Outpost (1959 film)

Outpost
Produced by Christopher Muir
Written by John Cameron
Distributed by Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia)
CBS (USA)
Release date
 18 November 1959 (Melbourne) (live)
December 1959 (Sydney) (taping)
June 1961 (USA)
Running time
 60 mins
Country Australia
Language English

Outpost is a 1959 Australian TV play about Australian soldiers in New Guinea during World War Two. It was based on a script by John Cameron.[1]

Plot

During World War Two, five Australian soldiers are stranded in an isolated outpost in New Guinea. One of them, McCudden, is murdered.

Cast

  • Syd Conabere as Signaller Tiger Lyons
  • Keith Eden as Sergeant 'Happy' Adams
  • Paul Karo as Flight Sgt. Steve McCudden
  • Dennis Miller as Corporal Mitch Mitchell
  • John Morgan as Signaller Baron Peterswald

Production

John Cameron had been a sergeant in the Australian Army Signal Corps during World War Two. He served in New Guinea at Wanagila, where a secret airstrip was being made in preparation for an attack on Japanese-held Buna, 40 miles away.[2] He was working as a supervisor of facilities at the ABC in Victoria when he heard about the shortage of good TV scripts and decided to write his own. It took him eight weeks and he submitted it under a pen name, "John Alexander".[3] The identity of the writer surprised the ABC.[4]

The production was performed "live" in a Melbourne studio, with the exception of a jungle sequence, which was pre-recorded. It was the first TV performance for Dennis Miller. The director was Chris Muir, who had just filmed Albert Herring for the ABC.[5]

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald said:

The author makes no better than commonplace use of the clever idea... playwright and play could have been helped by clevered hints of the general heat malaise, crawling fear and eginess of jungle fighting from producer Christopher Muir, whose imagination never rose above neat routine. The cast performed creditably, powerful or rich playing being excluded for the most part by flat, everyday commonplace of the dialogue... Paul Karo's portrait... was much too overdone to be convincing, but there was much conviction in the performance of young and intense Denis Miller and sufficient conviction in the work of his more experienced co players.[6]

US Screening

The play was bought for screening in the US by CBS in 1961 along with another Australian play, The Scent of Fear.[3]

The New York Times wrote that "unfortunately Mr Cameron telegraphed his resolution early in the drama and also greviously overtaxed the element of coincidence. But the settings and direction were first rate."[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Men at Play: Masculinities in Australian Theatre Since the 1950s by Jonathan Bollen, Bruce Parr, Adrian Kiernander Rodopi, 2008 p98
  2. ↑ "Jungle Outpost". Sydney Morning Herald. 7 December 1959. p. 7.
  3. 1 2 "ABC Dramas". The Age. 1 June 1961. p. 12.
  4. ↑ "Identity of Author of TV play a surprise for the ABC". The Age. 10 September 1959.
  5. ↑ "From comic opera to tense jungle drama". The Age. 22 October 1959.
  6. ↑ "Live Play on ABC", Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December 1959 p 17
  7. ↑ TV: A Situation Series: Wayne and Shuster Are Seen in 'Holiday Lodge,' Replacement for Jack Benny By JACK GOULD. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 26 June 1961: 51.
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