ON OUR SELECTION
Australia, 1932, 99 minutes, Black and White.
Bert Bailey, Fred Mc Donald.
Directed by Ken G.Hall.
On Our Selection was based on the popular stories by Steele Rudd. However, this film version was more directly based on the stage play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan.
The film is also Ken G. Hall's first full-length film. Previously a publicity man with a great interest in movies and showmanship, he began a long career with this film that spanned the '30s. (It was interrupted in the '40s by World War Two, and he was to move into newsreels after World War Two.)
Bert Bailey repeats his role as Dad Rudd. It has various episodes from Rudd's stories, but also has sone melodrama typical of the films of the time. There was also great praise of Australia: from the opening Australian symphony of the sights and sounds of the bush to speeches made by Dad about the pioneering of the past, the difficulties of working on the land, the hopes for the future.
in retrospect the film seems a mixture of genuine Australian feeling as well as corny caricature comedy. This is especially the case with the characterisation of Dave. However, the film was an enormous success in its lime -and still has a power to entertain in its primitive way. It was remade with a star cast led by Leo Mc Kern, Joan Sutherland, Geoffrey Rush and Noah Taylor to celebrate the centenary of cinema in 1995.
1. Australian filmmaking of the '30s, the classic story (and the status of Raymond Longford's silent version of the story)? Steele Rudd's stories, the play, Bert Bailey's popularity as Dad, Ken Hall's treatment?
2. The background of the silent era, captions, tableau, acting style, photography? The black and white photography, editing? The score? The Australian spirit of the film: the opening with nature and the bush, the photography of nature, 1he land, the seasons, the crops? The modern atmosphere of farms and progress? The poems and the eulogies of Australia?
Tribute to pioneers, hopes for the future?
3. The tradition of the selectors of the 191h century, clearing the bush, family life, troubles, deaths? The heritage of the selectors?
4. The Australian comedy, the people from the bush, manners, rustic sophistication, language and humour, eccentricities, wad characters?
5. The Rudds in Queensland, their selection, family life, horn, relationships, work, the neighbours, the debt? The relationship with Carey, the law? The parson and his visit? The neighbours? Lily and her mother? The dancers? The prospect of going to the city and to Parliament?
6. Dad as the patriarchal Australian, comic type, bossy, his fears, the way that he talked with people, looking on Dave's romance, the police, justice? His vision?
7. Mum and her being supportive?
8. Dave and his being gawky, at work, words and laughter, the visit of Lily, courting her, their awkwardness, the proposal, Dad's presence, the wedding? The other members of the family, the sons?
9. Kate, her education, tine in the city, love for Sandy, Carey and his attentions, her return home, the fight, the cover-up with Carey's death?
10. Jack, looking at his face in the mirror, his story, the seduction, the killing of Carey, the flashbacks over his face? Old Carey an his reaction to his son and his death?
11. The parson and his visit, the mockery of the church personality and his style?
