AustLit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Film Details - Expeditionary Films , 1936
Producers:
Charles Chauvel
Frank Coffey and Ann Wynn [aka Elsa Chauvel] (Assistant Producers)
Production Companies:
Expeditionary Films
Director of Photography:
Tasman Higgins
Editors:
Frank Coffey
Mona Donaldson (Assistant Editor)
Production Designers:
James Coleman
Composer:
Lindley Evans
Music:
Lindley Evans (Music Director)
Cast:
Dennis Hoey (Mara), Margot Rhys (Beatrice Lynn), Ashton Jarry (Akbar Jhan), Kenneth Brampton (Trask), Marcelle Marnay (Sondra), Edward Howell (Vitchi), Victor Fitzherbert (Hemingway), John Fernside (Captain), Edward Sylveni (Salter), Frank Dwyer (Blum), Rita Aslin (Nardin), Jessica Malone (Secretary), Norman Rutledge, Don McNiven, and Carl Francis (Troopers).
Release Dates:
September 1936 (Embassy Theatre, Sydney).
Location:
- Filmed on location in northern Queensland and on Palm Island. Interior scenes filmed at Pagewood Studios in Sydney.
Notes:
1. Frank Coffey and Ann Wyn were engaged as assistant directors. Frank White was the choreographer.
2. Chauvel's intention was to make the film accessible to the American market, and hence it contains no discernible Australian context. In all, Uncivilised cost some £20,000 and took six weeks to complete. Chauvel gained a great deal of publicity for the film when the Commonwealth censor objected to two scenes: a scene in which Margot Rhys swam nude in a jungle pool and a strangulation scene involving the Aboriginal killer. Chauvel was eventually able to release it as he intended, although the cuts became a condition for the film's export. The film also includes two musical performances, written into the narrative especially for Dennis Hoey, a British baritone singer and character actor chosen by Chauvel to give the film an air of glamour. There are also several scenes in which members of the indigenous Palm Island community perform highly choreographed dances and rituals.
3. Further reference: Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper. Australian Film 1900-1977, A Guide to Feature Film Production (1980, q.v.), pp. 228-229.
Subjects:
- ca. 1920s
Settings:
- Northern Australia,
