Jack Maxwell, son of a wealthy stockbroker, is disowned by his father after hosting a raucous party at a cabaret that is raided by the police. He goes to work at a mill in the North Coast timber district owned by his friend Dick Desmond.
Jack falls in love with Betty Manning, the daughter of the widow who cooks for the workers, and clashes with Steve Black, the ganger of the mill who is behind a spate of timber robberies, who also loves Betty.
A sundowner arrives in camp and shoots Steve in revenge for seducing the sundowner's wife years ago. He also reveals Steve has been blackmailing Dick's father for a murder for which he can now be proved innocent.
Jack saves the mill from a robbery and is offered a partnership from Desmond.[3]
In 1925 Universal announced they would make a film Tall Timber based on a novel by Gordon Goodchild, directed by Lynn Reynolds.[11]
In December 1925 Australasian Pictures announced they would make their own Tall Timbers. It was directed by the actor Dunstan Webb, who later also made The Grey Glove for Australasian Films. At one stage he was also mentioned as a possible director of For the Term of His Natural Life (1927), but he wound up just appearing in it as an actor.[12]
The film was part of a slate of medium budgeted movies from Australasian which also included The Pioneers, Hills of Hate, Sunrise and The Grey Glove. These would be followed by larger budgeted productions For the Term of His Natural Life and The Adorable Outlaw.[13][14]
Shooting
The film was shot on location on the New South Wales coast in Langley Vale and in studios at Sydney.[4][15] Filming started on location in December 1925.[16] According to Everyone's, the story was "a strong one, and introduces the local lumbering industry to the screen for the first time."[17]
In February 1926 a number of state politicians from the New South Wales Legislative Council were invited to visit the set at Bondi Junction.[18][19] Filming was well publicized and proceeded on a relatively lavish scale.[20][21]
Reception
Sydney Sun 23 August 1926
Critical
The Sydney Morning Herald's reviewer felt the film too closely followed an American model, but wrote that the timber sequences were "more characteristically Australian and contain patches of tolerable melodrama." According to this review, the weakest point of the film was the captions (which had been written by Jim Donald, a Sydney journalist).[22]
Everyone's magazine was more enthusiastic, reporting that the film:
Easily ranks amongst the best of local productions to date. Credit goes to Dunstan Webb, who thus notches success for his first ambitious effort... The story holds interest throughout. It is set amid the everyday working of a little known industry, and is acted quite intelligently by a small and almost unknown band of players. Despite this fact both story and acting are gripping and Australasian Films Ltd. need by no means be ashamed of this, their latest contribution to local endeavour. The exterior scenes are all excellently conceived and the natural comedy introduced by medium of a clever boy, adds welcome relief to the heavier passages of the story.[3]
The Bulletin also reported that "the photography is good, and the picture will stand against the ruck of American films; but the ill-written captions are a handicap. That is a detail of picture-production to which Australian producers need to give better attention."[23]
Box office
Everyones later stated that the film was a box office success. "At the box-offices it proved a consistent puller."[5]
English release
The movie was the only film made by Australasian Films between 1925–27 to receive a cinema release in England. It counted as a British film under the local quota laws and was distributed there by Universal.[24][25][5]
It was sold to the UK outright for £300. Everyone's stated this was "a low figure; nevertheless the picture had already earned good money in Australia."[26]The film went on to be "a big box office success" in England, according to Everyone's.[6]
Proposed remake
In 1932 it was announced Cinesound Productions - a company which evolved out of Australasian Films - would remake Tall Timber, along with another 1920s Australasian Films movie, The Pioneers.[27] This was not done. However Cinesound did make a new film set in the timber industry, Tall Timbers, which came out in 1937.
References
^"Raymond Longford", Cinema Papers, January 1974 p51
^"MAKING MOVIES AUSTRALIA". The Herald. No. 16, 033. Victoria, Australia. 6 October 1928. p. 17. Retrieved 26 April 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
^ abcCandid Criticisms, Everyones Ltd, 25 August 1926, p. 21, retrieved 26 April 2019
^ abAndrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 145.
^"FILM PRIZES NOT BIG ENOUGH". The Herald. No. 16, 233. Victoria, Australia. 29 May 1929. p. 20. Retrieved 12 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^Philip Taylor, 'Ken G. Hall', Cinema Papers January 1974 p 83
^"For The Would Be's". Truth. No. 1186. Western Australia. 22 May 1926. p. 10. Retrieved 27 April 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
^Everyones, Everyones Ltd, 1920, retrieved 27 April 2019
^"MASTER PICTURE NEWS."Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate 12 August 1926: 1, accessed 9 December 2011
^"AUSTRALIAN PICTURE". The Telegraph. No. 16, 740. Queensland, Australia. 28 July 1926. p. 11 (5 O'CLOCK CITY EDITION). Retrieved 12 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^"ON and OFF". Smith's Weekly. Vol. VIII, no. 15. New South Wales, Australia. 29 May 1926. p. 10. Retrieved 12 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^Everyones, Everyones Ltd, 1920, retrieved 26 April 2019
^Everyones, Everyones Ltd, 1920, retrieved 26 April 2019
^"FOR THE MOVIES?". Evening News. No. 18307. New South Wales, Australia. 23 February 1926. p. 7. Retrieved 12 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^"HOW "MOVIES" ARE MADE". The Labor Daily. No. 653. New South Wales, Australia. 24 February 1926. p. 3. Retrieved 12 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^"ON THE SILVER SCREEN". The Sunday Times. No. 2091. New South Wales, Australia. 28 February 1926. p. 22. Retrieved 27 April 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
^"AUSTRALIAN PICTURES". The Daily Telegraph. No. 14, 426. New South Wales, Australia. 5 March 1926. p. 5. Retrieved 27 April 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
^"NEW FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 27, 654. New South Wales, Australia. 23 August 1926. p. 7. Retrieved 12 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^The Bulletin, John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 1880, retrieved 27 April 2019
^Brian Adams and Graham Shirley, Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years, Currency Press, 1989 p 90.
^"QUEENSLAND FILM."The Brisbane Courier 14 September 1928: 21, accessed 9 December 2011
^"New Company to Make Talkies Here". The Herald. No. 17, 190. Victoria, Australia. 18 June 1932. p. 26. Retrieved 12 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
