THE SQUATTER'S DAUGHTER

Australia, 1933, 104 minutes, Black and white.
Jocelyn Howarth, Grant Lyndsay, John Warwick, Fred Mac Donald, W. Layne Bayliff, Dorothy Dunkley, Owen Ainley, Kathleen Esler, Claude Turton.
Directed by Ken G. Hall.

The Squatter's Daughter was the second of Ken G. Hall's Cinesound productions and one of its most successful. Based on a play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan (previously filmed in 1910), it does not seem to be stage bound in any way except in the range of coincidences. Novelist E. V. Timms contributed to the screenplay but, as Hall noted, had very little conception of the film medium. Jocelyn Howarth appeared in Hall's The Silence of Dean Maitland and then went to America with the name Constance Worth for a moderate star role. Grant Lyndsay is in reality screen and radio personality Dick Fair. Fred Mac Donald, who was Dave in the Rudd series, contributes comedy as a Scottish shearer.

The film had an introduction by Prime Minister Joe Lyons, praising its contribution to awareness of Australia's pastoral role. With this stirring beginning and the use of Elgar's music, the film is a morale boosting entertainment for the Depression years. There are excellent scenes of sheep on country properties, but the climax of the film is still effective, an enormous bushfire which was difficult filming even for the actors. There is an interesting touch with Jebal Zim and his daughter Zena as an Afghan gypsy who has lived in Australia and intends to return home. He is presented as a sincere Muslim. There is also some entertainment by an aboriginal band of gumleaf-players.

The film is particularly well-made, has a rousing spirit about it especially with its vigorous heroine. It was the beginning of a successful group of films made by Hall at Cinesound through the '30s.

1. Cinesound's career. contribution to Australian films in the '30s? The sophistication of the film-making for the second film? The traditions of the breaking of the drought, girl of the bush, squatter's daughter films? The transition from silent techniques to sound? The contribution and praise of the prologue by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons?

2. The quality of the black and white photography. the pastoral scenes of the properties, the sheep? The fire and the special effects and stunts? The effectiveness of the focus on Sydney and the newly-built harbour bridge? Impact in the '30s. now? The musical score and the reliance on classics, especially Elgar's 'Land of Hope and Glory'?

3. The basis of the film in a play - its being opened out but retaining the melodrama, identities and coincidences? The title and its focus on the role of the pioneer squatters, the bush. the sheep? The importance of the feminine lead and her strength? The summing up of the spirit in the long speech at the end and Australia's contribution to world economy in the '30s?

4. The introduction of melodrama, rivalries. skulduggery. covered up identities? The range of happy coincidences? Audiences accepting these?

5. The picture of the squatter's life: wealth and losses, gentility and respectability, homesteads and style, employment, the vast number of sheep, the range of work for the sheep, droving, drought and fire?

6. The properties and their background, money deals, swindling, changing of strains in the sheep breed, the role of the merino, deaths, blindness and illness? The next generation and double dealing and deception? The place of the Afghan gypsies? The characters as stereotypes, strong in themselves?

7. Joan as heroine, strength of character, the deals, the encounter with Wayne and her suspicions. falling in love after tending him, Jimmy and his lameness, her support of him? His suspicions and her reaction? The details of home life? Miss Ramsbottom and her contribution to the homestead? The sales, the droving? The social background, especially with Clive Sherrington returning home? The dance? The decision for the
happy ending? Uniting of the properties, love for Wayne? Her speech? The feminist touch? A heroine of the '30s?

8. Wayne and his arrival, the accident and Fletcher's suspicions of him, his falling in love with Joan, Jimmy's antagonism his decision not to defend himself, his working on the rival property, the clashes and fights, his buying the sheep unknown to Joan, the friendship with Clive Sherrington, droving and his heroism in the bushfire? The mystery about his birth and his being changed as a baby etc.?

9. Fletcher's son and his double deals, spoiling the strain. the fights, Sherrington's return, Fletcher's influence, the truth especially with the confrontation with Jebal Zim? His heroism in the fire, his ironically being shot by his father? Fletcher and his sinister presence on the property, his ambitions for his own son, the clash with Jebal Zim, the evidence, his killing Jebal Zim? Jimmy and Zena trapped in the fire? His death in the creek? The melodramatics and their persuasiveness?

10. Jebal Zim and his presence in the cutback, the background of Asians, especially Afghanistans in Australia? The gypsy way of life? His reliance on Allah and his Muslim prayer? Zena and her love for Jimmy? His knowledge of the truth. his wanting to make amends? The documents and Zena’s holding them? His death? The character of Zena and her romance with Jimmy?

11. The place of the dog in the film: sheep dog, suspected of being killer, Jimmy beating it., its help when they were trapped in the fire? Audience response to the dog?

12. Clive Sherrington and his blindness, his return, his friend from England, the drive to the property, the haze, the audience assuming that his blindness had returned, his reactions around the house, the advice that he was given, people's suspicious reactions? The irony that he could see? His revealing this in the encounter with Jebal Zim? His discovery of the truth? His concern about the fire and the rescue?

13. The comedy with Miss Ramsbottom and her name? Her attachment to the Scottish shearer - and her reaction to the bagpipes?

14. The romantic interludes? The contrast with the build-up to the droving and the climax?

15. An image of Australian society and Australia's view of itself in the '30s?