Cinema
On Our Selection
Ken G. Hall · 1932
Synopsis
In south-west Queensland, drought has almost ruined the Rudd family's selection. Dad Rudd owes money to a wealthy neighbour, old Carey, who is trying to ruin him; Jim Carey, his son, tries to blackmail Kate, Dad's daughter, and Sandy Graham knocks him out. Around this plot, Dave proposes to Lily White, his brother Joe makes one blunder after another, there is a visit to the dentist, and Dad stands against Carey in the elections.
Context
Cinesound's first feature film, the film adapts less the stories of Steele Rudd than the play that Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan had drawn from them in 1912, from which it takes part of the cast, beginning with Bailey in the role of Dad. Stuart Doyle entrusted the direction to his assistant, who had never shot a feature film and judged the subject old-fashioned. Shot mainly at Castlereagh, near Penrith, with live sound, it was released in Brisbane on 22 July 1932, then in the United Kingdom under the title Down on the Farm. It cost 6,000 or 8,000 pounds and earned about 46,000 in Australia and New Zealand by the end of 1933. Three sequels followed.
Who it is for
A film in English lasting an hour and forty minutes, with a declamatory style of acting inherited from the stage, between farce and melodrama.
Prizes and reception
A box-office triumph, whose profits helped to save the company Australasian Films, according to Australian Screen.