Early Film Production in Western Australia

This has an emphasis on early film production in WA, though it also covers the history of movie making in Australia, with an emphasis on pioneering feature films.

Leonard Corrick filmed a short chase comedy called “The Bashful Mr Brown” in 1907, which was possibly the first narrative film made in Western Australia.

Later, Fred Murphy made a drama called “Love’s Own Luck” in 1920, which he claimed to be the first acted picture made in WA. This was followed by a comedy called “Twins and Trouble”, made for the Ugly Men’s philanthropic group. Another was “Dreams and Screams”, made in 1923 for Sir Thomas Coombe, the owner of the Prince of Wales Theatre in Perth.

As much of the pioneering movie making was taking place in the eastern states, a report on the history of film production there is also given.

Starting with the world's first film studio, the Limelight Department, operated by the Salvation Army in Australia, which between 1897 and 1910 produced about 300 films of various lengths.

Then there was the 1906 production of “The Story of the Kelly Gang”, the earliest known feature film, which was written and directed by Charles Tait, and included several of his family.

The Sentimental Bloke is a 1918 Australian silent film produced and directed by Raymond Longford, the film stars Arthur Tauchert, Gilbert Emery, and Lottie Lyell, who also co-wrote the film with Longford.

In 1930 F. W. Thring (1883–1936) established the Efftee Studios based in Melbourne to make talking films using optical sound equipment imported from the United States.

Ken G. Hall became a driving force in establishing Cinesound Productions in 1931. It was particularly successful with the “On Our Selection” (1932) series of comedies, based on the popular writings of author Steele Rudd. Cinesound produced only 17 feature-films.

Kokoda Front Line! (1942), directed by Ken G. Hall, won Australia's first Oscar.

In 1933, “In the Wake of the Bounty”, directed by Charles Chauvel, cast Tasmanian-born Errol Flynn in a leading role. Chauvel directed a number of successful Australian films, including 1944's World War II classic “The Rats of Tobruk” (which starred Peter Finch and Chips Rafferty) and 1955's “Jedda”, which was notable as the first Australian film shot in colour, starring indigenous. actors.

We then turn our attention to the “Nickel Queen”, a movie made in WA in 1971, which is considered to be the first colour and sound feature movie to come out of the West.

There was a time when Seven Perth aspired to starting a movie industry in Western Australia. Their initial attempt involved the State government and a film company led by an Australian actor, who made it big in British movies during the 1940s and 1950s. The film starred his popular British actress wife.

The movie was the “Nickel Queen”, a 1971 Australian comedy film starring Googie Withers and directed by her husband John McCallum. The story was loosely based on the Poseidon bubble, a nickel boom in Western Australia in the late 1960s, and tells of an outback pub owner who stakes a claim and finds herself an overnight millionaire.

The movie ran for six months at the Piccadilly Theatre in Perth, but was not as popular elsewhere.

The world premier was held in Perth, with all the razzmatazz one would expect associated with a Hollywood movie.

TVW7 featured this in a 45 minute outside broadcast, but the best was to follow four days later at the Kalgoorlie premier, where the excited locals were most enthused at seeing themselves and their friends on the big screen.

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