The Day (1914 film)

The Day
Sydney Morning Herald 6 November 1914
Directed byAlfred Rolfe[1]
Written byJohnson Weir
Based onpoem by Henry Chappell
Produced byArchie Fraser
Colin Fraser
Production
company
Release date
  • 11 November 1914 (1914-11-11)[1][2]
CountryAustralia
LanguagesSilent film
English intertitles

The Day is a 1914 Australian silent film directed by Alfred Rolfe.[3] It is a propaganda film about German brutality in Europe during World War I. It is considered a lost film.[4]

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."[5]

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.[4]

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.[6]

The Referee wrote that the film " is a theme patriotic from opening to end, and it promises to prove a crowded house magnet."[7]

References

  1. ^ a b "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. 6 November 1914. p. 2. Retrieved 20 February 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "THE DAY". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 November 1914. p. 11. Retrieved 29 March 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p 52
  5. ^ "PRODUCTION OF MOVING PICTURES-- IN AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA". Australian Town and Country Journal. Vol. XCVIII, no. 2555. New South Wales, Australia. 18 December 1918. p. 20. Retrieved 21 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "WORLD OF RECREATION". The Worker. Brisbane. 26 November 1914. p. 12. Retrieved 29 March 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "MOVING PICTURES". The Referee. Sydney. 11 November 1914. p. 15. Retrieved 21 February 2015 – via National Library of Australia.


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