Around the Boree Log

Around the Boree Log is a 1925 Australian silent film by Phil K. Walsh adapted from the poems of "John O'Brien" (Patrick Joseph Hartigan). It tells stories of a priest's life around the 1870s in the Goulburn area.[3][4]

Around the Boree Log
Directed byPhil K. Walsh
Written byPhil K. Walsh
Based onpoems of Patrick Joseph Hartigan
StarringMolly O'Donohue[1]
CinematographyLacey Percival
Production
company
Phil K. Walsh Productions
Release date
25 September 1925[2]
Running time
7,100 feet
CountryAustralia
LanguageSilent film
English intertitles

Unlike many Australian silent films, a copy of it survives today.

Plot

A priest reads from the book of poems by John O'Brien and recalls his earlier life in the country. He remembers travelling hawkers, his first school, a bishop inspection, childhood romance, and the marriage of a girl to another man.

Cast
  • Molly O'Donohue (or O'Donohoe)[5] as Laughing Mary

Production

The movie was shot on location in the New South Wales bush, mostly at the Wollondilly River area near Goulburn, in early 1925.[6] The director had previously worked as an assistant on While the Billy Boils (1921) and would direct The Birth of White Australia (1928).[3] He also tried to make a film of the novel Love Blind but was unable to raise finance.[7]

Most of the cast were anonymous people who lived in the area.[8] Unlike The Birth of White Australia, which was funded by the residents of Young, this film received no financial assistance from Goulburn.[9]

Release

The film met with resistance from distributors who felt it was Roman Catholic propaganda.[10] It was also criticised for having little plot and consisting mostly of a travelogue of scenery and incidents in the country.[8]

Other reviewers however gave it unqualified praise;[11] it screened throughout Australia and New Zealand, made money for its backers, and created renewed interest for Hartigan's book.[12]

gollark: Wow, you're backtracking lots.
gollark: You did not. How does the paper talk about "magnetism having an effect on gravity"?
gollark: Explain how it is first.
gollark: It's not saying that.
gollark: As best I can tell this is saying something about a "gravitomagnetic" effect and (best attempt to parse the insanity) you're trying to go from some reference to that to "so obviously something something gravity magnetism" to "everything is electromagnetism, electric universe, intergalactic Birkeland currents".

References
  1. "Majestic". The Brisbane Courier. National Library of Australia. 9 February 1926. p. 11. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  2. "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 28 September 1925. p. 2. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  3. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 128.
  4. "The Majestic". The Brisbane Courier. National Library of Australia. 8 February 1926. p. 9. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  5. "Advertising". The Daily Standard (Brisbane). Queensland, Australia. 8 February 1926. p. 2. Retrieved 12 March 2020 – via Trove.
  6. "The Majestic". The Brisbane Courier. National Library of Australia. 8 February 1926. p. 9. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  7. "Distinguished Film Producer". Windsor and Richmond Gazette. NSW: National Library of Australia. 23 April 1926. p. 3. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  8. "New Films". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 28 September 1925. p. 5. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  9. "Slow Goulburn". Goulburn Evening Penny Post. New South Wales, Australia. 10 February 1925. p. 2. Retrieved 10 March 2020 – via Trove.
  10. "Film Inquiry". The Brisbane Courier. National Library of Australia. 9 June 1927. p. 6. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  11. "Entertainments". Warwick Daily News. Queensland, Australia. 21 June 1926. p. 7. Retrieved 12 March 2020 – via Trove.
  12. "Australian Success". The Gosford Times and Wyong District Advocate. New South Wales, Australia. 29 July 1926. p. 4. Retrieved 10 March 2020 – via Trove.


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