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The Pioneers is a 1916 Australian silent film directed by Franklyn Barrett. It is considered a lost film.

The film was inspired by The Pioneer, a 1904 painting by Frederick McCubbin of the Heidelberg School movement, also known as Australian impressionism. The film was later remade by Raymond Longford as The Pioneers (1926).

Plot

A convict, Dan Farrel, escapes from Van Diemen's Land and throws himself on the mercy of a farming couple, Mary and Donald Cameron. The years pass and Dan becomes a school teacher. He marries and they have a daughter, Dierdre, but his wife dies.

Dierdre grows up and agrees to marry a local pub keeper, McNab, to stop him from revealing that Dan is a convict. McNab still goes to the police and Dan is arrested. Dierdre accidentally kills McNab.

Cast

• Winter Hall as Dan Farrel
• Alma Rock Phillips as Deidre
• Lily Rochefort as Mary Cameron
• Charles Knight as Donald Cameron
• Fred St Clair as Davey Cameron
• Irve Hayman as Thad McNab
• Martyn Keith as Steve
• Fred Neilson as Fighting Conal
• Nell Rose as Jessie
• George Willougbhy
• Charles Villiers

Production

Barrett bought the rights to the novel while in England.

The film was shot in early 1915 near Gosford and in a studio owned by Franklyn Barrett.

Rock Phillips of J. C. Williamson Ltd wrote that the film ushered a new level of professionalism in Australian filmmaking:

The local productions, to date, with the exceptions of, say, half a dozen, have been absolutely ruined by - inferior acting, being badly cast and carelessly dressed. That is only what can be expected when those in charge of the financial part of the business, pay so little for services rendered, there being no inducement for the best class of 'pro' to enter this business. When they offer the capable artist a fair salary commensurate with his or her ability, then, and not till then, will Australian-made pictures hold their own with the best on the other side... The director of tho latest Australian venture in the Movie business has recognised the above, in filming... The Pioneers... Besides getting together a company of well-known players' he is paying them top salaries. Expense is a secondary consideration, the goal aimed at being an evenly and well acted story.

Reception

Reviews were generally positive.

See also

• List of lost films

References

1. "Advertising". The Brisbane Courier. Qld.: National Library of Australia. 18 October 1916. p. 2. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
2. "Production of Moving Pictures – In America and Australia". Australian Town and Country Journal. Vol. XCVIII, no. 2555. New South Wales, Australia. 18 December 1918. p. 20. Retrieved 21 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
3. "The Pioneers". silentera.com. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
4. Hobby, Nathan (2022). The Red Witch: A Biography of Katharine Susannah Prichard. Melbourne University Publishing, ISBN 9780522877397
5. "Film News from Foreign Parts", Motion Picture News 11 March 1916. Retrieved 23 November 1916
6. "STARS of Our EARLY FILMS". The Sun. No. 1786. New South Wales, Australia. 20 June 1937. p. 11 (MAGAZINE). Retrieved 15 August 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
7. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 66
8. "PICTURE PLAYS". The Mirror of Australia. Sydney: National Library of Australia. 15 January 1916. p. 18. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
9. "ITEMS OF INTEREST". The Argus. Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 1 March 1916. p. 10. Retrieved 22 April 2012.

External links

• The Pioneers at IMDb
• The Pioneers at National Film and Sound Archive

• 1916 films
• Silent Australian drama films
• Australian black-and-white films
• Lost Australian drama films
• 1916 drama films
• 1916 lost films
• Films set in colonial Australia
• Films directed by Franklyn Barrett
• 1910s English-language films
• English-language drama films
• 1910s Australian films
• Australian films based on novels