Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company. Established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union Theatres that covered all facets of the film process, from production to distribution and exhibition. Cinesound Productions established a film studio as a subsidiary of Greater Union Theatres Pty Ltd based on the Hollywood model. The first production was On Our Selection (1932), which was an enormous financial success.
Establishment
Stuart F. Doyle and Ken G. Hall were the major figures involved in the establishment of Cinesound in 1931.UNESCO HONOURS CINESOUND MOVIETONE PRODUCTIONS – Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (Australia Section) Stuart Doyle was the Managing Director of Greater Union Theatres, which stemmed from Australasian Films, and it was his desire to encourage an Australian film industry that provided the impetus for Cinesound to develop. Doyle appointed his then personal assistant, Ken Hall, to the position of General Manager of Cinesound, and also put him in charge as supervisor of production. In this role, Ken Hall directed all but one of the seventeen films that Cinesound produced and also handled the business affairs of the company. Hall continued to lead Cinesound until 1956.Ken G Hall Award goes to the late Tom Nurse – Australian Film Commission News & Events. 27 November 2003.
By 1934, Cinesound had three film studios in Australia, the original location at Bondi Junction and Rushcutters Bay in New South Wales and St. Kilda, Victoria. The Centennial Roller Skating Rink was purchased by Australasian Films/Union Theatres at 65 Ebley Street Bondi Junction in 1925 and began making silent films. The income from the rink was still required to subsidise the film making so the site was used by skaters at night and for filmmaking by day. The Bondi Junction location was known as Studio no. 1 with an additional two studios located in Rushcutters Bay and St. Kilda. Both Doyle and Hall were very committed to the notion of showmanship, which encompassed ideas relating to the type of entertainment the public would want to enjoy, and how to effectively publicise that entertainment to the masses. The publicity campaign for The Squatter's Daughter, and its star Jocelyn Howarth, was particularly imbued with this concept. They were also interested in creating a star system along Hollywood lines promoting the idea that Cinesound was a "little Hollywood". It was this dedication to showmanship that led to all but one of Cinesound's feature films making a profit from the first release, and all of the films eventually at least broke even. In 1939 Hall said that the budgets of Cinesound films were usually between £10,000 and £20,000, and estimated that his first fourteen films had earned £350,000 at the box office.'KEN HALL SAYS A WORD FOR AUSTRALIAN FILMS', The Courier-Mail (Brisbane) Thursday 13 July 1939 Section: Second Section. p 6
Corporate history In 1933 Doyle announced he hoped to make 16 films at their various studios over the next 18 months. This never happened although the success of On Our Selection (1932) and The Squatter's Daughter (1933), along with the proposed introduction of quotas for Australian films in the mid-1930s, saw Cinesound become bullish about expansion. They increased the size of their studio to make Strike Me Lucky (1934), and announced a series of future productions, including Grandad Rudd and an adaptation of the novel Robbery Under Arms, as well as several films produced in Queensland over the next two years, one set in the cattle industry, another in the cane fields and a third on the Great Barrier Reef. It was proposed Cinesound would make 12 movies a year in the first year of the quota: four "super productions", four "quota specials", and four independent Cinesound productions.'QUEENSLAND FILMS Production Planned', The Courier-Mail (Brisbane), Monday 6 August 1934 p 20 There was also talk of establishing a studio in Melbourne at St Kilda.'AUSTRALIAN FILMS Company Increases Equipment', Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), Thursday 9 August 1934 Edition: HOME EDITION p 5
In 1936 they announced they would make six films a year, with one unit devoted to shooting outdoor movies."SIX FEATURE FILMS EACH YEAR." The Argus (Melbourne) 20 November 1936: 11 accessed 29 November 2011
In the end the quotas did not prove effective enough to support such a program, although Cinesound kept making movies until 1940.
Profitability Year Date Profit Notes1933 30 June £4,010 Enormously successful release of On Our Selection1934 30 June £8,800 Continued receipts from On Our Selection plus successful release of The Squatter's Daughter1935 30 June £4,220 Successful release of The Silence of Dean Maitland followed by box office disappointment of Strike Me Lucky, and popularity of Grandad Rudd. Cinesound stops production for six months to enable Ken G. Hall to study production methods in Hollywood.'UNION THEATRES PROFITS AND PROSPECTS DETAILS OF ORGANISATION', The Argus (Melbourne), Saturday 6 July 1935 p 201936 Release of Thoroughbred. Stuart Doyle announces Cinesound's films will earn 60% of their money in Australia and New Zealand, and 40% in England."AUSTRALIAN FILMS." Examiner (Launceston) 20 November 1936 7 Edition: DAILY accessed 15 December 20111937 Loss of £5,254'FILM FINANCES', Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld), Thursday 6 January 1938 p 3 All of Greater Union's divisions suffered a loss during this period. In June 1937 Stuart Doyle resigns.1937 31 December £2,788 Profits earned for a six-month period,'AMALGAMATED PICTURES. Results of Operating Companies', The Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 28 July 1938 p 8 partly from It Isn't Done and Tall Timbers.1938 2 July £7,647 Cinesound was affected by an amendment to the Cinematograph Films Act 1938 British film legislation which meant that Australian films no longer counted as "British" under the local quota. This saw the loss