Hills of Hate (1926 film)

A feud exists between two outback families, the Blakes and the Ridgeways, caused by Sam Ridgeway having married a woman Jim Blake was in love with. The feud goes on for over thirty years.

Blake's eldest son, also called Jim (Gordon Collingridge) returns from being away for ten years and falls in love with Ridgeway's daughter Ellen (Dorothy Gordon). Matters are complicated by Sam Ridgeway's villainous overseer, Cummins (Big Bill Wilson).

• Dorothy Gordon as Ellen Ridgeway
• Gordon Collingridge as Jim Blake
• Big Bill Wilson as Black Joe Cummins
• Clifford Toone as Jim Blake Snr
• Kathleen Wilson as Peggy Blake
• Stanley Lonsdale as Stanley Ridgeway

E. V. Timms' original novel was published in 1925. It was Timms' first novel although he had sold short stories; he wrote it with the encouragement of his wife.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248702752 |title=He makes novels out of our history |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |volume=XVI |issue=240 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=29 December 1951 |access-date=10 March 2024 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The Bulletin called it "A virile Australian story, though rough-cut and without pretence to literary quality."{{cite magazine|page=5|magazine=The Bulletin|title=A Satchel of Books|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-633413405|date=8 November 1925}}

File:Hills_of_Hate_still.png

Master Pictures bought the screen rights in January 1926 and Timms was hired to write the script. Everyone's said it "presents a new type of Australian character set amid the wide open spaces, and should make an excellent photoplay. " {{cite magazine|magazine=Everyones|title=Master Pictures Buy Screen Rights of Australian Novel |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-574611048| page=8|date=13 January 1926}}

The studio would make it after two other outdoors adventures, The Pioneers and Tall Timber. Raymond Longford, who directed both Pioneers and Hills of Hate later said at the 1927 Royal Commission that both films "were selected by the directors of the combine; they were produced at an inadequate expense and in many cases the cast was chosen despite my protests. During the filming of these pictures I recognised that these pictures were absurdly cheap and inadequate to secure even an English market."{{cite magazine|magazine=Everyones|date=30 November 1927|page=7|title= "If Anyone Hampers Industry, We'll Get Him!"-|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-578926683}}

The films stars were Dorothy Gordon and Gordon Collingridge, who Everyones said was "well known to fans" having "established himself by his remarkable work opposite Lotus Thompson and now as a leading man he is greatly in demand."{{Cite magazine|magazine=Everyones|page=52|date=22 September 1926|title=Australian Novel Locally Filmed |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-579080623}} Kevin Gallagher was a recent arrival from Ireland.{{cite magazine|magazine=Everyones|title=Australian Film Actors on Location|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-577676569|date=31 March 1926|page=18}} Gordon had worked in Hollywood for six years and did art direction on For the Term of His Natural Life (1927).[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article40558340 "BRAINS AND BEAUTY." Cairns Post 20 Jul 1926: 9] accessed 7 December 2011 She and later became a radio commentator and newspaper columnist under the name of Andrea.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55189497 "ANDREA: Darlings l've had a ball!."] The Australian Women's Weekly 8 October 1975: 67 accessed 7 December 2011[http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/jenner-dorothy-hetty-fosbury-andrea-12697 Dorothy Gordon Biography] at Australian Dictionary of Biography

'Big' Bill Wilson was a professional boxer before being discovered by a casting agent at the Sydney Stadium and cast in Tall Timber (1927).[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31690497 "MASTER PICTURE NEWS." Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate 2 Sep 1926: 5] accessed 7 December 2011

Longford said "the cast was engaged without consulting me. We were told that the attacks in Mr Hugh D McIntohsh's newspapers would cease if we allotted the star part as he desired."{{cite web|website=National Archives of Australia|title=Bound printed copy of Minutes of Evidence of the Royal Commission on the Moving Picture Industry in Australia (one of two copies)|url=https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3009445&S=152&R=0|page=167| publisher = NAA: A11636, 4/1}}

In late March 1926 the unit left for Gloucester, New South Wales for a six-week shoot near Avon.{{cite magazine|magazine=Everyones|page=37|date=31 March 1926|title=The Play and Otherwise |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-577678814}}Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p136{{cite magazine|magazine=The Bulletin|page=52|date=22 September 1926|title=Australian Novel Locally Filmed |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-579080623}}{{Cite magazine|magazine=Everyones|page=26|date=24 March 1926|title= On Location with Australian Picture|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-577685191 }}

Filming was delayed by weather.{{Cite magazine|magazine=Everyones|date=28 April 1926|page=38|title=The Play and Otherwise|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-577708066}} Willian Thornton, juvenile lead, was injured on location but recovered by May.{{cite magazine|magazine=Everyones|date=19 May 1926|page=42}} Studio work in Bondi started in late April and was finished by May.{{Cite magazine|magazine=Everyones|page=42|date=5 May 1926|title=Pertinent Pars About Players|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-577731615}}

Raymond Longford's son Victor served as associate producer."Raymond Longford", Cinema Papers, January 1974 p51

File:Dorothy Gordon in hills of hate.jpg

The Northern Times said Collingridge played his role "with a skill remarkable in such a young actor, whilst Dorothy Gordon's portrayal is a powerfully competing proof of her ability."{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article76072606 |title=Master Picture News. |newspaper=The Northern Times |location=Carnarvon, WA |date=17 September 1926 |access-date=29 September 2013 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Everyones said it was "chiefly remarkable for some excellent photography... There is plenty of fast action and some hard riding in this typical outback Australian story."{{cite magazine|magazine=The Bulletin|page=32|date=1 December 1926|title=SYDNEYS RECENT FILM RELEASES|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-582958248}}

The film was not a success at the box office – although it was screening in cinemas as late as 1933{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article109958380 |title=Advertising. |newspaper=The Delegate Argus |location=NSW |date=23 March 1933 |access-date=26 November 2014 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} – and it was several years before Longford managed to direct another feature, The Man They Could Not Hang (1934). This turned out to be his last movie as director.

In July 1926 Australasian Pictures decided to move into bigger budgeted territory making a version of For the Term of His Natural Life.{{cite magazine|magazine=Everyones|page=53|date=21 July 1926|title=To Produce a Picture for the World. Is Proposition of Australasian Films Ltd |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-577931510}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|id=0315962|title=Hills of Hate}}
• [http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=no;page=0;query=hills%20of%20hate;rec=2;resCount=10 Hills of Hate] at National Film and Sound Archive
• [http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C642771 The Hills of Hate novel] at AustLit
• [http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/7594944 The Hills of Hate film] at AustLit
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47215570 Complete abridged version of original story] at Australian Women's Weekly in 1936
• Serialised version of story from 1927 – [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130605710 29 Oct], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130605830 5 Nov], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130606082 19 Nov], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130606200 26Nov], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130606315 3 Dec], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130606421 10 Dec], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130606500 17 Dec], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130606618 24 Dec], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130606752 31 Dec]

{{Raymond Longford}}

{{E. V. Timms}}

Category:1926 films

Category:Australian silent feature films

Category:Australian black-and-white films

Category:Films directed by Raymond Longford

Category:Lost Australian drama films

Category:Films from Australasian Films

Category:1926 drama films

Category:1926 lost films

Category:Silent Australian drama films

Category:1920s English-language films

Category:English-language drama films

Category:1920s Australian films

Category:Australian films based on novels