Amateur Footage of 'The Shiralee' (1957)

[Brooksie]

The NFSA has just released part of a newly-discovered reel of color home movie footage that includes the filming of Ealing's The Shiralee (1957) in Binnaway, NSW. Of particular interest to me because I have family ties to both Bathurst (seen at the beginning of the clip) and Binnaway itself - but hopefully of interest to fans of this very good film, too.

https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/shiralee ... ie-footage

[R Michael Pyle]

A film I really enjoy! I wrote this review of it back in 2013:

"...I ran a show that I wasn't so sure about - and it ended up being the hit of the evening! I watched "The Shiralee" (1957) with Peter Finch and Dana Wilson. Also in the film are Elizabeth Sellars, George Rose, Rosemary Harris, Niall MacGinnis, Tessy O'Shea, and several others. I didn't just think this was good, I thought it was great! For as unknown as it is, this was up for a BAFTA award for "Best Picture" of Britain in 1958! How did it slip through the cracks so? And, yes, it will remind you of "Paper Moon" because it's about an itinerant who can't settle down at all, who goes back to Sydney to see his wife, finds her bored and living with another man, takes his daughter, and roams back to the Outback, finds work in several places, is constantly moving, moving, moving. One day, leaving his daughter for an entire day with a stranger, he comes back to find that she has been nearly fatally injured by a car and is in hospital. Will she live? This is filmed entirely in Australia, and it stars a very good Aussie, Peter Finch, in the definitely non-maudlin role of father to Dana Wilson, a child actress who is simply dynamite! Don't let this one pass you by. It's one of those films that grips you from the beginning to the end. Extremely well made, well-acted, well directed by Leslie Norman. A 'shiralee', by the way, is the Aboriginal word for 'burden'... Ealing Studios made several films in Australia along the way. I've seen at least two others, and all of them capture the ambiance of that country and its people quite well. This is certainly no exception. Elizabeth Sellars, as a matter of fact, began her film career in 1949 with an Ealing made in Australia called "Floodtide" with Gordon Jackson, another film well worth seeking out.

[Brooksie]

Because they've since disappeared from the site due to an image hosting site being taken down, here are a few pictures of Binnaway that I took the last time I visited, back in 2009. The pub in the last photo appeared in the film, hence the tribute mural on the side.

Not a whole lot has changed since 1957 ... or since the 1930s, for that matter, when my grandmother grew up there.

[moviepas]

Looks like I missed Floodtide(1949). Park Circus UK issued the DVD in 2011. Some one wants UK84 pounds for it. Can't run for that even if I collect 1949 films, which I do as it is my "year". Nice cover, though.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

Sometimes critics could help send films to oblivion. I remember seeing (and liking) the film in the early 1970s and reading Angela and Elkan's sniffy review in their 'Sunday Times Guide to Movies on Television'. They seemed to have a pathological loathing of British movies, apart from Hitchcock, David Lean, Olivier and the 'Carry On' films although their 'reviews' were usually absurdly brief.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

Looks like I missed Floodtide(1949). Park Circus UK issued the DVD in 2011. Some one wants UK84 pounds for it. Can't run for that even if I collect 1949 films, which I do as it is my "year". Nice cover, though.

Might be worth checking with Talking Pictures (England) in case they intend to play it, although you will need to have access to the channel or know someone who can record it. And yes, £84.19 is a bit fruity for that one... 84p is more my mark...