THE SENTIMENTAL BLOKE
Australia, 1919, 120 minutes, Black and white.
Arthur Tauchert, Lottie Lyell, Gilbert Emery, Stanley Robinson, Harry Young, Margaret Reid, C.J. Dennis.
Directed by Raymond Longford.
The Sentimental Bloke is based on the classic poems by C.J. Dennis who appears in this film as himself. The films were popular ballads with Australian slang, humorous, insightful.
Arthur Tauchert is no Saturday matinee idol. An ordinary bloke, he portrays the central character with sympathy as well as down-to-earth humour. Lottie Lyell, who had emerged as a film star in Australian films of the decade, is strong as Doreen.
The film is able to capture the mood of C.J. Dennis’s ballads by the captions and cards. Which make a bit of hard reading because of the slang, the dropped consonants, the apostrophes … However, it is worth the effort with such classic scenes as the Bloke going to see Romeo and Juliet and finally calling out for them to put in the boot.
The film was remade in 1932 by Frank Thring Sr and as a musical in 1976 with Graeme Blundell and Geraldine Turner.
The Sentimental Bloke takes up themes that were popular in the 19th century, stories of poorer characters in the inner city of Sydney. This is captured very well in the black and white photography of the time. The film is the urban equivalent of the hayseeds kind of comedy, especially seen in the various versions of On Our Selection (also filmed by Raymond Longford).
Raymond Longford began writing and directing in 1911 with The Fatal Wedding and The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole (with Lottie Lyell). He made a silent version of The Silence of Dean Maitland (remade by Ken G. Hall in 1934) as well as a Mutiny on the Bounty in 1916. He took up religious themes and feminism with The Church and the Woman (1917) and The Woman Suffers (1918). His On Our Selection came in 1920 with Rudd’s New Selection in 1921. He also did a follow-up to The Sentimental Bloke, Ginger Mick in 1920. There was The Dinkum Bloke in 1923. However, he did not do much filming after the end of the silent era – The Man They Could Not Hang in 1934. It was a tragedy that he finished his life as a nightwatchman in a factory in Sydney in 1959. However, he is much honoured after his death for his achievement for Australian cinema.
1. The status of the film as a classic: C. J. Dennis' poems, characters, image of the city, larrikins? The quality of Raymond Longford's film? Subsequent remakes in comparison? The stars and their presence? The quality of the episodes, the humour, the sentiment?
2. The atmosphere of 1919, post-World War One, the development of the cities? Australian nationalism? The humour of the poems? The characters for audience identification? The black and white photography, fixed camera, sense of movement within the frames, close-ups? Location photography and the feel of Sydney? The acting style - natural and artificial for silent films of the period? The glimpse of C. J. Dennis at the opening of the film?
3. The atmosphere of the city, details of Sydney, the inner suburbs, the suburban way of life? Manly and the harbour and the beaches? The characters of the city, the contrast with Uncle Jim and the reference to hayseeds? The transition to the countryside? The city people's dream of a future in the country?
4. The simplicity of the sentiment: emotion, feeling, values? Good and bad? Traditional values? The police, prison, work, cheekiness, respectability? The desirability of respectability? Being proper, going on outings, proposals and marriage? Failure and repentance? The importance of marriage, love of husband and wife, children and the future? The Australian dream? A blend of reality and unreality?
5. The touches of solemnity in the poems and in the film's treatment? The emphasis on Australian characteristics and nationalism? The reference to religious touches - especially for the Bloke's reverence in seeing his son being born and in going into his wife's room?
6. Bill in himself as the sentimental bloke? A man of the city? The two-up game, the humour of the chase, eluding the police, being caught, time in prison, the search for jobs, the markets, the factory, falling in love with Doreen, arranging the date with her, outings, proposal, the play, the ferry and the beach, jealousy of the Stror’at Bloke? The build-up to the visit to Doreen's mother, the fear that Doreen would become like her mother, the wedding, the happiness, the gambling and the drinking, the fight with Doreen - and the joy of making up, the visit of Uncle Jim, going to the country, hard work in the country, the birth of the child - and the final sunset? The cheekiness of the Australian hero and yet his sentiment - even to crying? A sympathetic image of an 'ordinary Australian'?
7. Doreen as heroine: nice, seeing her at work, the organising of the date, her ordinary enjoyments, her singing (the Curse of the Aching Heart) and the effect on Bill? The jealousy of the Stror'at Coot? The outing to Manly, the visit to the play? Her mother? The wedding? uncle Jim and moving to the country? Pregnancy, the midwife helping her with the birth? The final images of husband, wife and child? An image of the ordinary Australian woman of the time?
8. The sketch of the mother, the jokes about her, her fatness, her tears? The wedding? Her death and its sadness? The sketch of the neighbours?
9. The sketch of Ginger Mick and his friendship with Bill? Two-up, work, temptation after marriage? The Stror'at Coot and his suave manners and Bill's jealousy? Uncle Jim - and the echoes of Dad and Dave?
10. The attitude towards the law and authority: two-up, the chase and the devices for escaping the cops, his bad temper and wanting to go out and bash a cop? The Manly Ferry and beach sequence? The humour of the Bloke's response to Shakespeare? The visit and the good manners at Doreen's mother’s? The wedding sequence?
11. The charm of the poetry, its slang, spelling, imagery? Humour and irony? Sentiment? Insight into Australia's transition from 19th to 20th century?
