Below the Surface (1938 film) explained

Below the Surface
Director:Rupert Kathner
Producer:Rupert Kathner
Screenplay:Rupert Kathner
Story:Stan Tolhurst
Starring:Stan Tolhurst
Cinematography:Tasman Higgins
Editing:Stan Tolhurst
Studio:Australian Cinema Entertainments
Runtime:55 minutes
Country:Australia
Language:English

Below the Surface is a 1938 adventure film set in the coal region of Newcastle, Australia. Only part of the movie survives.

Plot

Two miners compete for an important coal contract. One of them attempts to sabotage the other but fails.

Cast

Production

The main investor in the movie was a prominent music house in Sydney. The film was shot on location in Cronulla, Sydney and Newcastle, with studio work done at Pagewood Studios.[1] [2] Kather and Tolhurt built a mine set themselves. Shooting took place from November 1937 to February 1938.

Release

Like Kathner's first movie, Phantom Gold (1937), it was refused to be considered eligible for registration under the New South Wales Film Quota Act on the grounds of poor quality.[3]

The film was never released to cinemas, the only one of Kather's movies to suffer this fate.[4]

In February 1938 Australian Cinema Entertainments announced plans to make four more features that year for £40,000, the first which was to be Diamonds in the Rough.[5] This did not eventuate. Tolhurst did revive the name with his company, ACE Films, in the late 1940s.[6]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: MINERS' SONS. . . 10 January 1938 . 15 August 2012 . 11 . National Library of Australia.
  2. News: AUSTRALIAN FILM. . . 1 December 1937 . 15 August 2012 . 9 . National Library of Australia.
  3. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 184
  4. Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years, Currency Press, 1989, p151
  5. News: AUSTRALIAN FILMS. . . 3 February 1938 . 15 August 2012 . 8 . National Library of Australia.
  6. News: Ambitious film project by Australians. . . 27 September 1947 . 15 August 2012 . 40 . National Library of Australia.