The House of Mancello

The House of Mancello is a 1962 Australian TV drama shot in Melbourne about a new Australian family. Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[2]

The House of Mancello
Ad from The Age 18 April 1962
Directed byWilliam Sterling
Written byChris Gardner
Distributed byABC
Release date
18 April 1962 (Melbourne)[1] 2 May 1962
Running time
75 mins
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

It was one of a series of six Australian plays produced by the ABC in 1962.[3] The others were:

Plot

An Italian immigrant family, the Mancellos, have a dress manufacturing business which is in trouble. They import Joe, a dress designer relative from Italy to make changes (to turn the place into a fashion shop) which Mamma Mancello resents. Daughter Lucia is more receptive but not keen on Joe's ideas. She wants to sell the business to help her Australian boyfriend.[4]

Cast
  • Moira Carleton as Mama Mancello
  • Elizabeth Goodman as Lucia Mancello
  • Mark Kelly as Joe
  • Campbell Copelin
  • Roly Barlee
  • Joan Harris
  • Diana Bell
  • Carol Potter
  • Margaret Browne
  • Brenda Beddison
  • Pat McLean

Production

Chris Gardner was a housewife who began writing ten years before this aired. Her play The Pub at Pelican Creek was performed in 1961. She wrote short stories, radio plays and the TV play Dark Under a Sun.[1]

It was shot in Melbourne.[5]

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald said that the play "was yet another classic demonstration of the ruinous effects of poor television techniques on even the best of plays" in particular, maintaining "a camera angle of roughly 50 to 60 degrees for the duration of the 45-minute production, and for all shots including groups and close-ups, a fault most box camera enthusiasts would be ashamed of. And lighting, such an important factor, was equally rudimentary." The critic did think "to a really dedicated viewer the play itself revealed many timely, interesting aspects of a migrant family's assimilation problems in Australia. But the dialogue is not brilliant, and such climaxes as there are attain little real force."[6]

Radio

The play was adapted for radio in 1963.[7]

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See also
  • List of television plays broadcast on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1960s)

References
  1. "Untitled". The Age. 12 April 1962. p. 15.
  2. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  3. "Young Star's Work". Sydney Morning Herald. 12 March 1962. p. 13.
  4. "In evening gown, she bottled peaches". The Australian Women's Weekly. 29 ([?]). Australia, Australia. 16 May 1962. p. 13. Retrieved 31 January 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "Drama Go Ahead with Six Australians with Ideas". The Age. 1 March 1962. p. 12.
  6. "Rhinoceros at Independent". Sydney Morning Herald. 3 May 1962. p. 10.
  7. "RADIO PROGRAMMES". The Canberra Times. 40 (11, 492). Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 11 June 1966. p. 12. Retrieved 15 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.


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