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form y separately published work icon The Siege of Pinchgut single work   film/TV  
Alternative title: Four Desperate Men
Note: Additional dialogue by Alexander Baron. Note: Inman Hunter and Lee Robinson receive a credit for 'story.'
Issue Details: First known date: 1959... 1959 The Siege of Pinchgut
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

A group of escaped convicts seize Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour. The island has working coast artillery guns on it, which the convicts use to threaten Sydney until their demands are met. The authorities are unaware, however, that the convicts cannot access the shells, which are locked away in the fort.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

South of Ealing : Recasting a British Studio’s Antipodean Escapade Adrian Danks , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 10 no. 2 2016; (p. 223-236)
'The five films made in Australia by Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s have largely been analysed and ‘reclaimed’ (by figures like Bruce Molloy) as key works of Australian National Cinema, movies that occupy and populate a period of meagre feature film production while reworking popular genres such as the Western and the crime film. Although these films can be read symptomatically in terms of their ‘localised’ renderings of landscape, character and narrative situation, they have seldom been discussed in relation to the broader patterns of Ealing film production, the studio’s preoccupation with interiorised communities, work, Britishness and small-scale settlements on the geographic fringes of Britain and the Empire (such as Whisky Galore!), and the various other films (such as the Kenya shot and set Where No Vultures Fly and West of Zanzibar) that light upon far-flung or peripheral locations and settlements. This essay re-examines the Ealing ‘adventure’ through a transnational lens that focuses attention on the largely unacknowledged parallels and production symmetries between films such as Eureka Stockade and those that sit within the ‘mainstream’ of the studio’s output (e.g. Passport to Pimlico). It also places these five films (The Overlanders, Eureka Stockade, Bitter Springs, The Shiralee and The Siege of Pinchgut) in relation to the broader commercial fate of the studio throughout the late 1940s and 1950s.' (Publication abstract)
TV Nation or TV City? Albert Moran , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 24 no. 3 2010; (p. 343 - 356)
'For much of its history in the twentieth century, television was conceived mostly in national terms. American television, British television, Australian television and so on were thought of as distinct systems, even if they frequently displayed significant degrees of overlap. Such a notion has always been a convenient simplification. Television exists at a series of different spatial levels and the nationwide tier is only one of these. Recent interest in the notion of media capital draws attention to the role played by broadcasting hubs in larger television formations, not only in the industrial sense of resource accumulation and density but also in terms of colonizing larger media environments. This paper addresses this matter in terms of the role that a Sydney metropolitan television service has played in the life of the Australian nation. It surveys the material and ideological dimension of this service as a means of further problematizing the connection of television and nation' (Author's abstract)
The Polysemous Coathanger : The Sydney Harbour Bridge in Feature Film, 1930-1982 Lennart Jacobsen , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , July - September no. 40 2006;
'The cinema has long been attracted to photographing great cultural icons. This article provides a thorough account of the celluloid life of one of Australia's most distinctive landmarks.' (Publisher's abstract)
TV Nation or TV City? Albert Moran , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 24 no. 3 2010; (p. 343 - 356)
'For much of its history in the twentieth century, television was conceived mostly in national terms. American television, British television, Australian television and so on were thought of as distinct systems, even if they frequently displayed significant degrees of overlap. Such a notion has always been a convenient simplification. Television exists at a series of different spatial levels and the nationwide tier is only one of these. Recent interest in the notion of media capital draws attention to the role played by broadcasting hubs in larger television formations, not only in the industrial sense of resource accumulation and density but also in terms of colonizing larger media environments. This paper addresses this matter in terms of the role that a Sydney metropolitan television service has played in the life of the Australian nation. It surveys the material and ideological dimension of this service as a means of further problematizing the connection of television and nation' (Author's abstract)
The Polysemous Coathanger : The Sydney Harbour Bridge in Feature Film, 1930-1982 Lennart Jacobsen , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , July - September no. 40 2006;
'The cinema has long been attracted to photographing great cultural icons. This article provides a thorough account of the celluloid life of one of Australia's most distinctive landmarks.' (Publisher's abstract)
South of Ealing : Recasting a British Studio’s Antipodean Escapade Adrian Danks , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 10 no. 2 2016; (p. 223-236)
'The five films made in Australia by Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s have largely been analysed and ‘reclaimed’ (by figures like Bruce Molloy) as key works of Australian National Cinema, movies that occupy and populate a period of meagre feature film production while reworking popular genres such as the Western and the crime film. Although these films can be read symptomatically in terms of their ‘localised’ renderings of landscape, character and narrative situation, they have seldom been discussed in relation to the broader patterns of Ealing film production, the studio’s preoccupation with interiorised communities, work, Britishness and small-scale settlements on the geographic fringes of Britain and the Empire (such as Whisky Galore!), and the various other films (such as the Kenya shot and set Where No Vultures Fly and West of Zanzibar) that light upon far-flung or peripheral locations and settlements. This essay re-examines the Ealing ‘adventure’ through a transnational lens that focuses attention on the largely unacknowledged parallels and production symmetries between films such as Eureka Stockade and those that sit within the ‘mainstream’ of the studio’s output (e.g. Passport to Pimlico). It also places these five films (The Overlanders, Eureka Stockade, Bitter Springs, The Shiralee and The Siege of Pinchgut) in relation to the broader commercial fate of the studio throughout the late 1940s and 1950s.' (Publication abstract)
Last amended 11 Oct 2017 13:51:34
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