of a guaranteed market for Cinesound films, which normally sold for £6,500 – £7,500 to Britain, and forced the studio to make more broad-based comedies.'GREATER UNION GROUP Half-year's Profit', The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 4 January 1939 p 101938 31 December £10,010"GREATER UNION GROUP." The Argus (Melbourne) 30 Apr 1941: 2 accessed 12 December 2011 Successful release of Let George Do It and Dad and Dave Come to Town.1939 £936 1940 £2,821 Last Cinesound feature film produced, Dad Rudd, MP.1941 £1,242 1942 £5,018'GREATER UNION Net Profit Increase', The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 25 August 1943 p 5 1943 £4,973"Finance, Commerce and Markets GREATER UNION GROW." The Sydney Morning Herald 30 Aug 1944: 5 accessed 12 December 2011 1944 31 December £7,223"Greater Union Results Best To Date." The Sydney Morning Herald 29 Aug 1947: 6 accessed 12 December 2011 1945 31 December £1,392 1946 31 December £1,433"RECORD PROFITS FROM PICTURES." The Canberra Times 29 Aug 1947: 4 accessed 12 December 2011 1947 31 December £6,012"GTR. UNION PROFIT." The Sydney Morning Herald 27 Aug 1948: 5 accessed 12 December 2011 1948 31 December £3,355"Film Group's Steady Net Profit." The Sydney Morning Herald 7 Sep 1949: 6 accessed 12 December 2011
In February 1939 a company was registered, Cinesound Features Pty. Ltd., a subsidiary of Cinesound Productions Pty. Ltd, to produce the feature productions of the parent company. The directors of the new company were the same as Cinesound Productions: Norman Rydge, Edwin Geach, and John Goulston.'Cinesound Features', The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 14 February 1939 p8
Talent school Cinesound established a talent school for young actors in 1938. Run by George Cross and Alec Kellaway (who acted in many Cinesound films), it offered training in "deportment, enunciation, miming, microphone technique and limbering." By 1940 the school had had over 200 students, including Grant Taylor and Yvonne East, who featured in Dad Rudd, MP (1940), plus Valerie Scanlon, Lorna Westbrook, Natalie Raine, and Mary Sinclair.'Australians Seek Fame, 200 in Starlet School' Sunday Times (Perth), Sunday 30 June 1940 p6
1940s Cinesound Productions produced feature films until the Second World War, when it was considered that feature films were too great a financial risk to undertake. Cinesound then concentrated on producing the Cinesound Review, a newsreel that they had been generating to exhibit alongside their feature films.
After the war, the British businessman J. Arthur Rank bought a controlling interest in Greater Union, and used the theatre chain primarily to exhibit British films, including those from the Rank Organisation, whilst discouraging local feature production. Hence Cinesound never regained its place as a major local film producer, and Australian film production was almost non-existent for the next two decades.
In 1940 the Australian Government decided to channel news footage to the public through the existing newsreel companies, Cinesound and Movietone. In the same year Cinesound abandoned feature production for the duration of the war.'NO MORE FEATURE FILMS. Cinesound Decision', The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 28 June 1940 p 9 By this stage it was estimated Cinesound films had earned £400,000 at the box office.'THE TRAGEDY OF CINESOUND'S STRUGGLE A Brave Rearguard Action-Fought Over 10 Years Has Ended Because the Odds Were Too Great', The Argus (Melbourne), Saturday 13 July 1940 Supplement: The Argus Week-end Magazine p 2
In 1942 Cinesound provided the operational base for the film unit of the US Signal Corps to prepare newsreels for viewing to American troops in the South West Pacific theatre of the war.
In 1946 arrangements were made with the commercial film distribution companies to distribute selected Commonwealth Film Unit productions in Australian cinemas on a commercial basis. Similar arrangements existed for the release of general sponsored documentaries produced by Movietone and Cinesound.
Other Australian producers were almost totally deprived of access to commercial cinema screens.
Despite the success of Ken G Hall's last feature, Smithy (1946), which was backed by Columbia Pictures as a means of repatriating frozen currency held in Australia due to wartime restrictions, Greater Union Theatres decided not to resume post-war production through Cinesound.
Feature films On Our Selection (1932) The Squatter's Daughter (1933) The Silence of Dean Maitland (1934) Strike Me Lucky (1934) Grandad Rudd (1935) Thoroughbred (1936) Orphan of the Wilderness (1936) It Isn't Done (1937) Tall Timbers (1937) Lovers and Luggers (1937) The Broken Melody (1938) Let George Do It (1938) Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938) Gone to the Dogs (1939) Come Up Smiling (1939) Mr. Chedworth Steps Out (1939) Dad Rudd, MP (1940)
Short films Thar She Blows! (1931) That's Cricket (1931) Cinesound Review (weekly newsreel) (1931–1975) Cinesound Varieties (1934) 100,000 Cobbers (1942) South West Pacific (1943)
Unmade films Various films were announced for production by Cinesound that were not made, including: a talking version of For the Term of His Natural Life, which was previously filmed by Australasian Films in 1927"AUSTRALIAN FILMS" The West Australian (Perth) 20 Feb 1933: 8, accessed 7 December 2011 Con of the South Seas based on a novel by Beatrice Grimshaw, which had been previously filmed by Australasian Films as The Adorable Outcast (1928) a remake of The Pioneers (1926) which had been made by Australasian a remake of Tall Timber (1926) a remake of The Fatal Wedding (1911)"AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTIONS" The West Australian (Perth) 14 Jul 1933: 2 accessed 15 December 2011 Rudd's New Selection, a sequel to On Our Selection Big Timber from a script by Edmond Seward from the novel by William Hatfield – It is likely this project was bumped for Tall Timbers (1937)