Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Monday 28 September 1936, page 4


FILM REVIEWS

"UNCIVILISED."

The aborigines in "Uncivilised" are responsible for whatever success the film attains. The background, as explained at the beginning with the aid of a map, is supposed to be an incompletely explored region in North-west Australia. Actually, Mr. Charles Chauvel, who directed the picture on behalf of Expeditionary Films, Ltd., went to various parts of Queensland for his most striking local colour. Geographers may possibly be able to detect the substitution, but the general public will eagerly accept the landscapes and the people as elements in a romance whose setting

has no precedent on the screen. Had the dramatic effect been equal to the scenic values, Mr. Chauvel would have fathered a new "Sanders of the River," peopled by representatives of a civilisation yet older than that whose members surrounded Paul Robeson in Zoltan Corda's magnificent English production, under present conditions, the pictures of grotesquely ornamented natives, of tribal dances, of sinister tropical streams, and of vast mountains wreathed in jungle, must create the interest for themselves, in spite of, rather than augmented by, the organised acting and plot. For story trouble, which has wrecked so many Australian films, makes still another appearance In "Uncivilised "

Mr. Chauvel himself originated the narrative, and he worked it into Its present form in collaboration with E. V. Timms. Mr. Chauvel's enterprise on the production side Is unquestioned. Few directors would have shown such courage and such patience in securing the background material, so curiously primeval and intense, in organising the aborigines into some sort of dramatic coherency, and in choosing and arranging the scenes. But as a writer, Mr. Chauvel is no match for the contemporary spinners of tales. His ideas about a white man who has been brought up among the aborigines, yet reveals himself as a perfect gentleman, stem from

Ouida, Ruby M. Ayres, Elinor Glyn, and others of that amiably preposterous, oldfashioned school. Those purveyors of the romantic said what they had to say deftly and expertly. Only a few months ago, a revival of Oulda's "Under Two Flags" showed that they can still command a public, if their original lusclousness is lightened and made more humorous to suit the prevailing taste. But Mr. Chauvel and Mr. Timms tread ponderously along the well-worn paths. Instead of masking their exposiltion with dramatic actlon, or with the inspiriting crackle of clever dialogue, they express it by means of laborious talk. The spectator's attention may easily wander, and then many of the later events will seem completely Inexplicable. There are several important sub-plots, besides the tale of a city girl whom the white savage takes captive and woos in his rough yet respectful way. One of these concems the traffic in opium; another, a mysterious handful of rubies; another, a blood-thirsty aboriginal who seems to be perpetually on the warpath.

The acting is uneven. The best of it has been done by Margot Rhys, who appeared with such success in Mr. Chauvel's "Heritage."

She looks beautiful; she moves with grace; and she expresses well enough the agitation of the kidnapped girl. One sequence shows her swimming naked in a pool. This is the first of two small sections which the Commonwealth censor declares must be removed before the film can be exported. The bathing scenes have been prepared with taste and discretion. Controversy hinges entirely on whether or not the undraped female form is admissible, on general principles, as a subject for motion picture photography. As for the strangling episode toward the end of "Uncivilised," on which the censor pounced, far more grim and hair-raising Incidents have been allowed to come from Hollywood to the local screen.

Denis Hoey, as the gentlemanly savage, looks a trifle mature to have inspired such unquenchable romantic ardour in the breast of his young captive. There ia too much gentlemanllness, and too little savagery, in his demeanour. Ashton Jarry is persistently portentous as a mysterious Afghan; and Marcelle Marnay, who seems to have screen possibilities, makes what she can of a half-caste Malay girl, full of melodramatic tantrums. Tasman Higgins did the photography, which is rather on the dark side. The music, by Lindley Evans, while attractively melodious, would have been more striking had it kept closer to the sparse tone-colours of the native instruments. "Uncivilised" is now on view at the Embassy Theatre.