by Stephen Vagg
Cross of Gold
I’ve got no idea why the ABC decided to film a Balzac novel for television in 1965. Honore de Balzac, for those unfamiliar with him, was one of those 19th century bohemian French writers whose lifestyle sounds sexy to arts students: mistresses, debts, salons, fifteen hour writing sessions using a quill fuelled by black coffee, parties, feuds, prodigious output, early death. One of his works was called Eugenie Grande, an 1833 novel which formed the basis of Cross of Gold. I’m not going to pretend I’ve read any Balzac, but if you’re keen to give Eugenie Grande a crack, a link is here.
The novel was adapted for the small screen by Richard Lane, an Australian writer with many TV credits but probably best remembered for his work in radio drama: indeed, he also wrote a radio version of Cross of Gold for the ABC the same year the TV play aired. Not only that, the ABC had already broadcast an earlier radio version of Eugenie Grandet in 1959, as The Miser’s Daughter, adapted by Catherine Shepherd. Clearly, there was no such thing as too much Blazac at the ABC.
Cross of Gold stars Fay Kelton as the daughter of a miser (Raymond Westwell). She gets the hots for a young spunk (Allen Bickford) and loans him money, annoying dad, leading to a broken heart.
This was… fine. I mean, there’s decent acting from Kelton, nice costumes and sets and competent direction from Patrick Barton. It clocks in at 75 minutes and is the sort of story you can imagine having been turned into a perfectly decent Bette Davis vehicle at Warner Bros in the 1940s. But why was it made for Australian television? The ABC should have filmed an Australian novel, or at least have Lane adapt the storyline to be set in Australia. If the ABC had a craving to expose local audiences to Balzac, they could’ve shown the BBC TV version of Eugenie Grande made that year.
Goodbye Gloria Hello
A production with far more reason for being was Goodbye Gloria Hello, based on a script by Australian writer Peter Kenna (A Hard God), whose play The Slaughter of St Teresa’s Day was successfully filmed by the ABC in 1960 and which I wrote about here.
That went on to be filmed by the BBC in 1962. In a weird reversal, Kenna’s script for Goodbye Gloria Hello was actually first performed for British TV in 1964 as Goodbye Gloria Goodbye. I have no idea why Kenna changed the title. Apparently, it was based on a play by Kenna called Beak of the Early Bird.
The ABC filmed Goodbye Gloria Hello in December 1966, broadcasting it the following year. I recently saw a copy of the production and Kenna’s script can be read online here via the National Archives of Australia.
The story is set in a shabby Victorian boarding house – it takes place in England, not Australia. Brigid Lenihan stars in the title role, as a woman who is married (to Brian James) but is having it off with her lodger (William Hodge). The husband teams with Gloria’s shy sister (Joan MacArthur) to turn the tables, but things don’t quite turn out the way either plan.
There’s some broad playing, nice lighting and the running time of 75 minutes is too long for the material, which feels like it should clock in at an hour. Pat Barton directed this one too. I wonder what happened to Barton? If anyone reading this happens to know, please drop me a line.
Kenna’s career is interesting. The ABC spotted his talent relatively early, signing him up to a television writers’ workshop in 1959, and producing Slaughter of St Teresa’s Day. Yet his screen credits are quite sparse: an adaptation of Norman Lindsay story Dust or Polish (1972) from a series of Norman Lindsay adaptations on the ABC, TV adaptations of his classic play A Hard God in 1973 and 1980, the play 13,000 Miles Away (1976) from a BBC-ABC co-pro series called The Emigrants, the Bryan Brown-Rachel Ward film The Umbrella Woman (1987). That’s not a lot for a talented writer. I don’t think Goodbye Gloria Hello ranks among his better pieces though: too broad, and Kenna is less effective when not writing about Australia.
Star Brigid Lenihan is also worthy of attention. She was very busy on Australian stages and screens in the 1960s, often playing feisty broads – her credits include A Night Out (1961), The Little Woman (1961), Lola Montez (1962), The Taming of the Shrew (1962), Don’t Listen Ladies (1963), and The Right Thing (1963). Her theatre credits are here.
Alan Burke, who worked with Lenihan several times, told Graham Shirley in an NFSA oral history that she was “a lovely lady but rocky and a bit insecure and had trouble with the lines early on.” She died in 1970, aged only 41, survived by her 13 year old son. Far too many of her generation went too young – Peter Kenna only made it to 57.
You’ve probably gotten the impression from reading this that I wasn’t too excited about Cross of Gold or Goodbye Gloria Hello and that impression would be correct – I don’t have to like all these plays, he said defensively – but both have their moments.
