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Moora Neeya, or The Message of the Spear

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Moora Neeya, or the Message of the Spear is a 1911 Australian silent film which was the first Australian movie to emphasise aboriginal people[6] or "the first full Australian aboriginal drama yet produced."[7]

Moora Neeya, or The Message of the Spear
Grenfell Record 7 Oct 1911
Directed byAlfred Rolfe
Written bySyd Rolfe[3]
Produced byStanley Crick
StarringEthel Phillips
Charles Villiers
Production
company
Release date
  • 31 July 1911 (1911-07-31) (Sydney)[1][2]
Running time
2.000 feet[4] or 1,500 feet[5]
CountryAustralia
LanguagesSilent film
English intertitles

It was directed by Alfred Rolfe for the Australian Photo-play Xompany.

The film was described by a contemporary newspaper report as "on the same lines as the Indian cowboy pictures with which the public are familiar, except that it is a colonial production, and blackfellows are substituted for Indians."[8]

An ad forThe Age advertised it as "blacks - kill - marry."[9]

It is considered a lost film.[10]

Plot

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The plot consists of 41 scenes and appears to be an original written for the screen.[11]

On a station west of the Darling River, Harry Earl is in love with the station owner's daughter. The evil manager makes advances on her but Earl beats him up. The overseer urges some local Aborigines to kill Earl but one of them, Budgerie, alerts the station men by writing a message on a spear.

The stockmen ride to the rescue and save Earl just as the Aborigines are about to perform a "Death Dance" around him. The overseer is killed and Earl is reunited with his love.[12][13]

The main chapter headings were:

  • The attack on the Hut
  • Harry teaches the Overseer a lesson
  • A horrible revenge: the Overseer arranges with the aboriginals to kill Harry
  • To save her sweetheart
  • Arrival of the Police
  • Lovers re-united.[14]

Cast

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Production

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The film was reportedly written by Rolfe's son, Syd.[3] It was shot on location in Brewarrina on the Darling River and was one of the first Australian movies to depict Aboriginal people.[12]

Star Charles Villiers later recalled:

We were anxious to get local color for an Australian picture, and it was decided to take the players and cameraman to Brewarrina, New South Wales, at which place there is a mission for blacks. On arrival an interview with the mission superintendent followed and it was agreed that we could have the services of the – blacks for picture purposes at an all-round rate of 2/ per day for each person. The offer, was submitted to the spokesman for the aborigines (union secretary, I suppose he really was), and after a 'wongi' with his men, it was accepted: So far so good. However, when the time came to drill the 'extras' into some sort of understanding of what they had to do, not a man of them would budge. Inquiries revealed the fact that we were up against a strike, and as we had travelled over 400 miles, at no little expense, negotiations had to be resumed. The terms were plain – 4/ a day and a stick of tobacco per man. This being the irreducible minimum we had to accept it, and lost- no time in getting through with the business.[15][16]

Filming was completed by early July 1911. A report in The Referee said " A company, under the direction of Mr. Alfred Rolfe, has just returned from a week's spell amongst the blacks, where a drama introducing the true aboriginal has_been secured."[17]

Ethel Phillips later married her co-star Stanley Walpole.[18]

Reception

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Adelaide Advertiser 2 Dec 1911

One critic praised the movie saying "apart from its thrilling incident, the film was particularly instructive to those without knowledge of the wild Australian aboriginal, as it showed them the grotesqueness of an indigenous blackfellow when in full warpaint."[19]

The Malvern Standard called it "a wonderfully produced photo-play" where "A notable feature is the extraordinary Wild Blacks Corrobboree."[20]

The Age said " The incidents of the drama... were well presented, anil: the excellent quality of the film and the photography compared very fnvorably with the usual list of American and European subjects presented. The packed house gave the Australian production a fine reception."[21]

Punch said "The qtrallty of the photography is of the very best, and the films display the utmost clearness and steadiness."[22]

The Advertiser called it:

highly exciting drama. The scenes are thoroughly Australian, and typical of the bush and backblock township life of Queensland, where the incidents of the drama were carried out. A strangely fantastic effect was obtained by the introduction of a tribe of genuine Australian alboriginals, whose grotesque war-painted bodies added to their weird corroborées. This is the first film introducing the Australian aboriginals in their native haunts, and war dances.[23]

