Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 30 April 1936, page 5


AUSTRALIAN^.FILMS. ;

Cinesound's Plans.

TWO ANIMAL- STORIES.

Mr. Ken Hall announces that he will begin production of "Wilderness Orphan" on Mon-day week. This is rather later than had been planned. But, once a start is made, Mr. Hall hopes to complete all the scenes at the Cinesound studio within four weeks. . After that there will be location work on a small station near Bringelly, in the Camden district.

The two leading players, Mr. Brian Abbott and Miss Gwen Munro, are now in Sydney. Mr. Abbott "is about six feet three inches in height, and has more than the average share of good looks. He has followed many pur-suits in his time. Running away from his Sydney home while still a boy, he went to sea for a few years, then decided to study medi-cine; gave that up, and became a jackeroo. He gained his flrsr, experience of screen work in "Thoroughbred." The part was not a large one. Mr. Hall was struck by his ap-pearance and his ability.

Miss Munro went to Hollywood recently as the winner of a competition. Melbourne is her home town. She has done some amateur work on the stage, and she played a small part some months ago in Mr. Ernest Rolls's production, "So This is Hollywood."

As a sort of introductory event, before be-ginning on "Wilderness Orphan," Mr. Hall invited the Press yesterday to see a boxing match, in which a kangaroo wa« one of the fighters. The relevance of the kangaroo lay in the fact that one of these animals figures importantly in "Wilderness Orphan."

There will be a good deal of boxing in the film. According to the story by Dorothy Cot-trell, as developed into scenario form by Edmund Seward, the kangaroo becomes a pet on an outback station. Some lads tease it, and it attacks one of its. tormentors so fiercely that it almost kills him. Then a vaudeville performer buys it, and teaches it to box. -.He drinks a great deal. He neglects and ill-treats the kangaroo. One night, goaded beyond endurance, the kan-garoo turns on its owner and rends him.

The length of the completed film will be 5000 feet, or that of a short feature. The kangaroos which are being used belong to Mr. Harry Abdy, a brother of the well-known actress, Miss Marie Le Varre. Mr. Abdy has ap-peared with them on the vaudeville stage. They were seen, too. in a Hollywood film called "Hell Below."

CAPTAIN HURLEY'S PLANS.

The plans foi the othet animal picture, for which Captain Frank Hurley and MiKenneth Wilkinson prepared a scenario, have been changed. Captain Hurley will not now be directing the four features of this kind for which he was scheduled at the beginning: of the year. Instead, Cinesound manage-ment has placed him in charge of a new "industrial department." which is to make films on order from various public and private organisations.

Meanwhile, the Hurley-Wilkinson scenario has been taken over by Mr. Ken Hall, who

intends to produce it during the present year. !