by Stephen Vagg
A 1946 soapie
The Australian film industry has had a variety of false dawns over the years, but few as cruel as 1946. After years of war, and barely any films, it seemed that movies would be made in decent numbers again, and what’s more, they would be done properly. Ken G Hall came up with a career-high in the Columbia-backed Smithy, Ealing Studios provided the spectacle of The Overlanders, Charles Chauvel was developing The Sons of Matthew; radio drama and documentary filmmaking had boomed during the war, creating a large talent pool of potential film actors, writers, directors and crew. What’s more, Australians were going to the movies in strong numbers, easily enough to support the existence of a local industry.
It didn’t happen, despite the box office success of The Overlanders and Smithy, due to a combination of events – but basically, cinema chains and investors were too gun-shy, the government too reluctant to offer support, the British market was too uncertain. Things would not really get going again until the 1960s.
But one of the movies that came from the post-war optimistic wave of films (not really a wave, admittedly, more a sizeable ripple) was A Son is Born. This picture has always suffered a little in comparison to the two big made-in-Australia movies to come out that year – Smithy and The Overlanders – but in a way, its difference makes it even more worthy of study. Both those movies were expensive (for Australia) epics using foreign finance, and A Son is Born was a modestly budgeted and scheduled, unpretentious movie made with skill that showcased some exciting stars, deployed a common genre with a strongly Australian setting, found an appreciative audience, and made a profit. It offered a perhaps more realistic financial model for local filmmakers than The Overlanders or Smithy. Alas, it was not to be.
The film was produced and directed by Eric Porter, [left, with his characters from Marco Polo Jnr versus the Red Dragon, see below] who ran his own small production company, mostly making animation for advertisements and documentaries. He wanted to move into drama, got one of his employees, Gloria Bourner, to come up with a story, and raised a budget of ten thousand pounds, providing half himself. By way of contrast, Smithy and The Overlanders each cost over 50,000 pounds.
A Son is Born was a simple melodrama – a woman’s picture, as it was known then – about a naive woman, Laurette, who marries a charismatic but dodgy travelling salesman, Paul. They have a son, David, who idolises his father despite the latter’s boozing, gambling, debts, and cheating on Laurette. Eventually, Laurette leaves Paul but David elects to stay with his father. She gets work as a secretary and falls in love with her wealthy widowed boss, John, becoming mother to his daughter Kay. Paul dies in a car accident and David, now grown up, goes to live with Laurette and John. David hates his mother for her supposed treatment of his father, and abuses her, causing John to slap him. David decides to get revenge on John by seducing and marrying Kay, then dumping her. He and Kay get married, but his plan is interrupted by Laurette and John arriving at the Church; David takes off, telling Kay he never loved her. David eventually enlists in the army, fights in New Guinea, and comes to regret how he’s behaved. He’s wounded in action, reunited in hospital with a forgiving Kay.
We don’t know much about Gloria Bourner but her script for A Son is Born is absolutely first-rate for its kind. The characters are clearly sketched, the story moves forward logically, the conflicts are strong, and it packs a genuine emotional punch with the mistreatment of Laurette (all too believable) and David’s cruel manipulation of naive Kay. It maybe suffers from Laurette’s lack of involvement in the last act, but overall, the work is very good (Australia has traditionally done soap very, very well, it is one of our strongest genres). You can read a full copy of the script at the National Archive of Australia here.
One of the perks of there being so few films made at the time of A Son is Born meant Porter could assemble a superb cast. Muriel Steinbeck, the queen (or one of them) of Sydney radio played the beautiful, noble, long-suffering, piano-playing, exquisitely-hairstyled Laurette; the dashingly handsome John McCallum sprinkled grey in his hair for the role of John; experienced radio actor Ron Randell was adult David; while future bride of Leo McKern (and experienced radio player herself, Jane Holland was Kay. Most of all, in the flashy part of ne’er-do-well Paul , was Peter Finch, then recognised as the best radio actor in the country, although there was a lot of reservations about whether the skinny, cheekbone-y occasional Buddhist was handsome enough to be a leading man (this saw both McCallum and Randell receive overseas contracts before Finch, and would hold back the latter’s film career until the mid 1950s). As an extra little morsel, top comic Kitty Bluett (who got a lot of publicity back in the day for her exciting love life, including a long-running situationship in real life with Randell) plays a maid who suspects David is no good. Cecil Perry, whose moustache usually meant that he played cads, plays David’s mate in New Guinea – a bit of extra gossip for you: Perry was later arrested for indecent behaviour and then for receiving stolen cheese. Incidentally, Steinbeck, Finch, McCallum and Randell had all appeared in short propaganda films during the war.
Porter directed with efficiency and skill, helped by the use of real locations (the empty spaces on Sydney Harbour could make you weep with its real estate potential) and incorporation of genuine war footage in the New Guinea sequences (some of it shot by Damien Parer prior to his death in 1944). The low budget does hurt in places, in particular the sets and costumes – Bette Davis and Margaret Lockwood movies in this genre would splash more cash in that area, but A Son is Born was shot in a small studio in North Sydney. Porter might have been better off filming the whole thing outside.
In compensation is the superb acting. Maybe not so much from McCallum, who seems unsure how to pitch his voice and has the most thankless role (playing Mr Perfect), but he does have charisma; Steinbeck is a worthy female lead; and Holland very likable. Finch and Randell are both excellent (in admittedly the juiciest roles) – we weren’t surprised by Finch, who’s always brilliant when he plays a deadbeat (eg Mr Chedworth Steps Out, The Shiralee) but Randell was a revelation – all handsome, sexy intensity, misogyny and hate. With his looks and talent, it’s understandable that Randell was gobbled up by Hollywood after Smithy – it’s more of a surprise that he never quite made it. He had a long and interesting career (eg King of Kings), but never became a star – possibly that’s because Randell played too many heroes and affable love interests, where he wasn’t that interesting, and not enough villains, where he could be electric, at least based on this movie.
A Son is Born was finished by 1945, but its release was held off until after the release of Smithy, which also starred Randell and Steinbeck (playing lovers instead of son and mother, which is a little confusing if you watch the movies back-to-back). It wasn’t a huge hit, but Porter said that it made £27,000 in Australia and £3,000 in Britain, plus money from television sales to America, Europe and Britain; he eventually had trouble selling it to Australian television. Porter tried to get finance for another film with Finch, Storm Hill – you can read that script here. It might have happened but then the British government slapped a huge tax on all imported films, and the project was cancelled. He did not make another feature until the charming animated movie Marco Polo Jnr versus the Red Dragon (1972). Like Noel Monkman, who we discussed in our piece on Typhoon Treasure, he had a fine career but it was not what it should have been.
The author would like to thank Graham Shirley for his assistance with this article. Unless specified, all opinions are the author’s.
