Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 18 February 1959, page 8


MOVIELAND'S "DOLL"

Movieland bustle and glamor has temporarily invaded a small corner of Sydney for the shooting of the Hecht-Hill-Lancaster production of

"Summer of the Seventeenth Doll."

NEXT week filming will be completed

on this screen version of Ray Lawler's play, and, shortly after, its international stars - Anne Baxter, John Mills, Ernest Borgnine, and Angela Lansbury - will

leave for home.

Then will come the job of cutting and editing - a task never before attempted in Australia on a film made with overseas capital.

The black-and-white film, the most im-portant movie ever made in Sydney, is directed by Leslie Norman, the director of "The Shiralee" and "Dunkirk."

These color pictures by staff photog-rapher Keith Barlow are scenes from "The Doll," which will be seen by world-wide audiences when it is released in six or seven months-possibly after a Sydney

world premiere.

AMERICAN STAK Ernest Borgnine (above), pictured in character for hit role in "The Doll." in which he plays Roo. a likeable, rum-bustious cane-cntter.

THE BEGINNING of the 17th summer (right). Down in Sydney from, the cane-fields, Barney (John Mills) and Roo are met at Circular Quay by Roo's girl-friend, Olive (Anne Baxter), and Pearl (Angela

Lmnsbury), unenthusiastic replacement for Barney's old girl. Nancy, whose marriage broke up a foursome of 16 years' standing.

THE END of the wonderful 16th summer (above). Accompanied by Olive and Nancy (out of camera range, but played by Jessica Noad). the boys make a wild last-minute dash for Central Station and their north-bound train. As usual, the four had spent the cane-cutters lay-off season together at the Milton's Point residential (shown at right) run by Olive's mother, Emma. In the play. Nancy was referred to, but did not appear. The film version of "The Doll" differs considerably from Lauder's original one-set play, when 16th summer was simply referred to in dialogue. Film shows hotel where Olive is a barmaid, and next-door barber's where Pearl, a barmaid in the play, it a manicurist.

ON LOCATION

LEFT: Emma (Ethel Gabriel) it shown watering tired flowers on the verandah oj her Milton's

Point residential. Ethel Gabriel also played < the Emma role in the Australian, London, ¿nd Mew York stage productions of "The Doll."

THE

SETTING

JN Ray Lawlers

play the setting for "The Doll" was in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton, but Sydney was con-sidered more pictori-ally suitable and convenient for the demands of the screen version. Holly-wood set the action in Glen St., Milson's Point, an old residen-tial suburb situated on the northern side

of Sydney Harbor.

.

LEFT: The Milson's Point home of Miss Florence Carlon, which, during the shooting of "'The Doll," became 'Tam-ma's place." The camera lights and equipment outside the house give, hint of bustle to come when filming began.

ABOVE: Barney and Olive (John Mills and Anne Baxter) share one of the few jokes of the summer that was to prove full of dramatic changes. Both American and Australian dialogue versions have been recorded of some scenes.

RIGHT: Thc view from Emma's veran-

dah, looking across Luna Park, where some of the scenes

took place, and over

the Harbor to Walsh Bay and Pyrmont.