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A Son Is Born

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A Son Is Born is a 1946 Australian melodrama directed by Eric Porter and starring Ron Randell, Peter Finch, John McCallum and Muriel Steinbeck. It was one of the few films made in Australia in the 1940s. The movie is particularly notable for featuring Randell, Finch and McCallum before they moved overseas and became stars in the United States and Britain respectively.

A Son Is Born
Lobby card
Directed byEric Porter
Written byGloria Bourner
Produced byEric Porter
StarringRon Randell
Peter Finch
Muriel Steinbeck
CinematographyArthur Higgins
Damien Parer (war photography)
Edited byJames Pearson
Music bySydney John Kay
Production
company
Eric Porter Studios
Distributed byBritish Empire Films (UK)
Hoyts (AS)
20th Century Fox (US/International)
Release date
  • 20 September 1946 (1946-09-20)
Running time
85 mins
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Budget£10,000[1][2]
Box office£30,000 [3]

Synopsis

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In 1920, Laurette marries an irresponsible drifter, Paul Graham. They have a son, David, but later divorce due to Paul's drinking and infidelities when David is thirteen. David chooses to stay with his father and Laurette marries again, this time to John, a rich businessman with a teenaged daughter, Kay.

Years later, Paul is killed in a car accident and David comes to live with his mother, John and Kay. To get revenge on his mother for "abandoning" his father, David seduces Kay into marriage and abandons her, but realises the error of his ways serving in New Guinea during World War II. He is injured in battle but survives to be reunited with Kay, Laurette and John.

Cast

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Production

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Development

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Eric Porter was a cartoonist and ran his own studio. Gloria Bourner was one of his employees.[4] Bourner wrote the script and Porter storyboarded the entire film prior to filming, which was announced in September 1944.[5] [6]

Porter put up half the budget himself, with the balance coming from Charles Munro and some private investors.[7] The budget was a reported £10,000.[8]

Casting

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Peter Finch, Ron Randell, Muriel Steinbeck and John McCallum were all well established actors when the film was made.

Jane Holland was a 22-year-old radio actor who later moved to England and married Leo McKern.[9]

Kitty Bluett was a musical comedy star, the daughter of comedian Fred Bluett.[10]

Shooting

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The film was shot in the Supreme Sound System studio in late 1944.[11] This was a small one room studio based in North Sydney.[12]

Filming was scheduled to allow the actors to take radio and stage jobs, and sometimes would start at midnight.[13]

War footage shot by Damien Parer is used in the New Guinea sequences.[14]

The pool and garden scenes were filmed at Meadow Lea house in Sydney.

Release

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The movie was shot prior to Smithy (1946), also starring Randell and Steinbeck, but its release was held off until after that bigger budget movie to take advantage of its publicity.

Ron Randell was mobbed by female fans at the film's premiere.[15]

In July 1946 Ealing Studios - who had made The Overlanders in Australia, and who had signed John McCallum to a long term contract - bought the film for release in Britain.[16]

Reception

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Critical

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Critical response was mixed, many comparing the film unfavourably with Smithy.[17][18]

Reviewer Stephen Vagg later wrote in Filmink that "this is a perfectly fine soapie, with Steinbeck suffering and smiling through the tears. She has beauty and charisma and holds her own against three men who would all become major names."[19] Vagg characterised Randell's performance as "charismatic, vicious, cruel... a great performance... [that] established Randell as a force to watch."[20]

Box office

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Eric Porter later claimed the film at a six week run at the Victory Theatre in Sydney and that it made £27,000 at the Australian box office and £3,000 at the British box office. He also said that he sold it to television in America, Europe and Britain but he had trouble selling it to Australian television.[3]

Storm Hill

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In September 1946 Porter announced he would make another feature, Storm Hill, based on a script by Bourner and Richard Lane, starring Peter Finch, with Ron Randell as assistant director.[21] However the movie was never made.

References

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  1. ^ "£1,700,000 FILM." The Mail (Adelaide) 7 October 1944: 8, retrieved 12 December 2011
  2. ^ "Three Australian Films This Year". Smith's Weekly. Vol. XXVIII, no. 4. New South Wales, Australia. 23 March 1946. p. 23. Retrieved 28 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ a b Australia. Parliament. Senate. Select Committee on the Encouragement of Australian Productions for Television.; Vincent, Victor Seddon. (1963), Report from the Select Committee on the Encouragement of Australian Productions for Television., Parliamentary paper (Australia. Parliament), Canberra: Published for the Govt. of the Commonwealth of Australia by A.J. Arthur, p. 245, nla.obj-2796526992, retrieved 16 October 2021 – via Trove
  4. ^ "Local Walt Disney Young Sydney Artist Makes Color Cartoon", Pix., Sydney, N.S.W: Associated Newspapers Limited, 6 May 1939, nla.obj-478594976, retrieved 4 June 2024 – via Trove
  5. ^ "Sydney to Make Unusual Film." The Mail (Adelaide, SA) 2 Sep 1944: 16, retrieved 12 December 2011
  6. ^ "LOCAL INTEREST IN "A SON IS BORN"". Barrier Miner. Vol. LIX, no. 17, 479. New South Wales, Australia. 6 November 1946. p. 7. Retrieved 4 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ Ken G. Hall, Directed by Ken G. Hall: Autobiography of an Australian Filmmaker, Lansdowne Press, 1977 p176
  8. ^ "£1,700,000 FILM". The Mail (Adelaide). Vol. 33, no. 1, 689. South Australia. 7 October 1944. p. 8. Retrieved 4 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ "Studio's tribute to Sydney girl." The Australian Women's Weekly 11 May 1946: 28, retrieved 12 December 2011
  10. ^ "A GRAND LITTLE TROUPER." Advocate (Burnie, Tas) 14 November 1947: 7 Retrieved 12 December 2011
  11. ^ "Australian Films In The Making". The Mercury. Vol. CLX, no. 23, 060. Tasmania, Australia. 28 October 1944. p. 9. Retrieved 4 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ "ENTERPRISING AUSTRALIANS FILM MADE IN ONE-ROOM SHED", Pix., Sydney, N.S.W: Associated Newspapers Limited, 14 July 1945, nla.obj-466857610, retrieved 4 June 2024 – via Trove
  13. ^ "FILM PRODUCER GAZES & THINKS." Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld) 2 October 1946: 4, retrieved 12 December 2011
  14. ^ Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 203.
  15. ^ "Fans Mob Actor At Australian Film Premiere." The Sydney Morning Herald 21 Sep 1946: 4, retrieved 12 December 2011
  16. ^ "New Local Film For World View". The Herald. No. 21, 569. Victoria, Australia. 6 July 1946. p. 7. Retrieved 4 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ "New Australian Film Disappoints". The Argus. Melbourne. 20 January 1947. p. 4. Retrieved 19 August 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "NEW FILMS REVIEWED." The Sydney Morning Herald 23 Sep 1946: 5, retrieved 12 December 2011
  19. ^ Vagg, Stephen (25 August 2019). "Unsung Aussie Actors – Muriel Steinbeck". Filmink.
  20. ^ Vagg, Stephen (10 August 2019). "Unsung Aussie Actors – Ron Randell: A Top Twenty". Filmink.
  21. ^ "FILM STUDIO FOR HERNE BAY". The Propeller. Vol. XXXVI, no. 1852. New South Wales, Australia. 12 September 1946. p. 2. Retrieved 4 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
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