Fisher's Ghost (film)

Fisher's Ghost
Directed by Raymond Longford
Produced by Lottie Lyell
Charles Perry
Written by Raymond Longford
Lottie Lyell
Cinematography Arthur Higgins
Studio Longford-Lyell Productions
Release date(s) October 1924 (1924-10)
Running time 55 minutes (5000 feet)
Country Australia
Language Silent film
English intertitles
Budget ₤1,000[1]

Fisher's Ghost is a 1924 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford based on the legend of Fisher's Ghost. The film is set in 1826 Campbelltown (now part of Sydney) and centers on a settler named Farley who sees a spectre on the Bunburry-Curran Creek bridge. Farley is led by the apparition to George Worrell, a man that the ghost claims is responsible for its death. The body of one Frederick Fisher is later recovered from the exact spot at which the spectre first appeared. Fisher's Ghost, The Bushwhackers (1925), and Peter Vernon's Silence (1925) were the only three films produced by Longford-Lyell Productions as the company had already entered liquidation in June 1924, even before the film's release.[2][3] Although Lottie Lyell and Raymond Longford created many films together, Fisher's Ghost and The Bushwhackers are the only films for which Lyell received credit as scriptwriter and assistant director before her death from tuberculosis in 1925.[4] The film is attributed to being one of the earliest and influential Australian horror films,[5] paving the way for the resurgence of the genre in the 1970s after the Australian government began funding their movie industry.[6] Union Theaters rejected the film be released in their Sydney theaters because their managing director, Stuart F. Doyle, claimed the film was "too gruesome" for the public. The film was shown in Hoyt theaters and yielded ₤1,300 in its first week of screenings.[7] In 2010, Tony Buckley, a producer who helped find and restore the 1971 Australian film Wake in Fright, called for a Film Search program to locate the lost negatives of Fisher's Ghost as well as other historic Australian films.[8]

Cast

References

  1. ^ Shirley, Graham (1983). Australian cinema, the first eighty years. Angus & Robertson. p. 72. ISBN 0207145814. 
  2. ^ Reade, Eric (1979). History and heartburn: the saga of Australian film, 1896-1978. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 38. ISBN 0838630820. http://books.google.com/books?id=gkC-Eo7GsxMC&pg=PA38. Retrieved 2011-08-28. 
  3. ^ McFarlane, Brian (1999). The Oxford Companion to Australian Film. Oxford University Press. p. 208. ISBN 0195537971. 
  4. ^ Brakeman, Lynne; Gall, Susan B. (1997). Chronology of Women Worldwide. Gale Research. p. 264. ISBN 0787601543. 
  5. ^ Goldsmith, Ben (2010). Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand. Intellect Books. p. 189. ISBN 1841503738. http://books.google.com/books?id=TBT0uE2DygAC&pg=PA189. Retrieved 2011-08-28. 
  6. ^ Jones, Alan (2005). The Rough Guide to Horror Movies. Rough Guides. p. 222. ISBN 1843535211. 
  7. ^ "Film Inquiry". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1927-07-20. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SA1iAAAAIBAJ&pg=7515%2C6358290. Retrieved 2011-08-28. 
  8. ^ Groves, Don (2010-07-12). "Funding squeeze on film archives". Special Broadcasting Service. http://www.sbs.com.au/films/blog/single/119602/Funding-squeeze-on-film-archives. Retrieved 2011-08-28. 

External links