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The Assigned Servant

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The Assigned Servant
Newcastle Herald 1 Nov 1911
Directed byJohn Gavin
Written byAgnes Gavin
Produced byHerbert Finlay[1]
Stanley Crick
StarringJohn Gavin
CinematographyHerbert Finlay
Production
companies
Crick and Finlay
Distributed byAustralian Photoplay Company[2]
Release date
  • 26 August 1911 (1911-08-26)
Running time
3,000 feet[3]
CountryAustralia
LanguageSilent film
Budget£300[4] or £500[5]

The Assigned Servant, or the Life Story of a Deported Convict is a 1911 Australian silent film about a convict who is transported to Van Diemen's Land. It was made by the husband-and-wife team of John and Agnes Gavin and is considered a lost film.[6]

Plot

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In England, Ralph Frawley is arrested for rabbit poaching and transported to Van Diemen's Land as a convict. He is assigned as a servant to a settler and falls in love with the daughter of the house. He marries her in secret but when this is revealed he is sent back to prison to serve the rest of his term. He escapes by a spectacular leap and swims to freedom. He turns to bushranging and robs the mail coach. He is saved by his aboriginal friend during a fight with police. After learning his wife has died he returns to England.[4][7]

Chapter headings:[8]

  • The Great Poaching Scene
  • Found Guilty
  • 10 Years' Penal Servitude
  • Bound for Van. Dieman's Land
  • The Assigned Servant
  • The Secret Marriage
  • Found Out
  • An Aboriginal's Gratitude
  • The Leap for Life
  • Sensational Swim
  • Down the Rapids
  • A Madman's Revenge
  • A Blighted Life
  • Robbing the Royal Mail
  • Senational Climb by the Aborignal
  • England Once More,

Cast

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Production

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Production still from the film

John and Agnes Gavin had made a series of successful films about bushrangers. Producers Stanley Crick and Herb Finlay agreed to finance a film with Gavin of which Assigned Servant was the first. Gavin wrote, it was to be:

A four-reel bush production, the scenario to be written by Mrs. Gavin, with myself as producer. Pathe was to find the film and the camera-man in addition to all the hiring and printing, my part of the agreement being to find actors and make the film, with three weeks as the limit for the complete production... We were only allowed 4,000 feet of negative with nothing for retake, as film was scarce in those days. We went to National Park for location. This was the first time moving pictures had been taken there, and the won- derful surroundings assisted a great deal."[12]

Filming took under a month, which over a week spent on location.[13] During the shoot, two actors injured themselves during a scene where they fought on top of a cliff and fell twenty feet below into the water. The actor Frank Gardiner cut his head falling from a horse during a chase scene, and an actor playing a trooper had four teeth knocked out during a fight.[14]

Filming took place in the National Park, with Georges River heavily featured.[15]

Reception

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According to Gavin the film was a big success, "the biggest winner of any Australian picture at the time."[12] He said in another interview the film "was played on thirteen different occasions by Tom Howe and was alw'ays a good stand by whenever he was short of a picture."[16][17]

In 1922 Tom Howe said the film "its original state it was a five-reeler. in my mind, this subject was a very fine one. I screened it on no less than thirteen different occasions, placing each time to capacity."[18]

Gavin went on to make three more films for Crick and Finlay, Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner and Keane of Kalgoorlie. He said, "In those days showmen would come along and pay in advance for film before the story was even flnished All you had to do was to let them know the approximate day or release, and the picture was booked and the cash paid. This advance money often paid more than the whole cost of the production."[12]

Critical

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The Sydney Truth called the film "a splendid example of the art of producing a photo-play... which em braces sensational doings in early Australian days. The gardens have been packed since it was produced, the audiences fully appreciating* the excellence of the work."[19]

References

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  1. ^ "QUOTA FAVORED". The Sun. No. 5259. New South Wales, Australia. 15 September 1927. p. 14 (FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved 2 December 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "Advertising". Referee. No. 1297. New South Wales, Australia. 13 September 1911. p. 16. Retrieved 3 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ "Advertising". The Examiner (DAILY ed.). Launceston, Tas. 26 August 1911. p. 10. Retrieved 24 February 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ a b Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 13.
  5. ^ "FILM-MAKING IN AUSTRALIA". The Advertiser. Adelaide. 11 June 1936. p. 11. Retrieved 21 November 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "Advertising". West Gippsland Gazette. No. 722. Victoria, Australia. 6 February 1912. p. 2 (MORNING.). Retrieved 3 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "PICTORIA". The Maitland Daily Mercury. Vol. 7128, no. 5614. New South Wales, Australia. 15 January 1912. p. 4. Retrieved 3 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "Advertising". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate. No. 11, 542. New South Wales, Australia. 1 November 1911. p. 12. Retrieved 3 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ "THE LYCEUM PICTURES". The Burrangong Argus. New South Wales, Australia. 20 September 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 3 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "Advertising". South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus. Vol. XII, no. 33. New South Wales, Australia. 18 August 1911. p. 12. Retrieved 3 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ "Who's Who in the Movies". Table Talk. No. 3154. Victoria, Australia. 18 October 1928. p. 24. Retrieved 3 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ a b c d "When the Australian-Produced Picture Made Big Money.", Everyones., 3 (166 (9 May 1923)), Sydney: Everyones Ltd, nla.obj-562121240, retrieved 25 February 2024 – via Trove
  13. ^ "PHOTO PLAYS". The North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times. Tas. 27 July 1911. p. 1. Retrieved 19 November 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ "PHOTO PLAYS". The North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times. Tas. 27 July 1911. p. 1. Retrieved 24 February 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ "PHILLIPS' PICTURES". The Grenfell Record and Lachlan District Advertiser. NSW. 27 September 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 9 November 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "The Man Who Made Good.", Everyones., Sydney: Everyones Ltd, 9 December 1925, nla.obj-574066485, retrieved 3 July 2024 – via Trove
  17. ^ "Australian Producer Back From America", Everyones., Sydney: Everyones Ltd, 22 March 1922, nla.obj-557576146, retrieved 3 July 2024 – via Trove
  18. ^ "Tom Howe Grows Reminiscent", Everyones., Sydney: Everyones Ltd, 8 March 1922, nla.obj-557522117, retrieved 3 July 2024 – via Trove
  19. ^ "THIELE'S STAR PICTURES". Truth. No. 1032. New South Wales, Australia. 30 April 1911. p. 3. Retrieved 3 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
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