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Tribute to Great Australians of Screen and Sound

Charles Chauvel (1897-1959)

Biography

In 1897 Charles Chauvel was born into a grazier's family in outback Queensland. Although the family was comfortably off, the children were expected to earn their keep, including rising at 3am to milk the cows. At an early age, Chauvel learned that when you want something done you do it yourself. Growing up on an outback property self reliance was the key to survival. Just prior to the 1920s the Australian film industry was taking off in Sydney and young Charles was enthralled by it all. When Snowy Baker was signed by EJ Carroll Productions to make a series of films, Charles, who had made Baker's acquaintance, saw his opportunity and hounded him for a job. 'Where in the world could you fit in young man?' was the reply, but Baker relented. Chauvel joined the production unit as a driver, horse wrangler and bit player. When Baker went to America, Charles booked a passage on the next ship out.

In Hollywood Charles' life was far from glamorous. He refused to write home for help, absolutely determined to make it on his own. With hundreds of other hopefuls he found work where he could – as Snowy Baker's whip-cracking stooge, as a lighting technician, an extra, a stunt double, a publicist for Douglas Fairbanks and he even tried door-to-door sales. All the while he was keeping his eyes peeled and picking up the tricks of the trade.

L-R: Charles and Elsa Chauvel

He returned home in 1923 convinced that Australia was the place to make movies. At only 25 years of age, he produced and directed two silent films, Moth of Moonbi (1926) and Greenhide (1926), and made his name as an Australian producer and director. He met his wife Elsie Sylvaney, at the start of Greenhide and formed a life-long partnership with her. Elsie became known as Elsa when they married. They had a daughter, Susanne, and she travelled with them on many of their journeys. Elsa's role in his films was as a self proclaimed 'Girl Friday' but she did much more than she is credited for. She worked with Charles on all his scripts, researched and designed costumes, was a make up artist, kept continuity and held a myriad of other jobs, including assistant producer and director.

Chauvel went on to make seven more feature films, five short documentaries and a thirteen-part television series. He also worked on other people's films in varying capacities. Charles' desire to create an accomplished Australian film industry saw the Chauvels travel to Hollywood to update their skills, so as to train Australian production crews. He also started a school for script writing, The Chauvel School of Scenario Writing.

L-R: Charles Chauvel, Elsa Chauvel
and Grant Taylor; on location for
Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940)

Inspired while in the USA to work on a story that could only be told in Australia by Australians, Chauvel began work on Jedda in 1955. The result is a film that tells the story of an Aboriginal girl who is adopted and raised by a white family on a Northern Territory cattle station. As a young woman Jedda (Ngarla Kunoth), is drawn to Marbuck (Robert Tudawali), an Aboriginal man who arrives at the station seeking work. Marbuck takes her captive but is rejected by his tribe for breaking marriage taboos. Jedda is caught between two worlds, belonging to neither.

Glass advertising slide used in cinema to advertise 'Jedda'

Jedda was the first colour narrative fiction feature by an Australian company. It was shot in central and northern Australia under very difficult climatic conditions. During shooting, the sensitive colour film was submerged in rivers and stored in caves to protect it from the heat. Jedda premiered on 3 January 1955 at the Star Theatre, Darwin and was praised for its visual splendour and script. It achieved considerable commercial success and was released in England in 1956 and America in 1957. Conveying a sense of what white Australians thought of Aborigines in the 1950s rather than the life experiences of Aborigines themselves, Jedda is nonetheless an extraordinary film. It explores the dreamlike 'internal world' through the character of Jedda, which is dramatically enhanced by Carl Keyser's colour cinematography.

In 1959, after finishing the Australian Walkabout series for the BBC, Chauvel was to embark on a new film, Wards of the Outer March, from the book by Katherine Glasson. While making preparations to begin the film Chauvel suffered a heart attack and died. His unexpected death shocked the film industry. It had just lost one of its most successful film makers and one of it most ardent supporters.

'The only way we can give an Australian picture an international appeal is to make it Australian' - Chauvel at the 1927 Royal Commission into the Australian film industry.

Photographs from the National Film and Sound Archive's Documentation Collection courtesy of Susanne Carlsson at the H.C. McIntyre Trust, c/- Curtis Brown (Aust) Pty Ltd.

Filmography

1920

Robbery Under Arms – minor acting role

1920

Shadow of Lightning Ridge – minor acting role

1920

Jackeroo of Coolabong – minor acting role

1921

Fly By Night (USA) – minor acting role

1922

The Man from the Desert (USA) - minor acting role

1922

Strangers of the night (USA) – minor acting role

1926

Moth of Moonbi – producer, director and scriptwriter

1926

Greenhide – producer, director and scriptwriter

1933

In the Wake of the Bounty – producer, director and scriptwriter

1925

Heritage – producer, director and scriptwriter

1936

Uncivilised – producer, director and scriptwriter

1936

Rangle River – script adaptation
(co-writer with Elsa Chauvel)

1937

Screen Test – producer and director

1940

Forty Thousand Horsemen – producer, director and scriptwriter
(co-writer with Elsa Chauvel)

1942

Soldiers Without Uniform – producer and director

1942

Power to Win – Producer, director and scriptwriter

1943

A Mountain Goes to Sea – producer, director and scriptwriter

1943

While there is still time – producer and director

1943

Russia Aflame – producer and director

1944

The Rats of Tobruk – producer, director and scriptwriter
(co-writer with Elsa Chauvel)

1949

Sons of Matthew – producer, director and scriptwriter
(co-writer with Elsa Chauvel and Maxwell Dunn)

1951

Making Films – cast

1955

Jedda – producer, director and scriptwriter
(co-writer with Elsa Chauvel)

1956-57

Walkabout Series – producer and director

Information compiled in these profiles has been drawn from the following references - all of which are held in the National Film and Sound Archive's Library and Research Centre in Canberra:

Credits

A Century of Australian Cinema (1995), Ed J Sabine
An Encyclopaedia of Australian Film (1984), John Stewart, Reed Books Pty Ltd
Australian Cinema (1994), Ed Scott Murray
Australian Cinema, The First Eighty Years (1983), Graham Shirley and Brian Adams
Australian Film 1978-1994 (1995), Ed Scott Murray
Australian Film, 1900-1977: a guide to feature film production (1980), Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Oxford University Press Australia
Australian Film: a bibliography (1997), Brian Reis, Mansell Publishing Ltd
Australian Film: The Inside Story (1977), Ken G Hall
Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, The (1990), David Stratton, Pan McMillan Publishers
Cinema in Australia: A Documentary History (1989, Ed Ina Bertrand
Featuring Australia: The Cinema of Charles Chauvel (1991), S Cunningham
My Life with Charles Chauvel (1973), E Chauvel
Oxford Australian Film 1978 – 1994 (1995), Ed Scott Murray, Oxford University Press Australia
Oxford Companion to Australian Film, The (1999), Brian McFarlane, Geoff Mayer, Ina Bertrand, Scott Murray, Oxford University Press

Further information on other Australians of Screen & Sound can be found at:

Screen Bibliographies
BIBLIOZ is an ongoing project to develop web bibliographies on Australian screen topics. The subjects of the bibliographies reflect local and international interest in those Australian films, filmmakers and cultural issues which have shaped the current industry. Published by the Australian Film Institute.