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The Double Event (1911 film)

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The Double Event
Contemporary advertisement
Directed byW. J. Lincoln
Written byW. J. Lincoln[3]
Based onnovel by Nat Gould
Produced byWilliam Gibson
Millard Johnson
John Tait
Nevin Tait
StarringThe Bland Holt Company
CinematographyOrrie Perry
Production
company
Distributed byTait's Pictures
Release date
  • 21 October 1911 (1911-10-21) (Melbourne)[1]
[2]
Running time
3,000 feet[4] or over an hour[5]
CountryAustralia
LanguagesSilent film
English intertitles
Budget£600-700[6]

The Double Event is a 1911 Australian feature-length film directed by W. J. Lincoln based on the first novel by Nat Gould, which had been adapted several times for the stage, notably by Bland Holt.[7]

It was one of several films Lincoln made with the Tait family, who had produced The Story of the Kelly Gang.[8]

It is considered a lost film.

Plot

[edit]

Jack Drayton discovers his brother is an attempted murderer but won't expose him out of fear of ruining the family name. He leaves England in secrecy and starts a new life in Australia under the name of Jack Marston. He falls in love with Edith the daughter of a Sydney bookmaker, John Kingdon. He enters his horse, Caloola, in the Melbourne Cup and it wins, despite the attempts of evil Fletcher.

Fletcher later shoots a lady he is trying to blackmail and is chased across town but is eventually cornered in Chinatown and falls to his death. Jack marries Edith and returns to England.[9]

Advertising promoted "great features of the story" as follows:[10]

  • The meet at Drayton Court - The hunt breakfast
  • The elopement - The attempted murder
  • The dismissal of the trainer
  • Tattersals Club, Sydney
  • Fletcher's Home, North Sydney - The plot to nobble the favorite
  • The popular jockey of the day - Les Mayfield goes nap
  • The attack on the stables - Caloola knocked out of the batting
  • The blackmailer
  • The Stables, Newmarket
  • Outside the New Hotel
  • The morning trial
  • The watcher in the bushes
  • The race for the derby, Caloola's Vicory
  • The Monday Morning papers
  • Caloola lame
  • The night before the Cup
  • Outside the Victorian Club
  • Jack Marston faces Fletcher
  • Flemington Races
  • A world of fashion
  • Fletcher warns Wells the jockey
  • Wells determination to ride to win
  • The Focusing of Wells
  • Rides Caloola
  • The Race for the Melbourne Cup, the Victory of Caloola
  • The Calooa Ball
  • Fletcher's revenge - The death of Lady Mayfield
  • Detective Smirk on the track - The Chinese den
  • The fight on the housetops - The death of Fletcher
  • Back in England - a happy reunion

Cast

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Original novel

[edit]

The story was based on an 1891 novel by Nat Gould, The Double Event, or A Tale of the Melbourne Cup. (Gould was a British writer who lived in Australia between 1884 and 1895.) Originally written as With the Tide, it was retitled The Double Event, a reference to the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. It was the first of Nat Gould's novels to be published in book form (the earliest published stories were Australian newspaper serials) and sold very well. Gould wrote it under commission for The Referee newspaper.[13][14][15]

Play adaptation

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The novel was successfully adapted for the stage in Australia in 1893 by George Darrell[16] and Bland Holt.[17] The Referee said the production was "splendidly mounted".[18]

The Sun said Darrell's version was "only moderately successful."[19] However Everyones said it had a "good run".[20]

The novel would be adapted for Australian radio in 1938.[21]

Production

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The cast included actors from Bland Holt's company (which had disbanded in 1909) who had appeared in a stage production of the play.[22]

Several scenes were shot at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.[23] Other scenes were shot at Amalgamated's studio in St Kilda. Assisting Lincoln was Sam Crew.[24]

Filming took place in October 1911.[25]

Richard Fotheringham later wrote "The racecourse story quickly became by far the most common genre of Australian feature film narrative between 1911 and 1949", citing The Double Event as an example, along with films such as Keane of Kalgoorlie and The Cup Winner.[26]

Release

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The film was released in Melbourne on Caulfield Cup Day 1911. It was given a premiere screening at Federal Government House in the presence of Lord Dudley, the Governor General.[27]

The Age said the story has been "adapted for picture production by the Amalgamated Pictures Ltd., with considerable siccess from a histrionic point of view."[28]

The Argus declared "For over an hour the audience followed, with keen attention, his exciting story of winning the Victorian Derby and Cup. The overthrow, of the schemes of the villain, and the hero's final triumph, were greeted with loud applause."[5] Table Talk said "The audience were Keenly interested in tbe various exciting scenes placed before them, including the winning of the Derby and Melbourne Cup by Caloola. The defeating of the villain's plans and the final triumph of the hero called forth bursts of applause from the large audience."[29]

Another review in Table Talk stated "This play is well produced and has attracted crowded audiences during the week."[30]

The Melbourne Herald said the film "is drawing well" and "the story as unfolded retains its interest from start to finish, and excitement to around during tbe two horse races that are introduced."[31]

