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The Squatter's Son

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1911 film

The Squatter's Son
The Age 24 April 1911
Directed byE. I. Cole
Based onplay by E. I. Cole or Clarence Burnett
StarringE. I. Cole's Bohemian Dramatic Company
Production
company		Pathé Frères
Release date
  • 13 April 1911 (1911-04-13)
Running time3,800 feet
CountryAustralia
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles

The Squatter's Son is an Australian film completed in 1911 and directed by E. I. Cole. It was based on a play which Cole and his company had performed throughout Australia.

It is considered a lost film.

Plot

John Lenton is a squatter who lives at Wilunga. The villainous Dudley Ward also works there. Ward is masquerading at Lenton's nephew, who was murdered overseas by Ward.

Lenton's father refuses to give his son permission to marry Violet Gartson, the woodchipper's daughter. Joe Garston is given £200 by old Lenton to take Violet away from the station. Jack is disinherited by his father for refusing to give up Violet.

Dudley Ward murders Jack's father with Jack's knife. Jack arrested for his father's murder but charge "not proven." Joe Garston, who knows Dudley Ward is the murderer, scorns his offer to marry Violet.

Joe drugged and dragged away to the scrub. Violet finds a letter proving Dudley Ward to be the murderer. Ward's bushranging gang carry Violet off to the Gap. Little Cecil Lenton's birthday. Dudley Ward, who in case of Cecil's death becomes the heir, tries to murder the little chap. Exciting rescue. Jack Lenton falls into the hands of the bushrangers. The denouement; virtue rewarded and vice punished.

Film scenes

  • The two cousins, Jack Lenton and Dudley Ward
  • The true and the false - Mr Lenton refuses to let his son Jack to marry the woodchoppers daughter, Violet Garston
  • Bribery
  • Altering the will - Jack disinherited
  • The murderer Jack arrested
  • Dudley's scheming
  • Old Garston knows the murderer
  • Drugged by Dudley
  • The Bushrangers
  • Dudley the chief
  • The little heir Dudley Ward next in succession
  • attempted assassination
  • Gallant rescue
  • Violet and Jack in the hands of bushrangers
  • Saved by a faithful horse
  • Mulga Joe, the black boy, destroys the bridge
  • Escape
  • The squatter's son comes in to his own

Original play

The Squatter's Son
Written byEdward Irham Cole or Clarence Burnett
Directed byEdward Irham Cole
Date premiered21 January 1910
Place premieredColiseum, Ballarat
Original languageEnglish
Subjectbushrangers
Genremelodrama

Authorship of the play is sometimes attributed to Clarence Burnett. Other accounts say it was Cole.

The play debuted in Ballarat in early 1910. Reviewing this performance, the Ballarat Star said "there is a high- standard of excellence, in the'plot, which Is of a very sensational nature, cleverly worked out. It is full of incident, and the scenery is typical! of Australia."

In October 1910 the play was described as "the most famous" of Cole's "repertoire of pieces". It was often revived throughout Cole's career.

The play was beig performed as late as 1920.

Production

The Squatter's Son was filmed at locations "in the vicinity of Melbourne".

The film was told in 25 scenes with the main characters being two cousins.

Reception

The Geelong Advertiser said of the film "the drama is most sensation and exciting and well portrayed. It had a decidedly Australian flavor, embracing as it does every phase of bush life, from the squatter to the sundowner and the blackfellow. In addition to the sensationalism the fun was fast and furious and kept the large and appreciative audience in a continued state of laughter."

The Argus said "the settings are artistic and natural and the acting good."

The Ballarat Star said it "elicited much applause" from the audience.

The Prahran Telegraph said it was "admirably arranged, acted and reproduced... it is not one of those stories in which the bush criminals become heroes."

According to the Perth Sunday Times the film's (unnamed) star "is a magnificent type of the Australian bushman. During the action of the photographic drama, the chief artist rides, shoots, fights and swims and hews trees, he being a handsome, muscular athlete who was specially selected for his splendid qualities. He is, or was, a tip-top amateur actor, but is now being rushed with engagements by Eastern managers." The same paper in a different review praised the film as "a gem of cinematography".

The Launceston Daily Telegraph praised the "story being comprehensively portrayed in a concise manner, lacking us it docs the unnecessary padding so frequent in Australian motion dramas."

The Kalgoorlie Miner claimed "As a sample of an Australian dramatic film The Squatter's Son stands in the front rank, and it gives a reflex. of the ups and downs of life as it occurred in the adventurous days."

References

  1. "Advertising". The Referee. Sydney: National Library of Australia. 5 April 1911. p. 16. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  2. "THE ROYAL [?]AWA[?]ANS". The Age. No. 17, 504. Victoria, Australia. 24 April 1911. p. 9. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ "BOHEMIAN DRAMATIC CO". Geelong Advertiser. National Library of Australia. 15 April 1911. p. 4. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  4. "ROYAL PICTURE THEATRE". Mount Alexander Mail. No. 16, 158. Victoria, Australia. 1 May 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "BOHEMIAN DRAMATIC COMPANY." The Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 31 December 1915: 6]. Retrieved 28 December 2011
  6. ""The Squatter's Son."". The Cairns Post. Qld.: National Library of Australia. 24 November 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  7. "Advertising". The Age. No. 17, 507. Victoria, Australia. 27 April 1911. p. 12. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. "BOHEMIAN DRAMATIC COMPANY". The Ballarat Star. Vol. 55, no. 16738. Victoria, Australia. 20 January 1910. p. 6. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. "Advertising". Labor Call. Vol. V, no. 223. Victoria, Australia. 26 January 1911. p. 6. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. "BOHEMIAN DRAMATIC CO". Geelong Advertiser. No. 19, 967. Victoria, Australia. 13 April 1911. p. 4. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. "BOHEMIAN DRAMATIC COMPANY". The Ballarat Star. Vol. 55, no. 16740. Victoria, Australia. 22 January 1910. p. 1. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. "The Riverine Herald". Riverine Herald. Echuca, Vic.: National Library of Australia. 12 October 1910. p. 2. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  13. "THE TRAVELLING THEATRICAL SHOW". The Examiner. Launceston, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 5 December 1939. p. 4 Edition: LATE NEWS EDITION and DAILY. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  14. "Advertising". Truth. No. 870. Western Australia. 3 April 1920. p. 3 (CITY EDITION). Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ "BIJOU THEATRE". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 20, 204. Victoria, Australia. 25 April 1911. p. 3. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 17.
  17. "PATHE'S PICTURES". The Ballarat Star. Vol. 56, no. 17130. Victoria, Australia. 27 April 1911. p. 5. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. "North's Concerts". The Prahran Telegraph. Vol. XLX, no. 2585. Victoria, Australia. 6 May 1911. p. 5. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. "THE BUSKER". The Sunday Times. Perth: National Library of Australia. 28 May 1911. p. 21. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  20. "EMPIRE PICTURES". Sunday Times (Perth). No. 699. Western Australia. 28 May 1911. p. 1. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  21. "THE LYCEUM—SQUATTER'S SON". Daily Telegraph. Vol. XXXI, no. 127. Tasmania, Australia. 30 May 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. "KING'S PICTURES IN KALGOORLIE". Kalgoorlie Miner. Vol. 17, no. 4895. Western Australia. 12 June 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.

External links

Edward Irham Cole
Plays
Films
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