AUSTRALIAN FILMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 218, 3 December 1927, Page 23 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIAN FILMS

HORSE RACING “ONLY NATIONAL SUBJECT” When the Carroll interests decided in 1919 to enter the field of motion picture making in Australia they brought to Sydney, as scenario writer, Miss Meredyth, who has since made the story continuity for three successful American pictures, “The Ten Commandments,” “Ben Hur” and “lion Juan.” According to evidence given by Mr. Dan Carroll before the Commonwealth Film Commission, Miss Meredyth claimed after months of investigation of Australian conditions and careful research in the Mitchell Library, that the only truly national subject about which Australian producers could make

a picture was horse racing. Australians, she said, had not yet developed any distinctive individuality of national character or tradition. On this assurance, Mr. Carroll told the Commission, the interests with which he was associated turned to the production of films of bush and station life. They made “The Man from Kangaroo” and “The Shadow of Lightning Ridge.” They also distributed the “Sentimental Bloke” and “Ginger Mick” throughout the world. Lack of Australian stories, suitable for dramatisation, and the fact that , overseas producers were releasing films 1 more than sufficient for market needs, had also fij>rced him and his associates jto abandon the production of films.