The Sick Stockrider

The Sick Stockrider
Directed by W. J. Lincoln
Godfrey Cass
Written by W. J. Lincoln[1]
Based on original poem by Adam Lindsay Gordon
Starring Roy Redgrave
Godfrey Cass
Cinematography Maurice Bertel
Production
company
Release dates
 18 August 1913[2]
Running time
 2,000 feet[3]
Country Australia
Language Silent film
English intertitles

The Sick Stockrider is a 1913 film directed by W. J. Lincoln based on the poem by Adam Lindsay Gordon. It was the first production from Lincoln-Cass Films and is one of the few Australian silent films to survive in its entirety.[4]

Plot

The film presents the verses of the poem one by one, separated by illustrated tableaux. It tells the story about a dying stockman.

Cast

Production

Adam Lindsay Gordon's ballad was first published in 1870, the year of his death. The movie was the first from Lincoln-Cass Films, established in 1913.[5] It was shot at the company's studio in Elsternwick, Melbourne

Release

Screenings were often accompanied by a lecturer who would recite the poem.[6]

The movie screened to thirty full houses in Victoria. It has been described as "solid and stagey with shaking canvas sets, an exaggerated alcoholic scene and a bull-goring sequence in which an actor tumble turns across an animal all too obviously at rest."[7]

Remake

Harry Southwell also announced plans to film the poem but no movie resulted.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Details of original script at National Archives of Australia
  2. ↑ Mary Bateman, 'Lincoln Cass Filmography', Cinema Papers, June–July 1980 p 175
  3. ↑ "Advertising.". Williamstown Chronicle (Vic.: National Library of Australia). 20 September 1913. p. 3. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  4. ↑ Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p41
  5. ↑ "AUSTRALIAN-MADE FILMS.". The Argus (Melbourne: National Library of Australia). 9 August 1913. p. 21. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  6. ↑ "ENGLISH AMUSEMENT COMPANY.". The Examiner (Launceston, Tas.: National Library of Australia). 15 October 1913. p. 3 Edition: DAILY. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  7. ↑ Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years, Currency Press 1989 p 42
  8. ↑ "AUSTRALIAN FILMS.". The Mail (Adelaide: National Library of Australia). 10 October 1925. p. 1. Retrieved 25 July 2012.

External links