AustLit

'The details are faithful in every respect, for the story is composed by a man who is thoroughly familiar with Australian racing conditions. In addition to the dramatic, there is a gripping love interest. A beautiful girl, tortured by the idea that the man she loved was crooked, unknowingly works with him to expose a low trick. The unfortunate "rough passage" of Laurie Larland. who, upon his return from the war, finds himself jilted and 'broke,' his subsequent attempt to regain his lost manhood, his fight to prevent crooked work upon the race track, and the grand finale, when he unmasks the villains and wins happiness in the arms of his chosen one, is all so well told that "A Rough Passage" cannot fail to please the most exacting.'

Source: 'At the Pav. An Australian Picture', Register [Adelaide], 26 September 1924, p.15.

'The plot centres on the well-known sentiment, 'To err is human; to forgive, divine.' The play cannot be accused of any lack of humanity. It tells of a girl who loved unwisely. It tells, too, of the handsome lover who smiled, and passed on, and forgot. Then there is a wife who blighted her own life by effecting a divorce from a man she loved; and, lastly, there is the dainty, nameless girl who proved that every father should know and love, and do justice to, his child. This is a film with a purpose, and it holds through its human appeal and entertainment value. [...] Would it be possible, do you think, for any man to fall in love with his own daughter ? And, knowing the girl of his heart to be such, what would a real man do? Ray Stanford, in Know Thy Child, answers both questions satisfactorily.'

Source:

'Know Thy Child: Fine Australian Photoplay', Sunday Times, 9 October 1921, p.3. (Via Trove Australia)

'Lorna Denver, a young girl who has been reared on a station, becomes the owner of a big station, but there is a dissolute cousin who plans to marry her fortune and herself. Lorna has, however, bestowed her affections upon a manlike young surveyor. The cousin is murdered and suspicion falls upon the innocent hero who is arrested. One of the great scenes of the play is the race for life when one of the old stage coaches, which have become almost historic, is carrying the evidence for the defence to the court-house. The creeks are swollen and there is the thrill of excitement as the horses dash across the ford, and the coach arrives just in the nick of time. The photography is excellent and not only is the "Girl of the Bush" well staged, but it is interpreted by a cast of capable players. Vera James, a New Zealand actress who has had wide experience In the bush and who is a graceful horsewoman, stars as Lorna Denver. She is co-starred by Stella Southern and supported by Olga Broughton, Emmie Shea, Jack Martin, Herbert Linden, Sam Warr (a Chinaman), Gerald Harcourt, Monty Moncrieff and Rock Phillips. The drama is in six reels, one of the most modern holdings in New South Wales being used for a background for the bush scenes.'

Source:

'A Girl of the Bush', Table Talk, 7 July 1921, p.36.

The outback station of Wallaby is in the grip of a drought. Unable to stop the bank from repossessing his land, veteran farmer Jo Galloway is forced to move his wife and daughter to the city in the hope that his son Gilbert can help them. Gilbert has supposedly been studying there, but Jo soon finds out that he has been corrupted by the highlife. Worse, Gilbert has long been embezzling the family funds to support his life of luxury and decadence. A number of 'melodramatic' episodes unfold, including a murder and a suicide, before the family is finally able to unite and return to the Wallaby (just as the rains begin to fall once more).

John Tulloch, in Legends on the Screen (1981), notes that the natural threat of drought (represented in naturalistic mode) and the social threat constituted by the corrupt city (in melodramatic mode) are, in effect, opposite sides of the same coin. The independent bush woman, Molly (see A Girl in the Bush), appears to represent the 'right' balance between nature and culture.

John Stofel, a Dutch shoemaker, and his daughter Lizzie are living in America at the time of the Civil War. Convinced by the offer of a title deed to a farm, he takes the place in the army of a cowardly deacon, but returns wounded and insane. When oil is discovered on the farm, the deacon tries to reclaim the land. Stofel eventually regains his memory, however, and finds the hidden title deed, forcing the deacon to give up his claim.

'The personnel of the play is found in one of the corrupt French courts of a Henri, and a monastery which harbours the Monk Paul (Mr. Marmont). Mdlle Liane (Miss Fane) is the most desired beauty of the court. Her admirers include the King and his chief adviser, Do Montrale (Mr. Plimmer). The latter is a treacherous favourite, who stoops at nothing to defeat his ruler In love, and to possess his crown. He suggests to the King that to get the girl in their power she may be charged with conspiracy, but on proceeding to arrest her, Montrale discovers that she has been forewarned. Then there is an exciting chase, which takes the parties to the monastery. While the soldiers are searching the grounds for Liane, the girl and her friends arrive there for shelter, and fall easily into the wrong hands. Montrale commits the girl to imprisonment in the monastery, and the monk is appointed her gaoler. Paul is only human, and Llane's charms prove too much for his spiritual good, so that when Montrale returns for her the monk vigorously defends her, but to no purpose. She is taken away, and led to the altar. After the ceremony the king turns to congratulate his adviser, but staggers to find that the monk is the bridegroom. The story continues in an interesting vein, and has a thrilling climax.'

Source:

'The Monk and the Woman', Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 30 October 1917, p.6 (via Trove Australia).

