The long shadow of 1927

Abstract

From an archivist's viewpoint, the 1927 Royal Commission has a particular significance which its participants could hardly have imagined at the time. It coincidentally marked the end of the silent film era, from which the overwhelming majority of productions are now lost, and the beginning of the sound era, from which the survival rate is far better. Most of the films mentioned in the Commission's deliberations, therefore, can no longer be viewed. Despite their hopes, the Commission's work would not advance the fortunes of so many of the significant industry figures who gave evidence and placed their hopes in it. Instead they would soon, effectively, disappear from the scene as the ‘talkie’ era took over. Australia's biggest silent epic, For the Term of His Natural Life, was released in 1927. The creation and the fate of this mammoth production, directed by American Norman Dawn, is in many ways a metaphor for the Commission's deliberations and ultimate outcome: the cultural cringe which accompanied the eclipse of Australian talent by overseas practitioners, the slow contraction of Australian production, and the destruction of its silent heritage. The realities of film survival and preservation are discussed, and the fortuitous recovery and reconstruction of Term for a contemporary audience is traced. Ironically its re-emergence serves to highlight what has been lost. This is an archivist's reflection on the long shadow of 1927.

Notes on contributor

Ray Edmondson OAM Ph.D. is a consultant in audiovisual archiving. He was Deputy Director of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) from its creation in 1984 until 2001, and prior to that had headed the film archive operations of the National Library of Australia since 1968. Globally, he holds life achievement awards from several professional federations, and in 1996 he was the founding president of SEAPAVAA (South East Asia Pacific AudioVisual Archive Association). In a long association with UNESCO he has held various leadership positions in its ‘Memory of the World’ programme. He is an international teacher and author, and his writings have been widely translated. He is currently preparing a new edition of his best known UNESCO book, Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles. His doctoral thesis, ‘National Film and Sound Archive: The Quest for Identity’ (2011) is a corporate history of the NFSA.

Notes

1. Nor would he afterwards. Following Term, he directed The Adorable Outcast (1928) for Australasian Pictures on a budget of £35,000, and returned to Australia in 1931 to independently make Showgirl's Luck. His final films were American ‘B’ pictures Two Lost Worlds and Wild Women (both 1951).

2. Mr W.A. Gibson was asked ‘Is Mr Dawn a first class producer?’ His response: ‘He has given us great satisfaction’. Question: ‘Has he any American productions of outstanding merit to his credit?’ Response: ‘A great number. What influenced me in engaging him was “Caberia” (sic), an Italian film, one of the finest that ever came to Australia’ (Australian Government 1927, 38). According to the IMDB database, Dawn's productions to that time appear to be ‘B’ features and short subjects of no obvious distinction. The reference to Cabiria (1914), a major Italian epic, is puzzling. Dawn does not appear to have had any connection with it. Possibly Gibson saw its grandeur as a reference point for Term.

3. Unlike Metropolis, Napoléon and other silent masterpieces, The Jazz Singer has largely slipped from view today. Even in 1931, a revival of the film at the Warner Theatre in New York lasted all of three days before it was pulled – from smash hit to curiosity in just four years.

4. These percentages are the author's estimate, based on his historical knowledge of the industry and the content of the NFSA collection. More detail on silent feature films is given in Australia's Lost Films (Edmondson and Pike 1982). There is no comparable record of the production of newsreels, documentaries and other films, and their number can only be inferred from available evidence in the press and elsewhere.

5. Production details showing film title, director, year and in some cases production company: The Pioneers (dir. Raymond Longford 1926, Australasian Films), Tall Timber (dir. Dunstan Webb 1926, Australasian Films), Sunrise (dir. F. Stuart-Whyte and Raymond Longford 1926, Australasian Films), The Grey Glove (dir. Dunstan Webb 1928), Peter Vernon's Silence (dir. Raymond Longford 1926, Longford Lyell Productions), The Silence of Dean Maitland (dir. Raymond Longford, Fraser Film Release, 1914), The Blue Mountains Mystery (dir. Raymond Longford and Lottie Lyell 1921, Southern Cross Feature Film Company), The Mutiny of the Bounty (dir. Raymond Longford 1916, Crick and Jones), Lure of the Bush (dir. Claude Flemming 1918, Snowy Baker Films), The Monk and the Woman (dir. Franklyn Barrett 1917, Australian Famous Players).

6. The Sentimental Bloke negative was cut by its American distributors from 8 to 5 reels, and the narrative titles in the Australian vernacular, which had been excerpted from the original C.J. Dennis poem, were replaced with titles in American slang. A comparative list of the titles was printed in a booklet accompanying the NFSA's DVD release of the restored version (2009).

7. The National Historical Film and Speaking Record Library was established by Cabinet decision in December 1935, and designated as a joint operation of the Commonwealth National Library and the Government's film production office. Its direct descendant today is the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA).

8. The National Film Archive (NFA) was the immediate predecessor of the NFSA and was a part of the National Library of Australia. As the officer in charge of the NFA, the writer supervised the Term reconstruction project.

9. For reasons of economy at the time, the National Library made reduction copies of nitrate films. A 16mm frame is a quarter of the size of a 35 mm frame, so image resolution is reduced proportionately.

10. In the silent era, theatre musicians had a wide repertoire of ‘generic’ mood music which could be adapted to match the film. The Term continuity referred to generic pieces and classics and keyed them to narrative titles and scenes. A specialist ensemble, The Palm Court Orchestra followed these conventions and added themes for the major characters. Its rendition was comparable with theatre orchestras of the 1920s.

11. Stretch printing is a technique for replicating individual frames, thereby lengthening a shot so that it slows the action. Term was photographed at around 20 frames per second. With the advent of sound, projection speed was mechanised and standardised at 24 frames per second.

12. Ironically, W.A. Gibson himself, General Manager of the company which bankrolled Term, was also a member of the partnership which produced The Story of the Kelly Gang in 1906.