FILM OF CONVICT DAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19415, 25 August 1926, Page 14

FILM OF CONVICT DAYS.

EARLY AUSTRALIAN HISTORY EIGHTY MEN WITH WHISKERS. [from our own correspondent. 3 SYDNEY, Aug. 14. The filming in Sydney, by one of the big moving picture enterprises, of that somewhat notorious phase of Australian history which is embodied in the book "For the Term of His Natural Life," has caused something of a stir. When it was thought that an embargo was about to be placed on the picture by the Government the whole of the staff was dispensed with, but it has been re-engaged. Eighty individuals are growing whiskers and otherwise making themselves look like convicts, for the purposes of the film, and the first scenes have been "shot." The film will be the biggest .film ever attempted in Australia, and represents an outlay of about £40,000. Eva Novak is in the cast. A special committee of the Chamber of Manufactures has given the enterprise its blessing, and urges that this first real step toward building up the film-producing industry in Australia should be encouraged. An old whaler, which has lain so long in Berry's Bay, in Sydney Harbour, will end her career in this picture. As the convict ship Malabar she will be blown to smithereesns out at sea. While some people are maintaining that the picture should not be permitted, mainly on the ground that this blot on Tasmania's early history should not be resurrected, others argue that most of the fears expressed are riot worth bothering about.*