Directed by Dunstan Webb Based on story by Louis Esson Initial release 1926 Screenplay Dunstan Webb Production company Australasian Films | Written by Dunstan Webb Distributed by Union Theatres Director Dunstan Webb Story by Louis Esson Cinematography Lacey Percival | |
Starring Eden Landeryou
Billie Sim Production
company Australasian Films
A Master Picture Similar Tall Timbers, The Man from Snowy Ri, Desert Gold, Robbery Under Arms | ||
Tall Timber is a 1926 Australian silent film about a rich man who flees the city and works in a timber mill. It is considered a lost film.
Contents
Oswald tall timber 1928
Synopsis
Jack Maxwell, a young ne'er-do-well, is disowned by his wealthy father after a raucous party, and goes to work at a mill in the North Coast timber district owned by his friend Dick Desmond.
He falls in love with Betty Manning, the daughter of the widow who cooks for the workers, and clashes with Steve Black, the ganger of the mill who is behind a spate of timber robberies, who also loves Betty.
A sundowner arrives in camp and shoots Steve in revenge for seducing the sundowner's wife years ago. He also reveals Steve has been blackmailing Dick's father for a murder for which he can now b e proved innocent.
Jack saves the mill from a robbery and is offered a partnership from Desmond.
Cast
Production
The film was directed by the actor Dunstan Webb, who later also made The Grey Glove for Australasian Films. At one stage he was also mentioned as a possible director of For the Term of His Natural Life (1927), but he wound up just appearing in it as an actor.
It was shot on location on the New South Wales coast in Langley Vale and in studios at Sydney.
There are some reports Raymond Longford worked on the movie as director but this does not seem to be true.
Titles for the film were written by Sydney journalist Jim Donald.
Bille Sim was a New Zealand actor.
Release
The movie was the only film made by Australasian Films from 1925-27 to receive a cinema release in England.
In 1937, Cinesound Productions, the company that followed Australasian Films under the Greater Union banner, made a movie set in the timber industry called Tall Timbers. It was directed by Ken G. Hall who claimed he had never seen the 1926 Tall Timber.