The Rebel
( dir. J.E. Mathews
)
Australia
:
Mathews Photoplay Producing Company
,
1915
7636750
1915
single work
film/TV
'Allen Doone's first attempt as an actor and producer of a moving picture play is a great success. 'The Rebel,' as the film is named, was photographed completely in Australia, although the scene of the play is Ireland. Jack Blake is the leader of a rebel band, formed to free Ireland from oppression. On the night of the attack on the fort, Captain Armstrong acts the traitor, and the rebel band is attacked and beaten. Blake escapes, and is married to Eileen McDermott, but afterwards he is captured and imprisoned. Eileen visits the prison, and, with the help of the gaol doctor, substitutes Blake for a suicide in the dead man's coffin. The coffin is taken to the vault, where two grave-robbers open it to get the corpse to sell to doctors. They find the 'corpse' alive, and help him to escape. Eileen is greatly grieved, thinking her husband dead. Blake, however, reaches her house and kills Captain Armstrong as he is about to force Eileen to marry him. The remainder of the rebels overcome Armstrong's guards, and the couple escape to France.'
Source:
'Hero of Irish Drama', Sunday Times, 27 June 1915, p.16.
First produced in the UK in 1899.
Toured Australia from c.1913 with Irish actor Allan Doone, who would later star in the Australian film adaptation, in the lead role.
