Missing Australian film maker photo - help me find it?

[scotrace]

A while back, there was a photo posted here someplace of a group of Australian film folk sitting around a set talking. Does anyone remember what I mean? I can't find the photo and I need it for reference.

 

[lolly_loisides]

Any other details? What decade? Did you recognise any actors?

 

[scotrace]

Someone famous there, a director I believe? We were showing off his shoes maybe?

 

[billyspew]

A while back, there was a photo posted here someplace of a group of Australian film folk sitting around a set talking. Does anyone remember what I mean? I can't find the photo and I need it for reference.

Could be Baz Luhrmann or Peter Weir maybe?

 

[Philip Adams]

An indication of the era would be helpful too.

Was it a black and white pic of the 30s - 60s or something more modern as suggest by Billy?

 

[lolly_loisides]

If it's a period piece, it might be Newsfront (set in the 40's) or perhaps Careful he might hear you (set in the 30's). That doesn't really help finding the photo though.

 

[scotrace]

It was 30's.

And to be clear, I am searching for a photograph, posted here on the Fedora Lounge in the past, of a group of Australian film types, seated in a group. I'm not looking for a film. I can't remember what thread I saw it in.

 

[lolly_loisides]

I didn't see the photo you're referring to, but was it this? Roy Rene, Kerry Norton and Arthur Rigby on Allan's Cavalcade 2UE, Sydney, Australia (it's from the 50's so probably not)

 

[scotrace]

Thats not it. Cool photo though!

 

[billyspew]

I believe it's a picture of Ken G. Hall the OP was cookie but the photo is no longer there - maybe he has a copy.

 

[cookie]

It's Ken Hall I posted them.

http://aso.gov.au/people/Ken+G_Hall/portrait/

http://trove.nla.gov.au/people/565974?q="Hall,+Ken+G.+(Kenneth+George),+1901-"&c=people

 

[scotrace]

I believe it's a picture of Ken G. Hall the OP was cookie but the photo is no longer there - maybe he has a copy.

That was the one. And it's not in the links Cookie posted.

 

[billyspew]

Any of these?

http://aso.gov.au/people/Ken+G_Hall/extras/

 

[scotrace]

Nope...

 

[cookie]

Here they are Scotrace I finally found them!

http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/album/albumView.aspx?acmsID=153778&itemID=823890

 

[HadleyH]

^^^

ohhhh that wonderful picture I remember it!!!!

 

[cookie]

Twelvetrees... what a name...an American also...

http://aso.gov.au/people/Ken+G_Hall/portrait/

Thoroughbred 1936

Synopsis

Tommy Dawson (Frank Leighton), would-be horse trainer, buys an emaciated stallion called Stormalong on a trip to New Zealand. When it loses its first race, the insecure Tommy vows to sell it, but Tommy’s fiancé Joan (Helen Twelvetrees), a much better judge of horses, rescues Stormalong. With Tommy’s mother, Ma Dawson (Nellie Ferguson), Joan turns Stormalong into the greatest racehorse in Australia. As the Melbourne Cup approaches, an international crime syndicate decides to kill Stormalong. Tommy has to foil the plot on race day.


Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes




Thoroughbred is one of Ken G Hall’s stranger pictures, in terms of script. Frank Leighton’s character is a working-class boy with a chip on his shoulder, no talent for horse training, and an aggressive streak. The film makes fun of his desire to wear a top hat and be a big man, but he’s still treated as the leading man – when actually, a lot of the film is about a leading woman, the feisty and much more capable Joan, played by American actress Helen Twelvetrees. Joan’s loyalty to Tommy is difficult to understand, given that she thinks he’s ‘sweet and worthless’, and given her attraction to Bill Peel (John Longden), the much more sophisticated scion of the stud next door to Ma Dawson’s place. And yet, Leighton’s character remains memorable, precisely because he’s driven by so many psychological demons. Characterisation wasn’t normally so important in Hall’s films, but this character seems to have exercised his emotions. The picture is supposed to be an exciting tale of an ugly horse’s rise to fame, and a vehicle for Twelvetrees, Cinesound’s specially imported new glamour star, but the real emotional core of the film is how Tommy Dawson comes good in the end, from pretender to action hero (see clip three).

The film is also notable for some technical innovations, and two controversies. This was Cinesound’s first film using back projection, with equipment that Hall bought during an extended research trip to Hollywood in early 1935. Back projection allowed scenes that would normally have to be filmed on location to be done in studio, saving time and money. Hall introduced the technique to Australian filmmaking and used it extensively in all subsequent Cinesound productions. On the same trip, he hired Edmond Seward, a Hollywood writer, to come to Australia. Thoroughbred was Seward’s first script for Cinesound, but the ending led to allegations of plagiarism, since it is almost identical to the end of Frank Capra’s 1934 film, Broadway Bill. In his autobiography, Hall says he had not seen the Capra film, but concedes there was ‘some justification’ to the allegations. Nevertheless, he used Seward on his next film, Orphan of the Wilderness. Both films would eventually have problems with the British film censor over allegations of cruelty to animals. The second controversy, kept secret at the time, was that Helen Twelvetrees and Frank Leighton were having an affair during the production. Hall provides an entertaining description of the repercussions – especially for Twelvetrees’ then husband – in his book, Directed by Ken G Hall.

 

[RBH]

Thanks, pretty cool thread.
Here are a few clips from Thoroughbred 1936.


http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/thoroughbred/clip1/

 

[cookie]

Thanks, pretty cool thread.
Here are a few clips from Thoroughbred 1936.


http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/thoroughbred/clip1/

One of the charming bits is to hear the upperclass/refined/posh Aussie accents you heard pre and post War on newsreels.

 

[scotrace]

here they are scotrace i finally found them!

http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/album/albumview.aspx?acmsid=153778&itemid=823890

thanks!