The Bulletin said it "pictures the bush with a reality, so intense that the audience wants to get up and boil a billy."[24]

Charles Villiers later recalled:

When that film was screened in Sydney I met a movie fan who I knew very well. He had seen the picture; and I asked – him what he thought of it. 'Oh, not bad,' he replied, 'but the make-up of the Johnnies who did the niggers was not too good – it wouldn't deceive an Australian.' Subsequently we did another picture in which a few aborigines figured, and this time, we didn't bother about the real thing; Strange, to say, the movie fan was most enthusiastic over the counterfeit presentment, and remarked that it paid in picture work to stick to nature every- time. He seemed so happy that I had not the heart to undeceive him.[15]

References

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  1. ^ "STAGE SONG and SHOW". The Sun. No. 339. New South Wales, Australia. 31 July 1911. p. 9 (FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "Advertising". Evening News. No. 13, 774. New South Wales, Australia. 1 August 1911. p. 1. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ a b "THEATRICAL TIT-BITS". Sydney Sportsman. Surry Hills, NSW. 26 July 1911. p. 3. Retrieved 20 February 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "Advertising". The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers' Advocate. Parramatta, NSW. 12 August 1911. p. 12. Retrieved 9 November 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Advertising". Referee. No. 1324. New South Wales, Australia. 20 March 1912. p. 16. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ Vagg, Stephen (25 May 2020). "The A to Z of Non-White Aussie Movies and TV in White Australia". Filmink.
  7. ^ "EMPIRE THEATRE". Daily Herald. Vol. 2, no. 558. South Australia. 18 December 1911. p. 8. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "BIJOU PICTURES". Goulburn Evening Penny Post. NSW. 12 September 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 9 November 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ "Advertising". The Age. No. 17, 596. Victoria, Australia. 9 August 1911. p. 16. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ Vagg, S., & Reynaud, D. (2016). Alfred Rolfe: Forgotten pioneer Australian film director. Studies in Australasian Cinema, 10(2),184-198. doi:10.1080/17503175.2016.1170950
  11. ^ "Lyric Theatre, Prahran". Malvern Standard. Vic. 12 August 1911. p. 3. Retrieved 26 February 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ a b Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 21
  13. ^ "AMUSEMENTS. SAYERS'S PICTURES". Barrier Miner. Vol. XXIV, no. 7304. New South Wales, Australia. 2 January 1912. p. 5. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ "WEST'S PICTURES". Gippsland Times (MORNINGS. ed.). Vic. 21 December 1911. p. 3. Retrieved 22 February 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ a b "MOVIE "HEAVY" CHATS LIGHTLY". Winner. Melbourne. 22 December 1915. p. 12. Retrieved 15 November 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "POVERTY POINT MOËT & CHANDON DRY IMPERIAL CHAMPAGNE Exquisite", The Bulletin, John Ryan Comic Collection (Specific issues)., 40 (2072), Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald (published 1880), 30 October 1919, ISSN 0007-4039, nla.obj-677861045, retrieved 29 November 2023 – via Trove
  17. ^ "THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD". The Referee. Sydney. 5 July 1911. p. 16. Retrieved 19 November 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "FILM-MAKING IN AUSTRALIA". The Advertiser. Adelaide. 11 June 1936. p. 11. Retrieved 21 November 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ "WEST'S PICTURES". Williamstown Chronicle. Vic. 6 January 1912. p. 2. Retrieved 14 September 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ^ "Lyric Theatre, Prahran". Malvern Standard. Vol. 8, no. 481. Victoria, Australia. 12 August 1911. p. 3. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  21. ^ "NEWS OF THE DAY". The Age. No. 17, 601. Victoria, Australia. 15 August 1911. p. 6. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. ^ "THE PLAY GOER". Punch. Vol. CXV, no. 2925. Victoria, Australia. 17 August 1911. p. 37. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  23. ^ "Advertising". The Advertiser. Adelaide. 19 August 1911. p. 20. Retrieved 9 November 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  24. ^ "AT POVERTY POINT.", The Bulletin, John Ryan Comic Collection (Specific issues)., 32 (1644), Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald (published 1880), 17 August 1911, ISSN 0007-4039, nla.obj-654593446, retrieved 29 November 2023 – via Trove
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