Journey Out of Darkness

Journey Out of Darkness is a 1967 Australian film.

Journey Out of Darkness
Directed byJames Trainor
Written byHoward E. Koch
James Trainor
Produced byFrank Brittain
StarringKonrad Matthaei
Ed Devereaux
Kamahl
CinematographyAndrew Fraser
Edited byBronwyn Fackerell
James Trainor
Music byBob Young
Production
company
Australian-American Pictures
Distributed byBritish Empire Films
Release date
  • October 1967 (1967-10)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

Plot

In 1901, trooper Peterson is sent to the Australian Outback to arrest an aboriginal man responsible for a ritual killing. He is accompanied by blacktracker Jubbal.

On the way back Jubbal is killed, and Peterson and the prisoner form a relationship.

Cast
  • Konrad Matthaei as Peterson
  • Ed Devereaux as Jubbal
  • Kamahl as prisoner
  • Ron Morse as Sergeant Miller
  • Marie Clark as Mrs Miller
  • Betty Campbell as Jubbal's wife
  • John Campbell as first child
  • Don Campbell as second child
  • Julie Williams as aboriginal girl
  • Nukitjilpi as chief
  • Roy Dadaynga as tribesman
  • the Arnhem Land Dancers from the Yirrkala Mission

Production

Director James Trainor had worked at the Commonwealth Film Unit and worked in the United States as a documentary director. He wrote the script with his father-in-law, noted Hollywood screenwriter Howard E. Koch.[1] Konrad Matthaei agreed to help finance the film if he was allowed to play the lead role.[2]

Kamahl a popular singer from Sri Lanka who had emigrated to Australia was cast in a lead role.[3]

White actor Ed Devereaux was cast as an Aboriginal. "If the producers had had the time they undoubtedly would have cast about for an Aboriginal actor," said Devereaux. "But they had to have a man with experience, for there could be no delay - we shot this film fast and furious."[4]

Filming began in January 1967 and took place in outback Australia and at the studios of Supreme Sound. Location filming took six weeks.[5]

Release

The film had its world premiere in Canberra at a screening that was attended by the Governor General Lord Casey and the Prime Minister Harold Holt (it was one of the last functions attended by Holt prior to his drowning).[6] However its commercial response was disappointing.[1]

Filmink magazine later wrote "It has its heart in the right place, albeit in a ‘50s Hollywood liberal way...but is fatally compromised by the casting of Sri Lankan Kamahl and white Ed Devereaux in blackface as aboriginals, not to mention Konrad Matthaei being simply dull in the lead. The film’s main problem is structural – there is no urgency in the trip and nothing interesting happens on the way. Once you stop laughing at Devereaux, it’s just boring."[7]

See also

References
  1. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 239-240.
  2. Richard Kuipers, Journey Out of Darkness at Australian Screen Online
  3. "THEY MARRIED IN AUSTRALIA". The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia. 11 October 1967. p. 2. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
  4. O'Neill, Josephine (3 December 1967). "How and actor went native..." Sydney Morning Herald. p. 107.
  5. "ANGRY FANS PROTEST ABOUT "THE PLANE MAKERS"". The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia. 15 March 1967. p. 17. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
  6. David Stratton, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, Angus & Robertson, 1980 p5
  7. Vagg, Stephen (July 24, 2019). "50 Meat Pie Westerns". Filmink.
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