Cirrus

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Film Details - Cinesound Productions , 1936

Producers:

Ken G. Hall

Production Companies:

Cinesound Productions

Director of Photography:

George Heath

Editors:

William Shepherd

Production Designers:

J. Alan Kenyon (Art Director)

Composer:

W. Hamilton Webber

Music:

W. Hamilton Webber (Music Director)

Cast:

Brian Abbot (Tom Henton), Wendy Munro [AKA Gwen Monroe] (Margot), Ethel Saker (Mrs Saker), Harry Abdy (Shorty McGee), Ron Whelan (Mell), Joe Valli (Andrew McMeeker), Sylvia Kellaway (Nell), June Munro (June), Edna Montgomery (Nell), Claude Turton (Dan), Arthur Cornell (Circus Watchman), Leo Cracknell [aka Leonard Cracknell] (Otto Ambergres), Sid Knowles (Beller), Jack Souter (Grocer), Victor Fitzherbert (Second), Jack Solomons (Second), Captain A.C. Stevens (Burke), George Scott (The Strong Man), Dick Ryan (The Kid), John Warwick (uncredited).

Release Dates:

1. 19 December 1936 (Lyceum Theatre, Sydney). Released in the USA on 10 November 1937. An edited version was released in the UK in 1938.

2. Released on videocassette format in 1989 by the National Film and Sound Archive.

Location:

Outdoor footage shot on location in the Burragorang Valley and in Camden, New South Wales.

Awards:

Film Critic's Guild of Australia (1936), Best Film (winner)

Notes:

1. Known as Wild Innocence (USA) and Chut (UK).

2. Assistant Director: Ron Whelan.

3. Originally planned as a fifty minute support film to Thoroughbred, Orphan of the Wilderness was expanded to feature status with the inclusion of a romantic subplot, conceived as an attempt to broaden its market appeal. Although costing only around £12,000 to produce, the film nevertheless utilised the most ambitious set construction ever attempted in Australia to that time. For the film's twelve minute opening sequence, Hall and production designer J. Alan Kenyon reproduced a 140 feet by 70 feet bushland setting inside Cinesound's Bondi studio. The set comprised a waterfall and bush pool surrounded by eucalypt trees, native shrubbery, ferns, and grasses. Live animals, including kangaroos, an emu, koalas, a snake, dingoes, and a bullfrog, were also incorporated into the setting.

4. The kangaroo playing Chut and several other animals were trained by former variety entertainer and animal trainer Harry Abdy (sometimes billed as Abdy's Circus, Abdy's Bird and Animal Circus, and Harry Abdy's Komedy Kangaroos). The son of ex-carnival operator Mons. Abdy and brother of variety performer and actress Marie La Varre, Harry Abdy was the first person to introduce boxing kangaroos onto both the Tivoli circuit and to American variety audiences. Over the years, Abdy's animals, which he trained at his property at Lidcombe (New South Wales), included cats, pigeons, dogs, parrots, and kangaroos.

5. The popularity of the film, and of Chut the kangaroo in particular, saw it become a favourite of children's matinees. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper (1980) note that Chut's popularity with Australians of the late 1930s and early 1940s was similar to that of Skippy the bush kangaroo in the late 1960s: 'Chut dolls were sold in chain stores, the story was serialised in children's magazines, and Chut made numerous public appearances in theatres and shopping centres' (p. 231). Orphan of the Wilderness was also voted Best Film by the newly formed Film Critics' Circle of Australia.

6. Further reference: Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper. Australian Film 1900-1977, A Guide to Feature Film Production (1980), pp. 231-232.

Subjects:

Cirrus@Austlit