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Lovers and Luggers
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = Lovers and Luggers
| image = Lovers_and_Luggers.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Flyer for theatrical release
| director = Ken G. Hall
| producer = Ken G. Hall
| writer = Frank Harvey
Edmund Barclay
| based_on = novel by Gurney Slade
| narrator =
| starring = Lloyd Hughes
Shirley Ann Richards
| music = Hamilton Webber
| cinematography = Frank Hurley
George Heath
| editing = William Shepherd
| studio = Cinesound Productions
| distributor = British Empire Films (Aust)
Paramount Pictures (UK)Astor Pictures (USA)
| released = 31 December 1937 (Australia)
1940 (USA)
| runtime = 99 mins (Australia)
96 mins (Uk)
65 mins (USA)
| country = Australia
| language = English
| budget = 24,000Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, 'Australian Film 19001977: A Guide to Feature Film Production', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 180.
}}
'Lovers and Luggers' is a 1937 Australian film directed by Ken G. Hall. It is an adventure melodrama about a pianist (Lloyd Hughes) who goes to Thursday Island to retrieve a valuable pearl.
It was retitled 'Vengeance of the Deep' in the US and United Kingdom.
Synopsis
In London, concert pianist Daubenny Carshott is feeling dissatisfied with his life and wanting a masculine adventure; he also desires the beautiful Stella Raff. Stella agrees to marry him if he brings back a large pearl with his own hands from Thursday Island. Daubenny notes a painting in Stella's apartment from "Craig Henderson" but when asked Stella is evasive about the artist.
Daubenny travels to Thursday Island where he buys a lugger and a house from the villainous Mendoza. He makes friends on the island, including another diver, Bill Craig, the drunken duo of McTavish and Dorner, and the boisterous Captain Quidley. He also meets Quidley's daughter, the beautiful Lorna, who likes to dress in men's clothing so she can walk around on her own at night. Lorna and Daubenny become friends and she secretly falls in love with him but Daubenny assumes she is in love with Craig.
Captain Quidley teaches Daubenny to dive. Quidley, Lorna, Daubenny and Mendoza all go out diving for pearls. Daubenny finds a pearl, to the fury of Mendoza, who believes since Daubenny used his lugger that Mendoza should have a share. Daubenny disagrees and the two men fight on board the lugger, causing the pearl to drop over the side.
Both men get in their diving suits and go down to retrieve the pearl. Mendoza dies and Daubenny is trapped. Bill Craig risks his life to rescue Daubenny.
Back on Thursday Island, Stella has arrived, accompanied by an aristocratic friend, Archie. Daubenny discovers that Bill Craig is Craig Henderson, and was also in love with Stella, and sent on a similar mission to find a pearl. Daubenny and Craig both reject Stella.
Daubenny decides to leave Thursday Island on his boat. Lorna reveals she is in love with him, not Craig, and the two kiss and decide to get married. They sail off into the sunset with Captain Quidley.
Cast
* Lloyd Hughes as Daubenny Carshott
* Shirley Ann Richards as Lorna Quidley
* Sidney Wheeler as Captain Quidley
* James Raglan as Bill Craig/Craig Henderson
*Elaine Hamill as Stella Raff
* Frank Harvey as Carshott's manager
* Ronald Whelan as Mendoza
* Alec Kellaway as McTavish
*Leslie Victor as Dormer
* Campbell Copelin as Archie
*Charlie Chan as Kishimuni
*Marcelle Marnay as Lotus
*Horace Cleary as China Tom
*Claude Turton as Charlie Quong
*Bobbie Hunt as Lady Winter
*Paul Furness as Professor of psychology
*Charles Zoli as Carshott's valet
*Bill Onus as an Aboriginal man
Original novel
The script was based on a 1928 novel by Gurney Slade, from whom Cinesound obtained the film rights in late 1936. In the novel, Daubenny travels to "Lorne" (Broome, thinly-disguised) rather than Thursday Island. Lorna is not related to Captain Quid, but actually is Stella's half-sister. There are two other British expatriates diving for pearls in addition to Craig, Chillon and Major Rawlings. Daubney does not romance Lorna and is reunited with a reformed Stella at the end. Lorna winds up with Craig.[https://www.questia.com/read/1P3-1169100331 Stephen Vagg, 'FRANK HARVEY: AUSTRALIAN SCREENWRITING PIONEER' 'Australasian Drama Studies Journal', April 2006]
Although the novel was set in Broome Ken G. Hall had Cinesound screenwriter Frank Harvey relocate the story to Thursday Island because it was easier to access.
