The Tide of Death

The film is set in Australia's past.[5] It opens with a young mining contractor, Philip Maxwell, blowing up a rock at a mining site. He then rides on horseback to the bank to get wages for his crew. "The Lizard", a camp loafer, learns about this and informs Black Dan Bryce, who decides to rob Philip with his gang. This is overheard by Dan's step daughter Sylvia, who rides for help.

The saddle bag containing the money is secured by one of Dan's gang, who is overpowered by Philip. He manages to conceal the money just before he is captured by Dan and refuses to say where it is. The gang suspect Sylvia of being an informant and knock her down; she recovers in time to see Philip being taken away, then finds Philip's horse and rides for help.

Dan tries to get Philip to talk by tying him to a stake in the middle of a rising tidal creek, while Sylvia manages to alert Philip's mining crew. The water is rising to Philip's chin when Sylvia arrives on horseback, dashes into the creek, stems the tide and cuts Philip free.

Two years later Philip and Sylvia are married and have a baby, Edna, when Philip gets an urgent telegram from home. While he is away, their house is burgled by Dan and his old gang, who recognise Sylvia and kidnap her to get revenge. They take her away to a hut and make her their servant.

Unable to find any trace of his wife, Philip thinks she has left him, so he sells his property and goes abroad with Edna. Black Dan's gang argue amongst themselves, causing a fire at the hut, enabling Sylvia to escape. When she returns home, she finds her house abandoned and Philip and her child gone. She goes to a convent where the sisters nurse her through an illness. She later becomes an assistant teacher at Spencerville Private School.

Three years later Philip and Edna return to Australia. Edna loses a trinket, which one of the school children find and return to Sylvia. She advertises it and Edna's nurse draws Philip's attention to it. He and Edna visit the school and are reunited with Sylvia[6][7][8]

• Lottie Lyell as Sylvia Grey[9]
• Augustus Neville as Philip Maxwell
• Frank Harcourt as Black Dan Bryce
• Bert Harvey as Dan gang member
• DL Dalziel as Dan gang member
• D Sweeney as Dan gang member
• G Flinn as bushman
• Fred Twitcham as bushman
• Arthur Steel as bushman
• Joe Hamilton as Mat Davis
• Lois Cumming as Jenny
• Little Annie Gentile as Little Edna
• Arno the horse

The film was shot in and around Sydney[10] using many of the cast who had appeared in Longford's earlier movies.

Advertising said the film was "an original picture suggested and worked on by one of Spencer's staff, played by artists of their own selection, and photographed by their own operators, who have acquired a reputation for turning out the best cinematograph work in the commonwealth."[11]

• The Tide of Death at IMDb
• The Tide of Death at National Film and Sound Archive
• The Tide of Death at AustLit