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According to contemporary reviews:
'"The Enemy Within" is not a war drama but a thrilling story of internal plotting with a dramatic vein of absorbing love and heart interest, including the well known Reg L. (Snowy) Baker, Australia's champion all-round athlete and stunt actor, as an Australian special agent who fought and defeated spies plotting against the quietude of the Pacific and Australia. It is an Australian production, and the whole of its seven acts teem with thrills and sensations you have never seen equalled. It features an 80ft. dive into a surging sea, a startling 300 feet [sic] climb down the cliffs on a rope, a leap from a flying motorcar to another, racing wheel to wheel, and a sensational rescue from the breakers. If you want something sensational it is here.'
Source: 'The Enemy Within', Townsville Daily Bulletin, 8 July 1918, p.3.
Other sources include a slightly different (and perhaps exaggerated) list of stunts:
'The roof-top chase, the sensational pantechnicon jump, the motor fight, the biggest "all in" fight ever screened, the struggle on horse-back, the magazine explosion, the fall from the cliff, and the record sensational dive of 800 ft. [sic] sheer into the raging sea must be seen to be believed.'
Source: 'The Enemy Within: Thrilling Situations', The Mail [Adelaide], 30 May 1918, p.17.
Exhibitions
Notes
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The film was designed to take advantage of Snowy Baker's athleticism, something that contemporary newspapers emphasised:
'In diving into the waves off the rocks with Miss Molloy on his back, Snowy Baker, star of "The Enemy Within," struck a strong current, and was all out before he landed her on the rescuing patrol boat. In the big all in fight where he fights five at once so willing was the go that the fight had to be stopped till one of his opponents recovered from a knock-out blow which Snowy got home. Snowy himself did not come out without feeling the strenuous work as one blow, which landed on the back of his neck kept him thinking solidly for a few moments, while he held his opponents at bay.'
Source: 'The Enemy Within', Muswellbrook Chronicle, 3 August 1918, p.2.
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The film was specifically not marketed as a war film, allegedly since audiences had begun to weary of war films.
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Some sources indicate that the film was partly inspired by the SMS Wolf and her Pacific Raids during World War I. The North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times, for example, specifically advertises the film as 'featuring Reg. L. ('Snowy') Baker, as a secret service special agent, on the track of the men who set the mines off Gabo, sunk the Cumberland, and brought the Wolf to the Pacific' (12 August 1918, p.2).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Convention and Contradiction : Representations of Women in Australian War Films, 1914–1918
1999
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , October vol. 30 no. 113 1999; (p. 215-230)'This paper examines the representation of women in Australian cinematic war dramas made between 1914 and 1918, showing how the representations were shaped by political, industrial and ideological influences and identifying the range of representations present in the films. It observes that while there was considerable overlap with other media in the representation of women, there were images ignored by films, while others were unique to the cinema.'
Source: Abstract.
-
Convention and Contradiction : Representations of Women in Australian War Films, 1914–1918
1999
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , October vol. 30 no. 113 1999; (p. 215-230)'This paper examines the representation of women in Australian cinematic war dramas made between 1914 and 1918, showing how the representations were shaped by political, industrial and ideological influences and identifying the range of representations present in the films. It observes that while there was considerable overlap with other media in the representation of women, there were images ignored by films, while others were unique to the cinema.'
Source: Abstract.
- Sydney, New South Wales,
