“THE TERM”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 92, 9 July 1927, Page 25

“THE TERM”

Australian Film Epic Secured for Auckland EVA NOVAK THE HEROINE

Long awaited, well boomed, and expensively produced—it is said to have cost £60.000, and one can well believe it—the locally-produced film of Marcus Clarke’s novel was introduced to Sydney at the Chrystal Palace. There were crowded audiences at all

three sessions. If interest can be maintained at the week-end pitch this latest and greatest essay in Australian picture production will be a huge commercial success. But can it be maintained? Will the nature of the theme sombre, poignant, at times

almost shuddersome in its realism — repel those whom the technical merits of the production and the dramatic force of the story may attract? A few weeks or months will show. FINELY PRODUCED There is one thing certain. The production shows that Australia can “do things” in the movie line. The burning ship Hydaspes, the crowded convict decks, the fierce rush of the tortured men to capture their floating prison-house, and perhaps, above all, the realistic storm that overwhelms the home-going vessel —these are equal to anvthing that imported filmdom has shown us. They bring tensely dramatic incidents vividly to life. The producer, Norman Dawn, has little or nothing to learn from Hollywood as far as photographic effects ai'e concerned. EFFICIENT ACTING Then there is the acting. That, too, is almost uniformly good. George Fisher, as Rufus Dawes and his double, John Rex, is in front of the audience almost all the time. He is consistent, and restrained —as restrained as the macabre nature of the story will let him be. Eva Novak is an appealing heroine; so appealing that one is sorry the adapters of the story should not have allowed her some escape from the novel’s too tragic end. Then Rufus Frere. that hideous product of Marcus Clarke’s imagination and foul libel on British settlement of Australia, has a cool and convincing portrayer in Dunstan Webb. The portrait is the clearer for avoiding ail hint of melodrama. No one in the cast does better than Jessica Harcourt as Sarah Purfoy, the lively and pretty girl with a real movie face, whose byplay as she drugs the officer in his cabin is admirable. Mayne Linton as Rev. North, Katherine Dawn as Mrs. Vickers, ai l d Compton Coutts as the stupidly ‘duaish” clergyman —there are bitter travesties of the clergy in this story are others who play their parts well. SOMBRE THEME As for the plot—well, it is the plot, the book. For more than two hours we see men in convict uniforms on the rack. Marcus Clarke took the ugliest phases of Australia’s early history, coloured them with nis powerful imagination and gave them a habitation and a name. The movie version refuses to lighten the gloom of the book. Will this story of convict davs, with its convict characters running through every scene and incident. serve as a good advertisement for Australia —if, and when, it goes outside Australia? It te a Question everyone who what local talent can do is bound ro ask. The production, its stated, shows that Australia can produce great pictures It is. unquestionably, the forerunner of big enterprises that will do justice to the bright realities of today. *

Richard Dix returns to California ofror two years in Fnramount s eastern studi to make "Who s Your Friend . a new comedy in which Mary Brian , '1 nlav feminine lead, fahe appealed opposite Dix in his last picture. '•Knockout Reill ."

Jetta Ooudal will remain with Cecil B de Mille ill her next few productions. She signed a n,ew contract at the finsh of ‘White Gold.” Miss Ooudal was made a star after successful appearances in “The coming of a mo s ” "Three Faces East The of Yesterday.” and "Her Man o ICa. " Fighting Love" and “White Odd” are her three pictures since then.