Dab solver - White Death (1936 film)

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== Production ==

In 1935-36 Zane Grey made a fishing expedition to Australia. This trip was extensively covered by the local media and Grey was often accompanied on his sea voyages by three cameramen he had brought out from American, including H.C. Anderson. Grey's activities were criticised at the time by the [[Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]].^ref

Barrier Reef Productions, a production company capitalised at £15,000, was formed in 1936 to make the movie.^ref

The story was inspired by Grey seeing a [[great white shark]] (which he nicknamed "white death") being captured near  in New South Wales.^ref [[Frank Harvey (Australian screenwriter)|]] was hired to write the screenplay. The story drew on Grey's real life experiences with the character of Newon Smith sending up his treatment at the hands of the RSPCA.

The majority of the film crew came from [[Cinesound Productions]], who also lent equipment to the production. Grey's manager, Edwin G. Bowen, was appointed director of the movie although he had limited experience behind the camera.^ref

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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2012}}
{{Infobox film
| name = White Death
| image = 
| image_size = 
| caption = 
| director = Edwin G. Bowen
| producer = Edwin G. Bowen
| writer = [[Frank Harvey (Australian screenwriter)|Frank Harvey]]
| narrator = 
| starring = [[Zane Grey]] [[Alfred Frith]]
| music = Isadore Goodman
| cinematography = [[Arthur Higgins]] H.C. Anderson
| editing = Edwin G. Bowen William Carty
| studio = Barrier Reef Films
| distributor = [[British Empire Films]] (Australia) [[MGM]] (UK)
| released = October 1936 (Australia) 1937 (UK)
| runtime = 81 minutes
| country = Australia
| language = English
}}
'''''White Death''''' is a 1936 [[Cinema of Australia|Australian]] film starring [[Zane Grey]] as himself. He filmed it during his a fishing expedition to Australia and it marked the first time he had played a leading role in a movie.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17291686 |title=AN AUTHOR'S FILM DEBUT. |newspaper=[[Sydney_morning_herald|The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)]] |location=NSW |date=15 September 1936 |accessdate=12 August 2012 |page=9 Supplement: Women's Supplement |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

==Synopsis==
[[Zane Grey]] bets he can catch a fish bigger than one he sees at [[Watsons Bay]]. He hears about a large shark, nicknamed "white death", terrorising the [[Queensland]] coast and goes to catch it. He is thwarted by the comic attempts of Newton Smith, a representative of the Wallanga Branch of Fish Protectors, to persuade Grey not to harm fish. There is also a romance between two young people. Eventually Grey manages to catch the shark.

==Cast==
* [[Zane Grey]] as himself
* [[Alfred Frith]] as Newton Smith
* Nola Warren as Nola Murchinson
* Harold Calonna as David Murchison
* John Weston as John Lollard
* James Coleman as Professor Lollard
*Peter Williams as boatman
*Frank Big Belt as guard

==Production==
In 1935-36 Zane Grey made a fishing expedition to Australia. This trip was extensively covered by the local media and Grey was often accompanied on his sea voyages by three cameramen he had brought out from American, including H.C. Anderson. Grey's activities were criticised at the time by the [[Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]].<ref name="Pike">Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 174.</ref>

Barrier Reef Productions, a production company capitalised at £15,000, was formed in 1936 to make the movie.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11032679 "ZANE GREY'S NEW FILM COMPANY." ''Argus (Melbourne, Vic)'' 6 May 1936: 8] accessed 27 December 2011</ref>

The story was inspired by Grey seeing a [[great white shark]] (which he nicknamed "white death") being captured near <<link:0>> in New South Wales.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36799504 "Zane Grey's Best Fishing Camp." ''The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld)'' 8 Apr 1936: 14] accessed 27 December 2011</ref> [[Frank Harvey (Australian screenwriter)|Frank Harvey]] was hired to write the screenplay. The story drew on Grey's real life experiences with the character of Newon Smith sending up his treatment at the hands of the RSPCA.

The majority of the film crew came from [[Cinesound Productions]], who also lent equipment to the production. Grey's manager, Edwin G. Bowen, was appointed director of the movie although he had limited experience behind the camera.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17332094 "ZANE GREY." ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' 6 May 1936: 11] accessed 27 December 2011</ref>

===Casting===
[[Alfred Frith]], the stage comedian, was hired to play the lead opposite Grey. Nola Warren, a 17 year old from [[Watsons Bay]] with no prior film experience, was cast as the female lead.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17344688 "MISS N. WARREN." ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' 15 May 1936: 8] accessed 27 December 2011</ref> She performed most of her scenes opposite John Weston, a former school boy athletic champion turned radio broadcaster.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38501684 "SCHOOLBOY ATHLETIC CHAMPION BECOMES FILM STAR." ''The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld)'' 15 May 1936: 21] accessed 27 December 2011</ref>Aboriginal extras, some of whom had recently appeared in ''[[Uncivilised (film)|Uncivilised]]'' (1936), where brought in from [[Palm Island, Queensland]]. Harold Colonna, who played the villain, was best known as an opera singer.

