Daughter of the East

This article is about 1924 Australian silent film. For Autobiography of Benazir Bhutto, see Daughter of the East: An Autobiography.

Daughter of the East
Directed byRoy Darling
Written byAdam Tavlaridi
Produced byAdam Tavlaridi
StarringDorothy Hawtree
CinematographyTasman Higgins
Production
company
Blue Bird Films
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • 4 October 1924 (1924-10-04)[1]
CountryAustralia
LanguagesSilent film
English intertitles
Box office£50[2]

Daughter of the East, also known as The Boy of the Dardanelles, is a 1924 Australian silent film directed by Roy Darling. It is considered a lost film.

Plot

Harry Wharton is born of English parents in Turkey. Despite being engaged to a woman back in England, he falls in love with an orphaned Armenian girl, Marian. A Turkish pasha also loves Marian and kidnaps her. Wharton tries to rescue her but is captured just as England and Turkey declare war on each other. He escapes disguised as a Greek and joins the Australians at the Gallipoli Campaign.

After the war Wharton finds Marian who has been traumatised by the war. He helps her recover and his fiancée gives him his freedom, enabling Wharton and Marian to be married.[3]

Production

The film was financed by Adam Tavlradi, a Greek cafe owner keen to show a film demonstrating the contribution of Greeks to the British war effort. It was shot in and around Sydney in mid 1923, with battles scenes shot on Maroubra Beach.[3] It was previewed under the title The Boy of the Dardanelles.[4]

Release

As he had with his first film, The Lust for Gold (1922), Darling had great trouble getting the film released, but eventually managed to make a deal with Paramount. However box office response was not strong and Darling only received £50 in returns.[2]

Only 25 seconds of the movie survive today.[5]

Cast

References

  1. ^ "GLOBE THEATRE". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 4 October 1924. p. 20. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  2. ^ a b "FILM INDUSTRY". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 20 June 1927. p. 14. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  3. ^ a b Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 122.
  4. ^ "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 18 December 1923. p. 2. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  5. ^ Daughter of the East at National Film and Sound Archive


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