A Son Is Born is a 1946 Australian melodrama directed by Eric Porter and starring Ron Randell, Peter Finch, John McCallum and Muriel Steinbeck. It was one of the few films made in Australia in the 1940s. Filmink called it modestly budgeted and scheduled, unpretentious movie made with skill that showcased some exciting stars, deployed a common genre with a strongly Australian setting, found an appreciative audience, and made a profit. It offered a perhaps more realistic financial model for local filmmakers than The Overlanders or Smithy''', two other films that came out the same year.
The movie is particularly notable for featuring Randell, Finch and McCallum before they moved overseas and became stars in the United States and Britain respectively.
Synopsis In 1920, Laurette marries an irresponsible drifter, Paul Graham. They have a son, David, but later divorce due to Paul's drinking and infidelities when David is thirteen. David chooses to stay with his father and Laurette marries again, this time to John, a rich businessman with a teenaged daughter, Kay.
Years later, Paul is killed in a car accident and David comes to live with his mother, John and Kay. To get revenge on his mother for "abandoning" his father, David seduces Kay into marriage and abandons her, but realises the error of his ways serving in New Guinea during World War II. He is injured in battle but survives to be reunited with Kay, Laurette and John.
Cast Muriel Steinbeck as Laurette Graham Ron Randell as David Graham Peter Finch as Paul Graham John McCallum as John Seldon Jane Holland as Kay Seldon Kitty Bluett as Phyllis Peter Dunstan as David Graham as a boy
Production Development Eric Porter was a cartoonist and ran his own studio. Gloria Bourner was one of his employees. Bourner wrote the script and Porter storyboarded the entire film prior to filming, which was announced in September 1944."Sydney to Make Unusual Film." The Mail (Adelaide, SA) 2 Sep 1944: 16, retrieved 12 December 2011
Porter put up half the budget himself, with the balance coming from Charles Munro and some private investors.Ken G. Hall, Directed by Ken G. Hall: Autobiography of an Australian Filmmaker, Lansdowne Press, 1977 p176 The budget was a reported £10,000.
Casting Peter Finch, Ron Randell, Muriel Steinbeck and John McCallum were all well established actors when the film was made.
Jane Holland was a 22-year-old radio actor who later moved to England and married Leo McKern."Studio's tribute to Sydney girl" The Australian Women's Weekly 11 May 1946: 28, retrieved 12 December 2011
Kitty Bluett was a musical comedy star, the daughter of comedian Fred Bluett."A Grand Little Trouper" The Advocate (Burnie, Tas) 14 November 1947: 7 Retrieved 12 December 2011
Shooting The film was shot in the Supreme Sound System studio in late 1944. This was a small one-room studio based in North Sydney.
Filming was scheduled to allow the actors to take radio and stage jobs, and sometimes would start at midnight."Film Producer Gazes & Thinks" Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld) 2 October 1946: 4, retrieved 12 December 2011
War footage shot by Damien Parer is used in the New Guinea sequences.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 203.
The pool and garden scenes were filmed at Meadow Lea house in Sydney.
Release The movie was shot prior to Smithy (1946), also starring Randell and Steinbeck, but its release was held off until after that bigger budget movie to take advantage of its publicity.
Ron Randell was mobbed by female fans at the film's premiere."Fans Mob Actor At Australian Film Premiere." The Sydney Morning Herald 21 Sep 1946: 4, retrieved 12 December 2011
In July 1946 Ealing Studios - who had made The Overlanders in Australia, and who had signed John McCallum to a long-term contract - bought the film for release in Britain. Reception Critical Critical response was mixed, many comparing the film unfavourably with Smithy."New Films Reviewed" The Sydney Morning Herald 23 Sep 1946: 5, retrieved 12 December 2011
Reviewer Stephen Vagg later wrote in Filmink that "this is a perfectly fine soapie, with Steinbeck suffering and smiling through the tears. She has beauty and charisma and holds her own against three men who would all become major names." Vagg characterised Randell's performance as "charismatic, vicious, cruel... a great performance... [that] established Randell as a force to watch."
Box office Eric Porter later claimed the film at a six week run at the Victory Theatre in Sydney and that it made £27,000 at the Australian box office and £3,000 at the British box office. He also said that he sold it to television in America, Europe and Britain but he had trouble selling it to Australian television.
Storm Hill In September 1946 Porter announced he would make another feature, Storm Hill'', based on a script by Bourner and Richard Lane, starring Peter Finch, with Ron Randell as assistant director. However the movie was never made.
References
External links
at National Film and Sound Archive Complete copy of script at National Archives of Australia A Son is Born at Oz Movies