The Silence of Dean Maitland (1934 film)
| The Silence of Dean Maitland | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Ken G. Hall |
| Produced by | Ken G. Hall |
| Written by |
Gayne Dexter Edmund Barclay |
| Based on | play adapted from the novel by Maxwell Gray |
| Starring |
John Longden Jocelyn Howarth Bill Kerr |
| Music by | Hamilton Webber |
| Cinematography | Frank Hurley |
| Edited by | William Shepherd |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
British Empire Films (Australia) RKO (England) |
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Release date
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May 1934 (Australia) 1935 (UK) |
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Running time
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97 mins |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £10,000 |
| Box office | £33,000 (Aust) £40,000 (UK) |
The Silence of Dean Maitland is a 1934 Australian film directed by Ken G. Hall, and based on Maxwell Gray's novel of the same name. It was one of the most popular Australian movies of the 1930s.
Cyril Maitland is a clergyman living in a small seaside town, who impregnates the beautiful Alma Lee despite being engaged to another woman. When Alma's father Ben finds out about the pregnancy, he attacks Maitland and is killed in a fall. Mailtand's best friend, Doctor Henry Everard, gets the blame, and spends twenty years in jail while Maitland's career thrives.
The script was based on a play adapted from a popular novel by Maxwell Gray which had previously been filmed in 1914. The rights to the play were owned by a friend of Stuart F. Doyle's, Joe Lippmann. Hall and Doyle went to see a production of the play at the Rockdale Amateur Society and "ended up in a fit of controllable laughter." However Hall recognised that the basic structure of the piece was solid. He arranged for the play to be adapted into a screenplay by ABC radio writer Edmund Barclay and an old friend of Hall's Gayne Dexter
The film was meant to be Cinesound's follow up to On Our Selection but Hall had trouble finding appropriate actors to play the leads, and so made The Squatter's Daughter instead. Eventually, John Longden and Charlotte Francis, English actors touring Australia in a play, were cast. Jocelyn Howarth, who had leapt to fame in The Squatter's Daughter, was given a support role.
Longden was paid £60 a week, a relatively high fee for Australian films.
The movie was shot on location in Camden and at Cinesound's studios in Bondi. Filming took ten weeks.
Ken G. Hall ran into trouble with the censor over scenes where Charlotte Francis swims on the beach and later seduces the clergyman. However, Cinesound appealed and these scenes ended up staying in the final film. A brief shot in which Alma's towel slips while she is changing was removed.
Released on a double bill with the variety short Cinesound Varieties, the film was highly popular at the local box office and achieved release in England; in fact, Hall says box office receipts were higher in England than in Australia.
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