baker, managing director of Ealing Studios Ltd., says of the venture: —" One of the good results of war has been the drawing together of nations of. the British Comnionwealth. Through temporary interchange * of large sections of our peoples we have como to appreciate something of each other's background and outlook on a far wider scale than hitherto. There is a medium, however, that can do even more to project our respective ways of life and thqughts to one another. That medium is the screen. " Throughout the war British films have "carried the story of Britain's war effort to the peoples of the dominions; but with the coming of peace what is to prevent the reversal of this procedure ? The dominions have their own very Teal story to tell, and my belief is that British films made with the dominions as backgrounds .will find ready response in all parts of the worlds "In this belief Ealing has taken the initiative in making the first British film in Australia. The story which Ealing will film,- ' Overlanders ' is that of the indomitable people of the Outback who undertook the evacuation of large-herds of cattle/luring the threatened Japanese invasion. " Four of the unit, including Director Harry Watt, are Ealing men. Everyone else engaged on ' Overlander,' including actors, are Australians. It would have been easy to have employed an. all-British unit and cast; but that would have defeated our whole objective, which is to project Australia to the world. AVo have always believed that Australia was a field for motion picture production—'Overlanders' is patterned to p«Ko it!"