Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954), Saturday 26 June 1937, page 6


JOE VALLI IS BACK

FILMS AND FISHING.

ON "TYPHOON TREASURE"

LOT.

Joe Valli, thc film comedian, who for ten years was a principal of Pat Hanna's famous "Diggers" is worried as to what is likely to happen to him in the next picture-"Typhoon Trea-sure," which is to be produced on Green Island by Mr. Noel Monkman for Commonwealth Film Laboratories Co., of Sydney.

The picture includes a number or undersea shots in which Joe is likely to be pitted against all kinds of marine

"monsters." These are not concern-

ing him so much as the fact that he is a poor swimmer. He says he was picked for the task because it would be dead easy for him to stay under

water.

Joe came to town yesterday to look up a lot of old friends before going on location. The last time Joe was in Cairns the city celebrated the open-

ing of the brewery. The beer was

free and he remembers it.

Had advance reports not been to the contrary the "Post" yesterday would have believed that Joe was here on a fishing trip. He talked nothing else but big fish and his chief ambi-

tion appears to be to set up a fish

market on location. In between times he apparently will take part in "Ty phoon Treasure." Though an en-

thusiastic fisherman Joe is extremely modest and the scale he carries in his kit will only register up to 22lb.

On his way north on the Canberra Joe tried his gear out at Palm Island but without success. He was not able to do much concentrating because of a plague of interviewers. The news had spread round the island that "Scotty" was around and the natives who had played in "Heritage" and who were taken to Sydney for scenes in "Uncivilised," besieged him seek-ing more film work. Though the natives all looked alike to Joe one soon made himself known by describ-ing an incident on the "Heritage" set when "Scotty," in a raid scene, ac-cidentally shot him on the south side as the blackfellow was travelling north.

Talking of production plans for "Typhoon Treasure," Joe, paid a tri-bute to the enterprise of the producers in bringing their sound equipment onto location. It was perhaps the first time in the history of Australian out-door pictures that the natural sound effects would be attempted. In many cases the sound was "dubbed" in the

studio and the whole story enacted before a faked background.

"Typhoon Treasure" will be Joe's eighth Australian picture. He is well-known for his comedy portrayals in' "Diggers," "Diggers in Blighty," "Waltzing Matilda," "Heritage," "The Flying Doctor," and "Orphans of the Wilderness," in which he appears with Gwen Munro, who will be a leading player in "Typhoon Trea- sure." Joe's most recent part was in "Tall Timbers" released a short time ago by Cinesound.