The Day is a 1914 Australian silent film directed by Alfred Rolfe.Vagg, S., & Reynaud, D. (2016). Alfred Rolfe: Forgotten pioneer Australian film director. Studies in Australasian Cinema, 10(2),184-198. doi:10.1080/17503175.2016.1170950 It is a propaganda film about German brutality in Europe during World War I. It is considered a lost film.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p 52
Archie Fraser, who produced, called it "Der Tag, a little one-act scene, to be played whilst the celebrated poem by the English railway porter on The Day was being recited."
Production The Fraser brothers were two distributors and exhibitors who occasionally dabbled in production. They had just made a number of films with Raymond Longford but he had left and Alfred Rolfe became their in-house director instead.
The script was adapted from a popular poem by railway porter Henry Chappell. The screenplay was written by actor Johnson Weir. Weir would recite the poem during screenings.
Actor Jame Martin played a Belgian civilian attacked by two German soldiers. During filming he was struck by a bayonet and had to be treated at St Vincents Hospital.
The Referee wrote that the film " is a theme patriotic from opening to end, and it promises to prove a crowded house magnet."
References
External links
The Day at National Film and Sound Archive Text of the poem by Henry Chappell The Day at AustLit