Lee Robinson (director)

Lee Robinson (22 February 1923 – 22 September 2003) was an Australian producer, director and screenwriter who was Australia's most prolific filmmaker of the 1950s.

Robinson was born in Petersham and left school aged 12. He worked at the Daily Telegraph has a copy boy, and wrote short stories prior to the war. He first entered film as a member of the Australian Army History Unit where he filmed Australian troops in Rabaul and East Timor.

After the war he was going to work for the ABC as a scriptwriter when he received an offer to join the Australian Information Service film unit (later Film Australia) where he directed a film on Albert Namatjira called Namatjira the Painter (1946). Robinson made several films in the Northern Territory such as Outback Patrol, The Pearlers and Crocodile Hunters as well as a short film with actors in a studio called Double Trouble (1951). The high quality and Australian subject matter of these films led them to be released theatrically as support for main features.

Robinson had known actor Chips Rafferty from writing radio serials for him. Together with George Heath they formed a company called Platypus Productions with the goal of producing Australian films that Robinson would direct and Rafferty could appear in. The Australian Government put a £10,000 limit on any non-essential Australian company, forcing them to make their first film (1953) for that amount. The movie was a success, launching the career of Robinson discovery Victoria Shaw and Robinson found out that modestly made films with good advertising made their money back. He also felt that a film with an unconventional setting should have a conventional story line.

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