Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Friday 25 August 1950, page 3


INTEREST EV FILM QUICKENS

Port Augusta Plans To Help In 'Kangaroo'

Itae co-operation of all townspeople able to help will be enlisted at a public meeting in the Port Augusta Town Hall tonight in response to a request by 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation executives for the speedy erection on location of a 19th century cattle station homestead.

The Town Clerk of Port Augusta (Mr. L. Aberncthy) said yesterday that the film company's representatives visiting the district had told him they wanted work on the homestead finished in six weeks. The film company's associate producer (Mr. Robert Snody), who is now in Sydney, said yesterday that work on building the homestead near Port Augusta would begin next week. Plans were for shooting of the Slim, technicolor filmtentatively named 'Kangaroo' -— to begin on October 16. A site on the plains, with the Lower Flinders in the background, has already been selected for the homestead by Mr. Saul Wurtzel (first assistant director to Mr. Snody) and Mr. Colin Hall, who have been examining locations and accommodation in the area. Other locations will be inspected by Mr. Lewis Milestone, the director, when he comes to SA in a fortnight. Mayor To Preside The Mayor of Port Augusta (Mr. Riches, MP) will preside at tonight's public meeting. The president of the Master Builders' Association of SA (Mr. G. H. Fricker) will give details of the film producers' requirements and plans for the work. In announcing the meeting, Mr. Abernethy said that officials of the film company had given an assurance that their policy was to buy as much as. they could locally and get as much of the work done in Port Augusta as possible. When Mr. Harry Kleiner, the script writer, arrives in Sydney on Monday he will get down to work with Mr. Milestone and Australian advisers.. Accurate detail in idiom and character of the story for the period at the turn of the century will be the aim. , Australian Cast Mr. Milestone will start choosing an . Australian cast of some 200 players in about two weeks. 'Teh of these parts provide roles with definite future possibilities in.filmwork for those selected,' Mr. Milestone said yesterday. He announced in Sydney that Constance Smith, an English actress, trained at Dublin's Abbey Theatre, who was downstairs maid in the Irene Dunne film of Queen Victoria, 'The Mudlark,' produced in London

recently, had been signed on a ong-term contract by 20th Century-Fox and would nave a leading feminine role Peter Lawford is cast as the liero, Connor, and the part of a gambler, his mate, will be played by Richard Boone, who toured in the 'Hasty Heart' company in America. Boone has had a part in 'Halls of Montezuma,' the last film Mr. Milestone directed before coming to Australia. His only other film appearance has been in 'Call Me Mister,' directed by Lloyd Bacon and now in the cutting room. Boone has been on television and on the New York stage.