In November 1911 The Bulletin wrote that "At the Glaciarium (Melb.). last week, the Taits unreeled a long photodrama of "The Double Event", adapted by W.J. Lincoln. This up-to-date local production seems intended to educate the guileless in the ways of horses and the wiles of villains."[32]

An obituary of Lincoln said all his Amalgamated films did "good business".[33]

Several of the cast later appeared in Lincoln's Breaking the News.[34]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Mary Bateman, 'W.J. Lincoln', Cinema Papers, June–July 1980 p 214
  2. ^ "Advertisement". The Age. No. 17, 653. Victoria, Australia. 14 October 1911. p. 20. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ "THE PLAYGOER". Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 – 1918; 1925). Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia. 19 October 1911. p. 36. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  4. ^ "AMUSEMENTS". The Examiner. Launceston, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 6 March 1912. p. 3 Edition: DAILY. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  5. ^ a b "GLACIARIUM". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 20, 359. Victoria, Australia. 23 October 1911. p. 15. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "MOTION PHOTOGRAPHY". The Prahran Telegraph. Vol. XLX, no. 2602. Victoria, Australia. 2 September 1911. p. 3. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "Advertising". The Examiner. Launceston, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 9 March 1912. p. 9 Edition: DAILY. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  8. ^ Endean, Lin (13 December 1933). "134 Years in the Industry: The Perrys' Record identifier". Everyones. p. 44.
  9. ^ 'The Double Event' at www.natgould.org
  10. ^ "Advertising". The Age. No. 17, 655. Victoria, Australia. 17 October 1911. p. 12. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ "LIFE & LETTERS". The West Australian. Perth: National Library of Australia. 4 May 1946. p. 5. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  12. ^ "134 Years in the Industry: The Perrys' Record.", Everyones., Sydney: Everyones Ltd, 13 December 1933, nla.obj-576888912, retrieved 21 July 2024 – via Trove
  13. ^ "NAT GOULD". Cairns Morning Post. Vol. 22, no. 135. Queensland, Australia. 15 May 1908. p. 3. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ "NAT GOULD DEAD". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 25, 447. New South Wales, Australia. 28 July 1919. p. 9. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ B. G. Andrews, 'Gould, Nathaniel (Nat) (1857–1919)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gould-nathaniel-nat-6438/text11015, published first in hardcopy 1983, accessed online 21 July 2024.
  16. ^ Eric Irvin, Gentleman George: King of Melodrama, University of Qld, 1980 p 182-183
  17. ^ "NAT GOULD HAD BIG SALE WITH HIS BOOK—"THE DOUBLE EVENT"". Sporting Globe. No. 2977. Victoria, Australia. 23 December 1950. p. 5. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "FOOTLIGHT FLASHES". Referee. No. 354. New South Wales, Australia. 9 August 1893. p. 7. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ "Commercial Success with". The Sun. No. 1890. New South Wales, Australia. 18 June 1939. p. 11 (Sunday Magazine). Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ^ "90 Years of Australian Drama; The Hits and the Flops.", Everyones., Sydney: Everyones Ltd, 10 December 1930, nla.obj-564400612, retrieved 21 July 2024 – via Trove
  21. ^ "Notes and News of 2GB". The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate. No. 4436. New South Wales, Australia. 3 August 1938. p. 15. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. ^ "STAR PICTURES: "THE DOUBLE EVENT."". Geelong Advertiser. No. 20, 156. Victoria, Australia. 21 November 1911. p. 4. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  23. ^ Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 27.
  24. ^ "Sam Crew Enters 'When London Sleeps' Controversy". Everyones. 12 October 1932. p. 19.
  25. ^ "THE GLACIARIUM". The Herald. No. 11, 228. Victoria, Australia. 28 October 1911. p. 7. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  26. ^ Fotheringham, Richard (1992). Sport in Australian drama. Cambridge University Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-521-40156-2.
  27. ^ "Jubilee of pioneer work of man whose". The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. 94, no. 28, 995. South Australia. 15 September 1951. p. 6. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  28. ^ "RAILWAY DRAMATIC SOCIETY". The Age. No. 17, 660. Victoria, Australia. 23 October 1911. p. 11. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  29. ^ "GLACIARIUM". Table Talk. No. 1370. Victoria, Australia. 26 October 1911. p. 24. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  30. ^ "ST. KILDA THEATRE". Table Talk. No. 1372. Victoria, Australia. 9 November 1911. p. 24. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  31. ^ "AMUSEMENTS". The Herald. No. 11, 226. Victoria, Australia. 26 October 1911. p. 7. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  32. ^ "SUNDRY SHOWS". The Bulletin. 2 November 1911. p. 2.
  33. ^ "Life's Phases on the Film". The Herald. No. 12, 866. Victoria, Australia. 25 August 1917. p. 10. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  34. ^ "MOONEE PONDS PICTURE THEATRE". The Essendon Gazette And Keilor, Bulla And Broadmeadows Reporter. No. 1156. Victoria, Australia. 25 April 1912. p. 4. Retrieved 21 July 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
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