by FilmInk Staff
How did you get the gig?
“The Old Mate’s Act. Mark Hartley, the filmmaker (Patrick, Electric Boogaloo), does a bit of work for Umbrella and he put my name forward to do an audio commentary for The Overlanders. Umbrella had asked David Stratton but when Stratts was too busy Mark suggested me. I’ll take being second to the great man.
“I was thrilled to get the gig. I’ve always been a big fan of old time Australian films and TV shows and I have a fascination for “meat pie” Westerns – Western-style movies set in Australia. The Overlanders is one of my favourite old Australian films, even though technically it’s British.”
Tell us about The Overlanders
“It was made by Ealing Studios, who are better known for their Alec Guinness comedies but occasionally did adventure tales in exotic locations. The Overlanders was shot here at the end of World War Two, with a mostly Australian cast and crew, but a British director – the Scotsman Harry Watt, who had an international reputation as a documentary maker before moving into features. I’ve always loved the movie. It’s got a great central idea – a cattle drive across outback Australia to escape a feared Japanese invasion. The Oz Movies website called it “probably the most high concept film of Australian talkies in the first two decades of their production”, and they’re spot on. I can’t believe it has not been remade, though Baz Luhrmann kind of did it in Australia. Harry Watt and his colleagues had a lot of adventures making the film, which I go into in detail on the commentary. The Overlanders is a Western but a very Australian one; Watt spent months out here researching and really tried to get the details right. The film was a big hit, making Chips Rafferty a star and led to a number of attempts to repeat its success – it’s probably the most influential film made in Australia between 1941 and 1971. It’s very entertaining, with some great scenes and performances, and the story behind its inception, production and release is fascinating.”
It’s not the only film on the disc.
“No. I pitched Umbrella the idea of spicing up the disc by adding an extra film, Kangaroo, and wound up doing an audio commentary on that, too. Kangaroo was a 1952 melodrama that 20th Century Fox made in Australia, in part because of the success of The Overlanders. It was the first really big Hollywood film shot here. Chips Rafferty and Bud Tingwell are in it, although the stars were all imported: Maureen O’Hara, Peter Lawford, Finlay Currie and Richard Boone. Kangaroo was a famous box-office fiasco and people always make fun of it, but the film has a lot of interesting features. I was always fascinated why Kangaroo didn’tt quite work; most auteurist film critics took the word of director Lewis Milestone who blamed “the studio” but I always suspected there was more to it than that. I did a deep dive of research, discovered the original script and read up all about the production, and came up with various theories as to what went wrong (as well as acknowledging what went right). I go into that on the commentary track.”
Hang on, isn’t Kangaroo in the pubic domain?
“Yes it is, but my audio commentary track isn’t! And Umbrella always do nice transfers and throw in other cool stuff, like The Cattle King, a 1955 doco.”
Any salacious stories from the making of either film?
“A few. Kangaroo did star Peter Lawford, after all! It helps that almost everyone associated with those movies is dead. But you’ll have to shell out to hear them!”
What other commentary work have you done?
“I have done a few for Kino Lorber – the Michael Winner/Oliver Reed swinging sixties drama, The System (1964), the Errol Flynn pirate movie, Against All Flags (1952), a Deanna Durbin movie, One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), and a Laurence Olivier-Katherine Hepburn TV film, Love Among the Ruins (1975). I also did a few on old Australian films I have put up just for fun, if anyone wants to listen to them – Tall Timbers (1937), Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938), The Kangaroo Kid (1950), King of the Coral Sea (1954) and Long John Silver (1954). They are always a lot of work to do, but fun work.”
That is extremely nerdy.
“Yes. But there is a global pandemic on! You gotta do what you can!”