[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37014263?searchTerm=%22lovers%20and%20luggers%22&searchLimits=l-category=Article%7Ccategory%3AArticle|||sortby=dateAsc 'Australian Firm to Make Pearling Story Film', 'The Courier-Mail (Brisbane)', Wednesday 23 December 1936 p 11]
Production
Casting
Hall gave the lead role to American actor Lloyd Hughes, who had been a star in the silent era and since then mostly worked on stage.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11062945?searchTerm=%22lovers%20and%20luggers%22&searchLimits=l-category=Article%7Ccategory%3AArticle|||sortby=dateAsc 'Hollywood Actor for Australian Film', 'The Argus (Melbourne)', Saturday 8 May 1937 p 15] Hall had met Hughes when the director visited Hollywood in 1935. The actor went on to make 'The Broken Melody' for Hall.This was the first of what would be several character roles Alec Kellaway played for Ken G. Hall. The cast included a Hong Kong actor called Charlie Chan.
Shooting
James Raglan was signed on a seven-week contract.Hall was enthusiastic about the project because of his love for the tropics, although budget considerations meant most of the film had to be shot in the studio, with only the second unit going to Thursday Island under Frank Hurley. Hurley also shot some footage at Port Stephens and Broken Bay.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17360445?searchTerm=%22lovers%20and%20luggers%22&searchLimits=l-category=Article%7Ccategory%3AArticle|||sortby=dateAsc 'NEW AUSTRALIAN FILM Will Deal With Pearling', 'The Sydney Morning Herald', Friday 16 April 1937 p 5] Cinesound built one of its largest ever sets to recreate Thursday Island.
A tank was built to shoot the underwater scenes. However the water was not clear, so the scenes were shot at North Sydney Olympic Pool.[http://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/resources/documents/Newsletter_Pool_Autumn.pdf North Sydney Pool Newsletter] Hall would direct scenes on boats by radio.
In June, Hall paid tribute to art director Eric Thompson saying, "we have had almost incessant rain since we began production some five weeks ago with the result that we have been compelled to keep on working 'exteriors,' and immediately we finish one set Eric's boys have to start demolishing and assembling a new set for the next take". Stuart F. Doyle resigned from Cinesound during production but was kept on to supervise the finishing of the movie.
Reports of the budget ranged from 18,000 to 24,000.
Reception
A charity ball was held to promote the release of the film.
The film was released in both the US and England. It was the last Australian film sold to Britain as a British quota picture before the British quota laws were amended.
Critical
Reviews were positive, the critic from 'The Sydney Morning Herald' calling it "Australia's finest picture to date." 'The Bulletin' called it "a jolly good entertainer...a great advance even on "TallTimbers". It hasn't spectacle as unique as the timber drive in that film, but it has an altogether better story, more interesting scenes, more action, more varied characters, and it deals with a more colorful cross-section of life...It is almost incredibly better film than the narrative outline might seem to permit."
Box office
The movie was a slight disappointment at the box office, and Ken G. Hall thought this helped make Greater Union's then-managing director Norman Rydge disillusioned with feature production.Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, 'Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years', Currency Press, 1989p156 'Variety' said it performed better in the "nabes and stix".However Hall said in 1972 that "I think I like it best of all the pictures that I've made. Because of the backgrounds. I'd go tomorrow to make a film about the Tropics."Philip Taylor, 'Ken G. Hall', 'Cinema Papers' January 1974 p 76
References
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