A merchant marine ship is sunk off the coast of Australia by two marauding German cruisers, leaving one survivor, Jack Rawson. After drifting on a raft he lands on island and discovers is an enemy munitions base but is soon captured. After overhearing a plan to raid the Australian coast he manages to escape and eventually makes his way to Sydney. Before he can tell the authorities he is kidnapped by German spy Fred Smith (aka Frederich Schmidt). After tying Jack to a chair in a wooden building and setting fire to it Smith helps a German raiding party land near Sydney. As they begin to wreak havoc, Jack is rescued and helps fight the Germans, inspiring some workers who have gone on strike to join in the battle. When Jack becomes stranded behind enemy lines he discovers his fiancée, Marion is being held captive. He goes to rescue her and finds her being molested by Smith. Marion shoots Smith and kills him. The film ends with the couple being married.

This early adaptation of Katherine Susannah Pritchard's novel (published only the preceding year) is one of Australia's 'lost films': only a fragment, described by the NSFA as showing 'a woman with her head tied in a scarf crouching behind a log and aiming a rifle', remains.

The film appeared at a time of heightened nationalism: an advertisment for a screening at the Strand Theatre, for example, reads:

'Drovers! Cattle Dealers! Bush-rangers! Pioneers! Roustabouts! "Pub" Keepers! Bushgirls! ALL combine in presenting early Australian life as it actually was. [...] It tells of those intrepid men and women who, in spite of tremendous hardships, carved their homes out of the Virgin Bush. They were THE MEN WHO MADE AUSTRALIA. Their sons, the Anzacs, coming from this hardy stock, are now, by their glorious deeds, ringing the name "Australia" throughout the entire world.'

Source: The Brisbane Courier, Wednesday 18 October 1916, p.2.

'The spendthrift son of an English peer is financially embarrassed and his father sends him to Australia to make good. Before leaving for the Antipodes, the young man says goodbye to Zara, a music hall artist, with whom he has become infatuated, and a stormy scene takes place between him and the girl, who is angry at being "robbed" of what she considered to be a "desirable" husband. Keith, the young man in question, arrives on an Australian station and soon falls in love with the pretty daughter of the owner. He, however, incurs the hatred of a jealous overseer, and the latter resolves to make things uncomfortable for Keith. Zara follows the young baronet to Australia, and, by scheming, secures a position on the station as companion to Keith's sweetheart. The overseer and the actress meet and a vile plot is concocted, by which Keith and his lover become enstranged [sic]. The hero has an accident while out riding, his sweetheart goes to his assistance and they are captured by hostile blacks. The trio (including a blackboy), however, escape, and the blacks set out to destroy the homestead which they burn. In the flames Zara and the overseer meet their deaths, and virtue is triumphant and vice discomfited.'

Source:

'Electro Pictures', The Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser, 10 September 1915, p.4.

A lost film, set in the timber industry around Gosford and advertised as 'A Thrilling Story of the Australian Bush' and 'A Sensational Story of Love, Jealousy, and Revenge'.

Described as 'a drama in four acts depicting the adventures in the life of a girl telegraphist' ('West's Pictures', Sydney Morning Herald, 15 April 1912, p.4).

Divided into four acts:

1. Pangs of Jealousy

2. Bad Blood

3. The Distress Call

4. The Eleventh Hour

Chapter headings via an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald (13 April 1912, p.2).

Contemporary reviews describe A Silent Witness as a detective drama, and the Muswellbrook Chronicle adds that it 'suited the tastes of all, as the plot was not too deep to follow' (20 November 1912, p.2), but otherwise newspapers give little information on the actual plot.

According to the Townsville Daily Bulletin, this was 'a story of a couple of daring thieves' attempt and their failure to steal an actress's black pearl necklace.'

The Sunday Times offers a slightly more detailed synopsis:

'The Mystery of the Black Pearl,' described as a thrilling story of crime and detection, will be presented for the first time. The plot deals with the robbery of a jewel, and, during the search for the criminals, many sensational incidents are portrayed. A well-known detective is bound and left to watch a tallow dip slowly burning in a keg of gunpowder, while just before the capture of "the gang" a fight in mid-air is presented.

Source:

'Australian Actors in Pictures', Sunday Times, 24 March 1912, p.2.

'The film begins with the meeting of "Glory" with 'Lord Robert Ure"' and the "Hon. Francis Drake." Both men fall violently in love with her, and the former induces her to follow the stage as a profession. In the mean-time, "John Storm" has become a clergyman, and decides to devote himself to mission work in the slums of London. He entreats "Glory" to give up the idea of the stage, and go with him, but this she refuses to do. She goes to London and secures an appointment as a nurse, but after a time she resigns out of sympathy with another girl, who has been dismissed, through the influence of "Lord Robert Ure." Eventually she secures an appointment on the stage, and is present at a dinner party given in her honour by "Lord Robert." "John Storm" makes another endeavour to convince her to give up the stage, but this she again refuses to do. High words are exchanged between "Storm" and "Ure," and the deadly hatred of the latter crystailises into an attempt to get rid of "Storm." He pays an unscrupulous scoundrel to fire the mission hall, leaving "Storm" unconscious in the burning building, from which he is rescued in the nick of time. He goes to "Glory's" flat with the intention of killing her, his objective being the saving of her soul, but her passionate pleading awakens into fresh life the love that he has always had for her, and the film closes with both kneeling before a shrine and giving their lives to each other.'

Source:

'West's Pictures', Queensland Times, 6 December 1911, p.4.

When Jack Cardigan strikes gold, he writes to his girlfriend Nora in Sydney to give her the good news. But he entrusts the letter to an untrustworthy friend, Ralph Blackstone, who poisons Jack in order to jump his claim. Nora catches wind of Ralph's villainy, and pursues him back to the mine, first by a speedboat across Sydney Harbour and then by racing his train in a fast car. In the goldfields, she finds Jack alive, and the two are reconciled both with one another and with Jack's gold.