===Shooting===
Filming started in May 1936 and took place in the [[Great Barrier Reef]], principally at [[Hayman Island]]. A shark enclosure was built at Hayman to shoot shark footage.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48150245 "SHARES TO BE USED IN FILM." ''The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA)'' 2 Jun 1936: 19] accessed 27 December 2011</ref>

Bad weather made the shoot difficult. A member of the camera crew sprinkled oil in the surf thinking it would make it the surf sound less loud.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38495296 "TREED TO CALM SURF WITH OIL." ''The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld)'' 5 Jun 1936: 19] accessed 27 December 2011</ref> A petrol lamp blew up in John Weston's face.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38467852 "PETROL LAMP BURSTS IN FACE." ''The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld)'' 29 Jun 1936: 12] accessed 27 December 2011</ref> In addition, finding white sharks proved difficult, forcing the props master to construct an artificial one from wood and canvas.<ref name="Pike"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18516646 |title=Zane Grey's Australian Novel May Yet Be Published. |newspaper=[[The_Sun-Herald|The Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1949 - 1953)]] |location=Sydney, NSW |date=9 November 1952 |accessdate=12 August 2012 |page=11 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

Both Bowen and Frith were accompanied by their wives who assisted in making the movie.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38502176 "Women's World." ''The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld)'' 22 May 1936: 23] accessed 27 December 2011</ref>

Location shooting ended in July 1936 and the rest of the film was made at Cinesound's studios in Sydney.

==Reception==
Grey left Australia on 19 August claiming it was the greatest country he had visited.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17256548 "MR. ZANE GREY." ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' 31 Jul 1936: 11] accessed 27 December 2011</ref> He reportedly offered Nola Warren a film contract and announced he would return in 1938 to make another film.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article68076174 "OFFERED FILM CONTRACT." ''Advocate (Burnie, Tas)'' 17 Aug 1936: 4] accessed 27 December 2011</ref><ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17262286 "ZANE GREY." ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' 19 Aug 1936: 12] accessed 27 December 2011</ref> Grey did return to Australia in 1939 to fish, shortly before his death, but no further films resulted.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article68556520 |title=ZANE GREY IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. |newspaper=[[Advocate |Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954)]] |location=Burnie, Tas. |date=10 May 1939 |accessdate=12 August 2012 |page=1 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In 1937 he published ''An American Angler in Australia''.

The film premiered in October at Moruya and Bateman's Bay, and reached Sydney theatres in November. The critic for the ''[[Sydney Morning Herald]]'' described the movie as "a rambling and rather ramshackle film... the script... is almost bare of dramatic action."<ref>[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19361109&id=g9BaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=C5IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7312,1203060 'White Death' ''Sydney Morning Herald'' Nov 9, 1936 p 5] accessed 27 December 2011</ref>

The film was released in the UK but does not appear to have been screened commercially in the US.

Barrier Reef Films announced plans to make further feature films, including one revolving around Alfred Firth, but this did not eventuate.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17264796 |title=BARRIER REEF FILMS. |newspaper=[[Sydney_morning_herald|The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)]] |location=NSW |date=28 August 1936 |accessdate=12 August 2012 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

Nola Warren later became a model and was involved in a scandalous divorce case.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article75892879 |title="WHITE DEATH" GIRL IN DIVORCE CASE. |newspaper=[[Mirror |Mirror (Perth, WA : 1921 - 1956)]] |location=Perth, WA |date=27 February 1943 |accessdate=12 August 2012 |page=14 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Reade, Eric. ''History and heartburn: the saga of Australian film, 1896-1978''. Associated University Presses, 1981.

==External links==
*{{imdb title|0028500}}
*[http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=%22white%20death%22;querytype=;rec=9;resCount=10 ''White Death''] at [[National Film and Sound Archive]]
*[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36799504 1936 article by Grey about catching a white shark near Bateman's Bay]
*[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0608241h.html ''An American Angler in Australia'' by Zane Grey] at [[Project Gutenberg Australia]]

[[Category:1936 films]]
[[Category:Australian films]]
[[Category:English-language films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Rupert Kathner]]

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Dab solver - White Death (1936 film)

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