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From: larry-751@excite.com
Date: 10/3/2001
Time: 7:53:03 AM
Remote Name: 192.30.226.25
Re "40,00 Horsemen" - Yes! it is now officially 87 minutes from Screen Sound Australia, but originally it was listed as 101 minutes! Either chemeical deterioration, cuts or outtakes might account for the discrepancy? On US tv it once was 78 mins, a poor VHS dub from Video Yesteryear I found ran 84 mins. Now Movies Unlimited of Philadelphia shows it at 100 mins on VHS, which I doubt! The original story was said to have been "For Services Rendered" by Frank Baker, an Aussie writer in Hollywood, purchased by Charles Chauvel. But he & his wife elsa wrote the final treatment that he filmed. His inspiration for wanting to make it was said to have been his seeing 800 young horsemen reenacting as Light Horsemen of WW1 at the 1938 Centenary Parade, for the 150th Anniversary of the Founding of Australia. His uncle was the general who ordered the charge at Beersheba & his father an officer in a Light horse regiment. So he persuaded the army to hold the men in Sydney & used them in his film. Desert scenes were shot outside Sydney in the sand hills of Corunna, while interiors were done in the Cinesound Studios in Bondi. The NSW govt put up $30,000 in financing & Herc McIntyre, Presdient of Universal Films of Australia was in on the deal. (He later married Betty Bryant, the film's love interest. She made only one other film appearance in Alan Ladd's 1948 "Saigon") Serious censorship problems over cafe scenes & the love ones between Betty & Grant Taylor. The charge was deemed too brutal! But the Minister for Customs, E.J.Harrison let the film be exported with out any cuts. Britain paid the highest price ever for an Aussie film & it went worldwide, keeping Aussie film alive during the war years. Screen Sound has an 87 minute PAL VHS of john Phillips' 1972 documentary "Charles Chauvel Action Director" A selection of excerpts from his films 1925-1954. Interviews with Chips Rafferty (An Englishman John Gossage originally!) Betty Bryant, Herc McIntyre & a contemporary producer Ken Hall ,& Sir Norman Rydge. The ABC shop in Sydney, <http://shop.abc.net.au> has a two volume PAL VHS documentary - "The Celluloid Heroes: Celebrating 100 years of Australian Cinema" - $29.995 Aus each cassette. Two parts of 55 mins on each one. Vol 1 - Part 1 - 1894-1927 - The Pioneers. Part 2 - 1928-1948 - OK for Sound. Vol 2 -Part 1 - 1949-1970 - Arising from the Ashes. Part 2 - 1971-1995 - Beyond Our Wildest Dreams. All well worth getting!