Between Wars is a portrait of Doctor Edward Trenbow, and focuses on four crisis points during his life. The first crisis occurs when, as a well-intentioned but inexperienced army doctor, he serves in the trenches of World War One. After returning to Australia, he takes up a position at Sydney's Callen Park Asylum and subsequently becomes involved in some controversial Freudian-based experiments on patients during the 1920s. This leads to conflict with the medical authorities and an eventual Royal Commission. He later attempts to escape the glare of public scrutiny by moving his family to a small regional town, where he spends most of the 1930s. His life undergoes another crisis, however, when he becomes embroiled in a dispute between the local farmers' co-operative and the reactionary New Guard. The dispute eventually turns violent and Trenbow is forced to leave the town. Returning to Sydney, Trenbow sets up a successful psychiatric practice, but, once again, forces beyond his control lead him towards confrontation and controversy. In the early stages of World War Two, one of his former colleagues, a German doctor (who introduced him to the work of Freud), is interred as a possible enemy sympathiser. Incensed at his friend's treatment, Trenbow fights against the Australia First movement, but his actions are to no avail. The narrative ends with Trenbow, by now emotionally and physically drained by the turbulence of his life, watching helplessly as his son goes off to war.
[Source: Pike and Cooper, Australian Film 1900-1977, A Guide to Feature Film Production, 1980]
The screenplay, which was proposed as a possible project for the Commonwealth Film Unit, originated out of the close friendship between Frank Moorehouse and Michael Thornhill. Both men had known each other for many years and were part of the Sydney intellectual and anarchist pub culture of the 1960s. Although the project was shelved for several years, the script and eventual production were realised through the funding support of the Australian Film Development Fund and the Australia Council for the Arts.
