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White Death (film)

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White Death
Directed byEdwin G. Bowen
Written byFrank Harvey
Produced byEdwin G. Bowen
StarringZane Grey
Alfred Frith
CinematographyArthur Higgins
H.C. Anderson
Edited byEdwin G. Bowen
William Carty
Music byIsadore Goodman
Production
company
Barrier Reef Films
Distributed byBritish Empire Films (Australia)
MGM (UK)
Release dates
October 1936 (Australia)
1937 (UK)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

White Death is a 1936 Australian film starring Zane Grey as himself. He filmed it during his a fishing expedition to Australia and it marked the first time he had played a leading role in a movie.[1]

Synopsis

Zane Grey bets he can catch a fish bigger than one he sees at Watsons Bay. He hears about a large shark, nicknamed "white death", terrorising the Queensland coast and goes to catch it. He is thwarted by the comic attempts of Newton Smith, a representative of the Wallanga Branch of Fish Protectors, to persuade Grey not to harm fish. There is also a romance between two young people. Eventually Grey manages to catch the shark.

Cast

  • Zane Grey as himself
  • Alfred Frith as Newton Smith
  • Nola Warren as Nola Murchinson
  • Harold Calonna as David Murchison
  • John Weston as John Lollard
  • James Coleman as Professor Lollard
  • Peter Williams as boatman
  • Frank Big Belt as guard

Production

In 1935-36 Zane Grey made a fishing expedition to Australia. This trip was extensively covered by the local media and Grey was often accompanied on his sea voyages by three cameramen he had brought out from American, including H.C. Anderson. Grey's activities were criticised at the time by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.[2]

Barrier Reef Productions, a production company capitalised at £15,000, was formed in 1936 to make the movie.[3]

The story was inspired by Grey seeing a great white shark (which he nicknamed "white death") being captured near Bermagui in New South Wales.[4] Frank Harvey was hired to write the screenplay. The story drew on Grey's real life experiences with the character of Newon Smith sending up his treatment at the hands of the RSPCA.

The majority of the film crew came from Cinesound Productions, who also lent equipment to the production. Grey's manager, Edwin G. Bowen, was appointed director of the movie although he had limited experience behind the camera.[5]

Casting

Alfred Frith, the stage comedian, was hired to play the lead opposite Grey. Nola Warren, a 17-year-old from Watsons Bay with no prior film experience, was cast as the female lead.[6] She performed most of her scenes opposite John Weston, a former school boy athletic champion turned radio broadcaster.[7] Aboriginal extras, some of whom had recently appeared in Uncivilised (1936), where brought in from Palm Island, Queensland. Harold Colonna, who played the villain, was best known as an opera singer.

Shooting

Filming started in May 1936 and took place in the Great Barrier Reef, principally at Hayman Island. A shark enclosure was built at Hayman to shoot shark footage.[8]

Bad weather made the shoot difficult. A member of the camera crew sprinkled oil in the surf thinking it would make it the surf sound less loud.[9] A petrol lamp blew up in John Weston's face.[10] In addition, finding white sharks proved difficult, forcing the props master to construct an artificial one from wood and canvas.[2][11]

Both Bowen and Frith were accompanied by their wives who assisted in making the movie, and Bowen's young children Buddy and Barbara.[12]

Location shooting ended in July 1936 and the rest of the film was made at Cinesound's studios in Sydney.

Reception

Grey left Australia on 19 August claiming it was the greatest country he had visited.[13] He reportedly offered Nola Warren a film contract and announced he would return in 1938 to make another film.[14][15] Grey did return to Australia in 1939 to fish, shortly before his death, but no further films resulted.[16] In 1937 he published An American Angler in Australia.

The film premiered in October at Moruya and Bateman's Bay, and reached Sydney theatres in November. The critic for the Sydney Morning Herald described the movie as "a rambling and rather ramshackle film... the script... is almost bare of dramatic action."[17]

The film was released in the UK but does not appear to have been screened commercially in the US.

Barrier Reef Films announced plans to make further feature films, including one revolving around Alfred Firth, but this did not eventuate.[18]

Nola Warren later became a model and was involved in a scandalous divorce case.[19]

References

  1. ^ "AN AUTHOR'S FILM DEBUT". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 15 September 1936. p. 9 Supplement: Women's Supplement. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  2. ^ a b Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 174.
  3. ^ "ZANE GREY'S NEW FILM COMPANY." Argus (Melbourne, Vic) 6 May 1936: 8 accessed 27 December 2011
  4. ^ "Zane Grey's Best Fishing Camp." The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld) 8 Apr 1936: 14 accessed 27 December 2011
  5. ^ "ZANE GREY." The Sydney Morning Herald 6 May 1936: 11 accessed 27 December 2011
  6. ^ "MISS N. WARREN." The Sydney Morning Herald 15 May 1936: 8 accessed 27 December 2011
  7. ^ "SCHOOLBOY ATHLETIC CHAMPION BECOMES FILM STAR." The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld) 15 May 1936: 21 accessed 27 December 2011
  8. ^ "SHARES TO BE USED IN FILM." The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA) 2 Jun 1936: 19 accessed 27 December 2011
  9. ^ "TREED TO CALM SURF WITH OIL." The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld) 5 Jun 1936: 19 accessed 27 December 2011
  10. ^ "PETROL LAMP BURSTS IN FACE." The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld) 29 Jun 1936: 12 accessed 27 December 2011
  11. ^ "Zane Grey's Australian Novel May Yet Be Published". The Sunday Herald. Sydney: National Library of Australia. 9 November 1952. p. 11. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  12. ^ "Women's World." The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld) 22 May 1936: 23 accessed 27 December 2011
  13. ^ "MR. ZANE GREY." The Sydney Morning Herald 31 Jul 1936: 11 accessed 27 December 2011
  14. ^ "OFFERED FILM CONTRACT." Advocate (Burnie, Tas) 17 Aug 1936: 4 accessed 27 December 2011
  15. ^ "ZANE GREY." The Sydney Morning Herald 19 Aug 1936: 12 accessed 27 December 2011
  16. ^ "ZANE GREY IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA". The Advocate. Burnie, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 10 May 1939. p. 1. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  17. ^ 'White Death' Sydney Morning Herald 9 Nov 1936 p 5 accessed 27 December 2011
  18. ^ "BARRIER REEF FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 28 August 1936. p. 5. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  19. ^ ""WHITE DEATH" GIRL IN DIVORCE CASE". The Mirror. Perth: National Library of Australia. 27 February 1943. p. 14. Retrieved 12 August 2012.

Bibliography

  • Reade, Eric. History and heartburn: the saga of Australian film, 1896-1978. Associated University Presses, 1981.
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