Cirrus@Austlit

An author makes a bet that he can complete a novel in twenty-four hours, and isolates himself in a mountain resort in order to write. But he is interrupted by a series of visitors.

For the Honour of Australia was made for British audiences, by compiling footage from two films (For Australia and How We Beat the Emden) and constructing a new over-arching narrative that presented the protagonists of the two entirely separate films as brothers, living out asynchronous war experiences that only briefly overlap.

Australian Screen Online (see link below) points out that the two films were made by rival companies (J.C. Williamson's and Australasian Films), and there is no current information on who spliced the two films into this new release.

'Miss Muriel Starr, the popular American actress who is undoubtedly one of the best actresses ever witnessed in Australia is seen in the picture in her famous character, Mary Turner, the poor girl who was wrongfully imprisoned, and who, after serving her three years in prison, was continually hounded down by the police until in desperation she became a "crook," and set out to beat the police at their own game by working "Within the Law." No drama ever stirred the emotions of an audience more than this heart-touching subject, and when Mary Turner eventually secures her revenge on the proprietor of the store who had her imprisoned by marrying his only son, one cannot help but feel pleased at her success and admire her for her grit and determination in beating the police, with all their hateful "third degree" and other methods for keeping a poor individual down once they have had them in their clutches.'

Source:

'Within the Law', Warrnambool Standard, 12 February 1916, p.2.

'For Australia, directed for JC Williamson’s by Monte Luke, is a melodrama about a newspaper reporter captured by a German spy ring and taken to a secret island, where he is saved by a native girl and the Sydney.'

Source: Australian Screen. (Sighted: 9/7/2014)