BATTERED BY BREAKERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 200, 12 November 1927, Page 23 (Supplement)

BATTERED BY BREAKERS

FILM PARTY'S ADVENTURES RETURN TO SYDNEY Two months crammed with adventure — Attacks by an alligator and poisonous snakes, and a narrow escape from being wrecked were some of the stirring incidents related by members of the Seven Seas Screen Production Company, who returned from Papua to Sydney by the Morinda. The company set out from Sydney last July for Papua with the object of producing what was described as “a romance of the Empire.” The title of the picture is “The Unsleeping Eye.” and depicts native life in a favourable light. The adventures began when, in a barque, they started to cross the Gulf of Papua. Heavy seas carried the little craft on to a sandbank where she lay for hours, battered by heavy breakers. The seas swept aboard and Baby Laurel, aged three, was almost drowned in her bunk before other members of the party could wade across the wave-washed decks to her rescue. Just as the party hud given up all hope, a wave, bigger than the rest, washed the battered vessel over the bank into the calmer waters beyond. On another occasion one of the party was washed overboard and but for the timely assistance of Mr. Sully, the cinematographer, would have been drowned. A Sydney artiste. Aiiss Wendy Osborne, took the leading part. At first it was thought that the journey into the heart of Papua would be too hazardous for a woman, but Miss Osborne made light of all danger, although on one occasion she narrowly missed being bitten by a snake. Other members of the cast are Len Norman, David Wallace and Baby I.aurel. The film was produced b\ Alexander Macdonald, F.R.G.S.. who, with Mr. \V. H. Sully, directed it.