Red Sky at Morning (1944 film)
| Red Sky at Morning | |
|---|---|
Cast of the film
|
|
| Directed by | Hartney Arthur |
| Written by | Hartney Arthur |
| Based on | a play by Dymphna Cusack |
| Starring |
Peter Finch John Alden |
| Cinematography |
Rupert Kathner Bob Gould |
| Edited by |
Alex Ezard Ross Wood |
|
Production
company |
|
| Distributed by | Carlyle Pictures (UK) Ray Rushmer (1948 Australia) |
|
Release date
|
1944 |
|
Running time
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4,500 feet 48 min. (UK version) 55 min. (1948 Australian version) |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Red Sky at Morning | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Dymphna Cusack |
| Date premiered | 1935 |
| Place premiered | Sydney Player's Club |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | melodrama |
| Setting | Sydney |
Red Sky at Morning is a 1944 Australian melodrama set during the 19th century. It features an early screen performance by Peter Finch, who plays a convict who falls in love with the wife of a sea captain.
In 1812 Australia, Alicia Farley flees from her sadistic husband, Captain Farley. During a storm, she takes refuge in an inn in Parramatta and forms a relationship with Irish rebel Michael. Captain Farley tracks her down but she manages to escape with Michael and they both leave the country.
The script was adapted from a play by Dymphna Cusack which had been first performed at Sydney Player's Club in September 1935 and adapted for radio in 1938. It was later revived in 1939.
The play was one of the few Australian plays to be published during World War II. It was often produced on radio and in amateur theatres during the subsequent years.
Noted critic Leslie Rees wrote of the play that:
An undertone of passionate resentment against injustice and coercion is heard, but there is also a mannered wit and an acute realisation of character, a clear-cut picture of the times. It is a play of style. Against these considerable merits must be men tioned a sparseness of action, especially the failure to satisfy expectations in the second act. However, the texture of the speech in this play is so fine, the quality of compassion so moving, that such a fault does not, to my mind at any rate, become paramount. To play a curtain-raiser in the same programme would help conceal the deficiency.
The film was mostly shot at Rupert Kathner's small studio in North Sydney during mid 1943, with some exteriors in Windsor and Mulgoa.
In 1944 the film was rejected for registration under the quality clause of the New South Wales Film Quota Act and it only received sporadic distribution.
In 1948 a 48-minute version of the film was screened in England by the distributor Carlyle Pictures, and received bad reviews. Kinematograph Weekly called the movie:
Heavy and vague in plot, badly acted, crudely dialogued and staged with touching economy, it fails utterly to justify its lengthy journey from 'Down Under.' And that's putting it mildly... Peter Finch, Jean McAllister, and John Alden... all exaggerate. The supporting players are, if possible, even worse... The time of the play is 1812, and the locale is Australian, but little else is clear. Incredibly old-fashioned and in articulate, it gets many unintentional laughs and might easily be mistaken for burlesque and parody.
The Monthly Film Bulletin called it:
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